You may or may not be aware of this, but Keith Olbermann didn't just disappear when he was fired at MSNBC. He agreed to a contract buy-out that doesn't allow him to be on Current TV before late spring, but he can be (and is) online at FOKnewsChannel.com (That's FOK, not FOX, with FOK standing for "Friends Of Keith".)

He awarded Thursday's Bronze for "Worst Persons In The World" to the Idaho legislature. That is the latest state that's, in the words of Keith, become unsafe for Americans to live in or visit.

Famous Couch Potatoes

They've passed a measure that prohibits abortions after 20 weeks gestational age, no exceptions. Not for rate, not for incest, not for the health of the mother.

It's not clear whether the law is constitutional. The state clearly has no right to prohibit elective abortion in the first trimester, and has an absolute right to put limitations on abortion in the third trimester. The second trimester is iffy, and twenty weeks is exactly halfway through a full 40-week pregnancy. The SCOTUS made the decision in Roe v. Wade based on the medical technology of the time.

I'm not really thrilled about the Idaho legislation, but I'm not entirely thrilled with late abortion, either.

It's Not The Worst Thing

It shouldn't be a real problem with rape or incest. It doesn't take 20 weeks to find out your rapist knocked you up. Sometimes, it takes quite a while to figure out what to do about it, and I'm sympathetic with the lady involved, but stretching it out until the kid is seven years old is obviously unacceptable.

On the other hand, when the health of the mother is involved, often that doesn't become an issue until later in the pregnancy. In that case, the parents aren't really trying to terminate the pregnancy so much as to save the mother's life, or at least her health.

But It Doesn't...

This law does not prohibit expulsion of the fetus from the womb. It just prohibits deliberate killing of the fetus. In most cases, it will die despite the doctors' best efforts to keep it alive.

Em started out as a candy-striper in the maternity ward, and when she became an RN, she continued to work maternity and the intensive-care nursery for a number of years. She said that when she started, it was rare that a 2-pound baby survived, but she eventually saw a 1-pounder make it. Still, doctors were unwilling to discharge a baby until it had reached 5 pounds of weight.

A 20-week fetus weighs about five ounces, not five pounds. It's about the size of a chipmunk. This year's crop is not going to survive, and neither will next year's; someday, though, a baby that age will be able to survive.

Giving Thanks

And we should all be thankful that the citizens of Idaho are going to finance the medical science that makes it possible. What, you expect parents to pay the bills for a baby that has no meaningful chance of survival? It ain't gonna happen, not in most cases. The TEA party politicians, the ones who are so concerned about high taxes, are the ones behind this bill that puts a heavy financial burden on the state. I wonder how long it will take them to realize that.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the freshman class of TEA party politicians are "shaking things up." Funny, in the past, when someone starts a new job, doesn't understand what they are doing, and the consequences of their actions, I've always heard it referred to as fucking things up. Is this that "political correctness" they are always complaining about?

Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
abortion - FOK - Idaho - Keith Olbermann - political correctness - Roe v. Wade - Supreme Court - TEA party - unintended consequences