N.H. lawmaker opposes new marriage bill, says teens are of ‘ripe, fertile’ age
masslive.com
“If we continually restrict the freedom of marriage as a legitimate social option, when we do this to people who are a ripe, fertile age and may have a pregnancy and a baby involved, are we not in fact making abortion a much more desirable alternative, when marriage might be the right solution for some freedom-loving couple?” Edwards said.
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So at the risk of severe down votes, I'm going to approach this by what he means, and not how everyone is taking it. And to get it out of the way, what he's saying is still wrong, just not, I think, in the pedo or ephebo or whatever way.
I believe the point he is making are they are at a prime biological point for reproducing, they have all the hormones going and all the adult-like systems in place to make them want to have sex (presumably with each other). And he's absolutely right. We in the more sex positive left have been saying it for a long time, which is why we push for better sex and reproductive health education.
His standpoint is, we can't stop them from having sex, so removing the option to marry makes abortion a better option. I agree completely, but where we differ is that I think that's good to have that option and continue their lives to start careers and have children on their own terms, and he thinks it's bad because teenage moms are better than abortions (and, really, better all around).
Our standpoint: they're going to have sex anyway, so give them the education and resources to prevent pregnancy, and abortion available as a last resort.
His standpoint: they're going to anyway, so make sex a scary thing that leads to pregnancy, and then make the only avenue marriage. Because MORE BABIES.
I think his actual standpoint is really shitty. We don't need to read shit into what he's saying to amp up the rage bait.
Well done. These kinds of spins happen a lot where the Republican is still in the wrong, often by a lot, but leftists will discredit, or at least dilute, legit arguments against them with responses to the worst version that is pushed of whatever story. You've done a good job of breaking down a different approach
Alright, but also let's not pull a muscle bending over backwards to find the peanuts in this pile of shit. Too often, conservatives are the worst possible version of whatever they are half-pretending they aren't. There's a very good chance that an anti-abortion lawmaker is exactly as misogynistic as this quote makes him seem. When people reveal themselves, believe them.
I don't think they did that.
And as we said, they're still in the wrong. And I'm sure they're misogynistic.. they're republican. But that also doesn't mean the worst interpretation of what they say is always most accurate.
I think that's what we often do, and I do think the worst interpretation in this instance is entirely accurate.
But you're right, I don't think that's what they did in this case.
Agreed, there's also a lot of noise coming from anonymous accounts on social media designed to get politically extremes riled up against each other.