Black fetal lives matter
In Pleasant Grove, Alabama, and not, as you might think, in the Twilight Zone, Marshae Jones has been indicted for manslaughter. Jones, who is 27, was five months pregnant when she got into an argument with Ebony Jemison over the paternity of her impending baby. At the climax of the debate, Jemison shot Jones five times in the abdomen. Jones survived but the fetus did not. Jemison was not charged with a crime because, according to police Lt. Danny Reid, "The investigation showed that the only true victim in this was the unborn baby."
You see, as soon as Marshae Jones became pregnant, she ceased to have any rights as a citizen or any reality as a human being. She had no right to terminate the pregnancy, and she had no existence as a victim of aggravated assault or attempted murder. For the next five months she was a walking fetus incubator and nothing else. She was solely responsible for the entity in her uterus, with no help from Alabama in the form of free pre-natal care, much less care for herself. So when she saw Ebony Jemison she should have hurried away, reasonably assuming that Jemison was armed. (This was Alabama, U.S.A. Assume everyone is armed.) She should have anticipated the encounter and equipped herself with a Kevlar maternity dress. She should have shouted, "Help! Abortion!" Wasn't Ebony Jemison threatening to abort the fetus? I'm sure Lt. Reid would have responded quicker than boiled asparagus. Had a doctor performed the abortion with sterile instruments instead of a handgun, would the doctor have been indicted for manslaughter, or worse? What do you think?
This kind of shit happens every day, but it's rarely outrageous enough to get our attention away from the other outrages for a few hours. Unhinged misogyny and superstition have made vast tracts of this country more bugfuck berserk than they used to be. We no longer have the luxury of assuming that Margaret Atwood wrote science fiction because, like George Orwell, all she did was prophesy.
Does Marshae Jones grieve for the infant that was torn from her? Don't be obtuse. An incubator cannot feel sorrow.
At least she wasn't compelled to arrange a funeral for the mangled mass of tissues. That's Indiana.
You see, as soon as Marshae Jones became pregnant, she ceased to have any rights as a citizen or any reality as a human being. She had no right to terminate the pregnancy, and she had no existence as a victim of aggravated assault or attempted murder. For the next five months she was a walking fetus incubator and nothing else. She was solely responsible for the entity in her uterus, with no help from Alabama in the form of free pre-natal care, much less care for herself. So when she saw Ebony Jemison she should have hurried away, reasonably assuming that Jemison was armed. (This was Alabama, U.S.A. Assume everyone is armed.) She should have anticipated the encounter and equipped herself with a Kevlar maternity dress. She should have shouted, "Help! Abortion!" Wasn't Ebony Jemison threatening to abort the fetus? I'm sure Lt. Reid would have responded quicker than boiled asparagus. Had a doctor performed the abortion with sterile instruments instead of a handgun, would the doctor have been indicted for manslaughter, or worse? What do you think?
This kind of shit happens every day, but it's rarely outrageous enough to get our attention away from the other outrages for a few hours. Unhinged misogyny and superstition have made vast tracts of this country more bugfuck berserk than they used to be. We no longer have the luxury of assuming that Margaret Atwood wrote science fiction because, like George Orwell, all she did was prophesy.
Does Marshae Jones grieve for the infant that was torn from her? Don't be obtuse. An incubator cannot feel sorrow.
At least she wasn't compelled to arrange a funeral for the mangled mass of tissues. That's Indiana.
posted by Buttermilk Sky at 11:55 AM
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