the kids online safety act passed the u.s. senate.
long story short (for anyone who hadn't heard of this before) the kids online safety act, aka kosa, is a bill that will censor online content and resources for lgbtq+ matters, reproductive healthcare, activism (INCLUDING PALESTINE AND LIKELY OTHER CRISES GOING ON LIKE IN CONGO OR SUDAN), mental health, etc. everywhere--its effects likely won't be contained to just america.
today, july 30th, 2024, the senate passed it 91-3. it has officially moved to the house of representatives.
is this a pretty massive setback? yes. do you have every right to be scared, sad, angry, or whatever else about this happening? absolutely. but should you give up hope completely? NO!
even though kosa passed the senate, the house is on break/august recess at the moment. we have around an entire month to get emails, calls, and faxes in to house reps, maybe more depending on when they decide to vote on it.
should it pass the house and get signed into law, we still have a whole 18 months before it actually goes into effect. this is plenty of time for digital rights orgs (e.g. fight for the future, the electronic frontier foundation) and other groups that oppose it to file a lawsuit against it. even if, worst-case scenario, it flies through the house immediately after the recess ends, we can still fight this up to march 2026.
so, yes, remember what's at stake here, but also remember that it's not over yet. we lost a battle, not the war.
below are some resources to learn more about kosa and how to contact your reps (first link) + a page that lets you directly contact progressive house reps, sign an open letter opposing the bill, and view others' testimonies against it (second link):
FIGHT. FIGHT. FIGHT.
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“I cannot pretend prochoice vs. prolife is about women versus babies. It isn't. It is about society versus families.
Abortion doesn't save women. It doesn't stop or fix rape. It doesn't end poverty. It doesn't stop domestic violence. It doesn't do anything except undo women's healthy biology, kill her child, and send her right back to whatever circumstances she came from.
Sure, if she just doesn't want to be pregnant, it ends pregnancy. Why doesn't she want to be pregnant though? The replies are along the lines of, "Fuck you. It doesn't matter. It is her choice and right." Ok. Thank you for telling me you care about abortion, not women.
This is what is being offered as the savior for women? This is our freedom? This is our equality? This is the answer we are being offered for children living in poverty, abuse, or neglect? Just pre-emptively guess their fate and kill them? This is what we are being offered as a way to address maternal mortality? Don't attempt to make advancements that address complications that arise in pregnancy, just blame women's biology and kill her kid?
I do not accept that this is the best we can do for women, children, or families. I do not accept that to be free, equal, and safe women have to turn against their biology and their children.”
– Robin Atkins
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Quick Pro-Life Responses
Keep in mind: the fundamental disagreement between pro-life and pro-choice is on whether a fetus is being formed into a person, or if the fetus is already a person and is simply developing.
Confidently assert, “you say that because you think a fetus is not a person yet.”
They may concede fetuses are people in word, but still not conceptualize them as full people worthy of equal consideration.
“I have the right to bodily autonomy.”
Abortion is literally suffocation, poisoning, or dismemberment of a living human organism.
Abortion induces fetal demise by depriving a human of oxygen, blood, or vital function.
Bodily autonomy does not justify abuse of power and excessive force over a helpless person.
Abortion, a disproportionately brutal response to a passive threat, is aggressive violence.
“No one has the right to use my body.”
Correct. But, a prenatal person does not use a pregnant person’s body. They have no agency.
A pregnant person’s body takes care of the prenate. This care is ordinary and healthy.
Abortion is not like refusing care to a dying person, it is like murdering a healthy captive.
No one has the right to murder someone who they caused to be dependent on them.
“I have the right to revoke my consent.”
When you give consent, you agree to accept the foreseeable outcomes and risks of an action.
The creation of a bodily dependent is a foreseeable outcome of consensual intercourse.
You cannot revoke consent to outcomes. You can revoke consent to actions.
You may not violently sacrifice a helpless person to “mitigate” a risk of a consensual action.
“Anything dependent on my body is a parasite.”
If you make parasites, then you’re a parasite; it’s misogynist to suggest women are parasites.
The female body would not actively try to make pregnancy happen if it were parasitic.
Prenates never directly cause pregnant people harm; they are not aggressors or parasites.
Using developmental dependency to justify murder is simultaneously ageist and ableist.
“An embryo is just a clump of cells.”
Human embryos meet NASA’s criteria for the characteristics of distinct living organisms.
Human embryos are self-directed and their development follows a body plan.
Human embryos are organized and individual. They already have inherited capacities.
Tumors and gametes do not follow an organized body plan.
“Early humans have no cognitive capacities.”
By week 3, the embryo has a spine and is developing a nervous system.
By week 5, the embryo has a rudimentary brain that controls their pulse.
By week 8, the embryo has pain reflexes and can move their limbs.
It’s incredibly ableist to use the cognitive inabilities of a human being to justify their murder.
“If a fetus is a person, so is a brain-dead human.”
A brain-dead human is, obviously, dead. It’s an oxygenated corpse, the remains of a person.
Death occurs when human organisms stop resisting entropy and lose organic integration.
Preborn people actively resist entropy (decay) and have organic integration (unity).
An early human organism isn’t dependent on a mature brain to organize her vital functioning.
“Later abortions only happen for medical reasons.”
According to two studies by pro-abortion researcher at UCSF Katrina Kimport, this is untrue.
Kimport’s studies found that the reasons for later abortions are similar to early abortions.
Later abortions aren’t euthanasia; infants are stabbed with lethal injections and dismembered.
Perinatal hospice and palliative care relieve suffering. Dying babies deserve love, not murder.
“What about rape and incest?”
Abortion is not evidence-based treatment for sexual trauma. Abortion is traumatic as well.
A preborn child should not be condemned to the death penalty for their father’s crime.
It is safe for most menstruating children to carry pregnancies to viability with sufficient prenatal care.
Children conceived in incest are likely to have disabilities; that’s not reason to murder them.
“What about health of the mother?”
Every abortion ban in the US has exceptions for if the mother’s life or body is in grave danger.
We are not against tragic cases of triage. We are against elective induced abortion.
Some procedures coded medically as abortions aren’t legally or ethically defined as abortions.
Pro-life doctors report that the bans have not impeded their ability to treat their patients.
Your Core Arguments
There is no sound evidence or consistent logic that proves the preborn are the only class of human beings exceptional to the rule that humans are people with equal rights.
If a being is in the dynamic process of bonding with us as kin, then that being is a whole actual person by the manner of actively and inherently relating to our collective humanity.
Embryonic humans are full and equal people like us because they latently embody our same capacities and are manifesting them as we are, on account of sharing our nature.
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