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    StrategerieSarah Seltzer
    2/02/16 3:57pm

    I wish I had the author’s positive outlook on the Zika virus changing the minds and hearts of those who are anti-choice. Actually, they’ll double down — if Those Women had just used mosquito repellent correctly/had kept their legs shut/had trusted Jesus more, they wouldn’t be in this position!

    This is a public health nightmare. And the right-wing will continue passing anti-abortion legislation and chipping away at Roe v. Wade. After all, those poors shouldn’t be having sex!

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      MayotonillaStrategerie
      2/02/16 4:07pm

      I can already hear them say it’s god’s will and comparing microcephaly to Down syndrome. In fact I think I saw a comment like that in Gizmodo the other day.

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      saltyladyv2Mayotonilla
      2/02/16 4:21pm

      Exactly— it’s all going to be about how callous women are being to the poor microcephalic babies, wanting to abort them and all.

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    thenewcapSarah Seltzer
    2/02/16 3:53pm

    The U-pick-em pro-life responses to the Zika Virus:
    “They shouldn’t have traveled to a third world country.”
    “They shouldn’t live so close to a third world country.”
    “They should’ve lived in another country.”
    “They shouldn’t be having sex.”

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      SpringSprungthenewcap
      2/02/16 3:56pm

      And the most important - they shouldn’t be wimmen.

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      thenewcapSpringSprung
      2/02/16 4:07pm

      Probably.

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    redkoolaidSarah Seltzer
    2/02/16 3:56pm

    Is there a way to determine if you’ve gotten the disease? Is there a way to test in utero if your fetus has been affected? If so, how early can you find out? I’ve been reading a lot about Zika in the last few days, but nothing on the above questions. My husband and I have just recently begun to try to concieve.

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      rslwnredkoolaid
      2/02/16 4:00pm

      According to what I’ve read, there’s no widely-available Zika testing, and the resulting microcephaly can only be detected late in the second trimester or after.

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      LooseSEALredkoolaid
      2/02/16 4:03pm

      Are you in South or Central America or the Caribbean?

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    MissAndrySarah Seltzer
    2/02/16 3:57pm

    I think if the future of our human existence depended on access to abortion, right-wing nutjobs like Cruz still wouldn’t back down from their position. They’d rather burn down the house with everyone inside than cede ground in the abortion debate. Huckabee thought an 11 year old rape victim should have to carry her fetus to term. I don’t see him having much sympathy for anyone.

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      puncha yo bunsMissAndry
      2/02/16 4:09pm

      Perhaps our greatest scientists will discover ways to engineer male uteruses (uteri?) and men will also be responsible for carrying children to term.

      I’m sure abortion would be legalized everywhere, like, yesterday.

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      Douglas FurMissAndry
      2/02/16 4:12pm

      Definitely. I mean, one of the things that makes people like Cruz and Huckabee so scary is they literally believe that the apocalypse is coming soon *and that this is a positive thing.* They don’t expect or even want human existence to have any future — that’s part of the reason they’re so blase about climate change.

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    Kris-the-Needlessly-DefiantSarah Seltzer
    2/02/16 3:55pm

    I’ve long held the opinion that forced birthers from every country are the same. They’re against abortions for all those random sluts, but when they or a family member needs one, that’s when abortions are acceptable. As mosquitos can’t differentiate between the poor and the rich, I wouldn't be surprised to see at least some change in South American abortion policy.

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      fondue processKris-the-Needlessly-Defiant
      2/02/16 4:00pm

      Me too, if only because I can’t imagine how they wouldn’t change policy; I don’t think the ruling parties will be able to stay in power if they completely fuck millions of women (and families) over by saying “don’t get pregnant, but don’t use birth control, but if you do get pregnant, don’t get an abortion, oh also if you have a baby with disabilities you’re not going to get much help from us”.

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      WerkwerkwerkisaBurnerKris-the-Needlessly-Defiant
      2/02/16 4:09pm

      No, but the wealthy can afford to keep themselves inside and away from mosquitoes as much as possible. They can afford repellents, and they know that they need to be careful, because they have access to this kind of information.

      A few wealthy pregnant women might still contract the disease, but they will be a microscopic fraction compared to poor women. Not to mention, the highly Catholic culture in many SA countries will still probably discourage most politicians from speaking out for abortion rights.

      I mean, access to safe abortions is something desperately needed in a lot of South America, but I don't see this being the crisis that changes that situation.

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    I'm Fart and I'm SmunnySarah Seltzer
    2/02/16 4:02pm

    A really close family friend of mine had a child with microcephaly, although the doctors did not call it that at the time and had little information about what could have caused it, saying, “It’s possible it was a virus.” The child was only able to live for 3 months, and it was a life that was mostly suffering. What they went through was hell, and I just don’t understand how anyone, pro-life or pro-choice, could think it’s ethical to not allow these women to have abortions. I’m pro-choice, but speaking on just like the most basic level of human decency in regards to this case, how do people honestly think denying these women abortions is the right thing to do?

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      PersnicketyPantsI'm Fart and I'm Smunny
      2/02/16 4:13pm

      I think that the pro forced birth crowd just doesn’t care. They don’t think about the consequences of their rigid doctrinaire like attitude. They don’t think about the suffering of the mother, father or child. As long as the birth is forced, they are happy. People who actually think about real world life experiences tend not to be so doctrinaire.

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      RegalAlienI'm Fart and I'm Smunny
      2/02/16 4:23pm

      This amazes me too, but some people genuinely think that the baby’s short and pain-filled life was God’s will and / or the baby deserved to experience life and love and / or was sent because the parents needed to learn some spiritual lesson.

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    soulnebulaSarah Seltzer
    2/02/16 4:12pm

    Very little of the Zika coverage mentions Bill Gates’ experimentation with genetically modified Aedes mosquitos and the Tdap vaccine in the same area as this outbreak, or the fact that Zika has been around for quite a while without microcephaly being one of its side effects and no causation has been established. Why is that?

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      rslwnsoulnebula
      2/02/16 4:20pm

      Did you know that jet fuel can’t melt steel beams either? LOOK INTO IT.

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      rowrowrowrowrowsoulnebula
      2/02/16 4:29pm

      repeat after me: correlation is not causation

      now with more feeling: CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION

      now with some gusto: **cOrReLaTiOn is not CaUsAtIoN**

      now, for a more advanced technique: when analyzing large data sets and trying to determine causation in a diverse population base: multifactored conditions may be mis-assigned

      Add a canto (softly): selection bias

      All together now!

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    SL8Rgirl81Sarah Seltzer
    2/02/16 3:52pm

    I’m sure Mike Huckabee would have absolutely NO PROBLEM at all looking a Zika infected woman and denying her an abortion. He thinks 11 year old rape victims should have to carry their rapists baby to term as well.

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      rowrowrowrowrowSL8Rgirl81
      2/02/16 4:22pm

      I wonder what he would have advised if josh duggar had got one of his sister’s pregnant?

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      RedBeansAndRiceDidMissHerSL8Rgirl81
      2/02/16 4:30pm

      Word. This author seems to have a lack of familiariaty with what cold motherfuckers the anti-choicers are. “Would you make a zika victim carry her baby to term?” “HELL YES” is what every last one of those assholes would say.

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    Prada LovelaceSarah Seltzer
    2/02/16 4:36pm

    Disregard the movie, but Children of Men the book is a really good one. That one at The Handmaid’s Tale were my favorite books growing up. I was ...a strange preteen

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      fortheloveofbeetsPrada Lovelace
      2/02/16 4:43pm

      The Handmaid’s Tale is great. I JUST saw the movie of Children of Men for the first time right when the Zika virus crisis was hitting the news the other week, which makes this whole thing just terrifying. But now I’ll have to read the book, too.

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      Prada Lovelacefortheloveofbeets
      2/02/16 4:50pm

      The book was more thoughtfully feminist and quite a bit darker than the movie, and the ending was rather different as well! Even though I do love me some Clive Owen, I definitely recommend the book. It was the first thing I thought of when I started hearing about Zika. I had flashbacks to scenes in the book where women had begun caring for baby dolls in lieu of the babies that they couldn’t have. Frightening as hell.

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    stacyinbeanSarah Seltzer
    2/02/16 4:13pm

    If you want to get even MORE pissed about this whole thing read about what the anti-vaxxers are saying. It’s all TDAP’s fault now since they introduced it in Brazil two years ago. You can’t make this shit up anymore.

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      SheeshTheseNamesstacyinbean
      2/02/16 4:17pm

      There’s one downthread! There’s one downthread!!!

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      fortheloveofbeetsstacyinbean
      2/02/16 4:40pm

      TDAP and genetically engineered mosquitoes ... sigh.

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