I did not create this analogy and it may be pretty common, but I thought it really fit the latest anti-women situation created by fundamentalist troglodytes down in Alabama.
Down in Alabama, they don’t believe women should have rights. When the Supreme Court ruled that states can ban abortion, they didn’t finish the sentence before Alabama banned it outright. Abortions aren’t banned in Alabama after 24, 12, or six weeks. Abortions are banned…end stop. The only exception for an abortion in Alabama is if the mother’s life is in danger. There are no exceptions for rape or incest. Alabama believes rapists have more rights than women.
Now, Alabama recognizes frozen embryos as human beings.
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that “unborn children are ‘children’ … without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics.” This includes embryos frozen in test tubes.
Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker (not the Colonel who managed Elvis) quoted the Bible in a concurring opinion, citing the sanctity of unborn life, which means this isn’t as much of a legal opinion as it’s a right-wing fundamentalist zealotry opinion. A true right-wing legal professional would have at least made an attempt to hide that his opinion was based on fundamentalist nut whackery.
The majority opinion said that an 1872 statute allowing parents to sue over the wrongful death of a minor child applies to unborn children, with no exception for “extrauterine children.”
In his concurring opinion, Parker wrote, “Even before birth, all human beings have the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.” That is NOT a legal opinion, you fucking zealot.
Later in the day, the state court changed the song Jesus Loves the Little Children to Jesus Loves the Frozen Embryos.
The case was brought by couples whose embryos were destroyed in 2020 when a hospital patient removed frozen embryos from tanks of liquid nitrogen in Mobile and dropped them on the floor.
Dr. Mamie McLean, an infertility specialist at Alabama Fertility in Birmingham, said, “We’re concerned that this ruling has far-reaching consequences for what we feel is safe to freeze and safe to discard.” She added, “This ruling is so incomplete and it leaves those of us who are sitting face to face with patients … with the inability to comment on what is safe and what is legal for them right now.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in 2021, more than 238,000 families in the US relied on IVF (In Vitro Fertilization).
In case you’re a fundamentalist zealot, skip the rest of this paragraph as it contains language that’s not right for the dinner table on a Sunday morning. The rest of you, calm down. I’m just talking about words like “ovaries” and “sperm.” During IVF, an egg is removed from the woman’s ovaries (in case you’re from Alabama, only women have ovaries) and fertilized with sperm (only men have sperm) in a laboratory. The fertilized egg, called an embryo (em-bree-yo), is then returned to the woman’s womb to grow and develop. During this process, doctors take multiple eggs/embryos and freeze them to increase the odds that one will attach. Generally, only one embryo is transferred at a time into the uterus to maximize the chances of successful implantation and a full-term pregnancy.
Now, doctors and clinics have to question what to do with the unused embryos. What happens if you donate unused frozen embryos for stem-cell research? Is that now murder if you do it in Alabama? What happens to the unused frozen embryos that aren’t viable? The clinic can’t destroy them because that too would be murder…in Alabama. Embryos has more rights than women in Alabama unless somehow an embryo gets raped and becomes pregnant.
Dr. Paula Amato, the president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said, “The court held that a fertilized frozen egg in a fertility clinic freezer should be treated as the legal equivalent of an existent child or a fetus gestating in a womb. Science and everyday common sense tell us they are not. Even in the natural world, several eggs are often fertilized before one successfully implants in the uterus and results in a pregnancy.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the ruling would cause “exactly the type of chaos that we expected when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and paved the way for politicians to dictate some of the most personal decisions families can make.” She’s right. Despite Alabama legal zealots claiming frozen embryos are children, it’s still extremely difficult to play catch with a test tube. It’s nearly impossible to teach one to ride a bike.
Ms. Jean-Pierre also said, “As a reminder, this is the same state whose attorney general threatened to prosecute people who help women travel out of state to seek the care they need.” Yeah, Alabama is one of the states that did that. Alabama is trying to out-yeehaw Texas.
A patient in Tuscaloosa (Roll Tide) said she miscarried eight weeks after receiving an implanted embryo and that she and her husband have three frozen embryos left to try with again. She said, “We have three embryos. We don’t have three children.”
This adds to Alabama’s legacy of suppression. Keep in mind that Alabama has given us Kay Ivey, Roy Moore, Mo Brooks, Jeff Sessions, and Tommy Tuberville which ironically, are people nobody would want to reproduce with.
Creative note: This is the second idea I got on this subject this morning and decided to sketch both of them out and then ask a couple of friends for their opinions on which they liked best. But as I was sketching the rough for this one, I realized I liked it too much and didn’t have to draw the other idea. It’s also rare that I draw a cartoon without a face.
Music note: I listened to a 2000s playlist on my streaming service.
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Watch me draw:
CLAYTOONZ 
Republicans just can’t keep the hands out of women’s panties. Now they’re grabbing them by the ovraries and embyos. Next thing you know every sperm will be reguslated as needing an egg to be provided so it can create a child. The population of yeehaw states will explode, and then they can vote Trump in! It’s all a plot to take over the worlld.
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(What about spermatogenesis? Millions upon millions of meiotic divisions daily producing millions upon millions of unfertilized half human embryos and Alabama remains quiet about it?! What about noctural discharge and the loss of those half humans …. is that now a crime? The ramifications of this Alabama court ruling are far reaching indeed …)
Excellent political commentary via your illustration (that is sunny side up not over easy, right?)
Clay, the world has gotten so openly scrambled (eggs) lately I fear for the future of the hard-boiled egg. (I don’t know what that means but I am sure a Trump supporter does.)
Underground Cartoonist out.
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Clay, the more I think about it, the more it looks to me like Alabama, isn’t weighing rights between rapists and women at all. No. It’s apparent that the Alabama legislature and countless other entities believe that they themselves have more rights than mere women. Who is lower on their who’s-a-human-with-rights scale than human females—of any age? Nobody.
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If the parents die and leave a will covering their estate now the actual children have to share the $ with the still frozen embryos even if it’s fifty years later!
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Clay,. This one is great, but I’d really like to see the other one!! Becky
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One of the things I remember from early childhood are conversations we had around the dinner table about keeping religion out of government (my parents were great about teaching us things without us kids realizing it and getting us involved in politics and the world without even realizing the lessons that we were learning!), which was just one reason of many that I stopped saying the Pledge of Allegiance in 3rd Grade. But I was pretty young and didn’t always grasp when it was an appropriate time to raise my voice in public – or school, friend’s houses, parties, anywhere I felt like it – and start an argument about church and state, civil rights, women’s rights, etc. I would insert myself into adult conversations with my righteous little voice despite sometimes misunderstanding something that someone said. I often embarrassed myself, but it prepared me to become a more knowledgeable loudmouth later on. 🙂 Sadly, there is SO MUCH to be loud about now that my voice is getting hoarse. I would love to be able to shut up some day.
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So is the person who dropped the frozen embryos on trial for mass murder? If I move my frozen embryos to another state is that kidnapping? Will the FBI be called? What if I flush my embryos, they were alive when I flushed them so if they die, is that death from natural causes? Or is that child abandonment? Or is it abandonment of a corpse? What if the embryo is implanted but rejected like a cancerous tumor, is rejection the same as murder? If cancer embryos are killed, is that murder? What if I’m placed on a medicine that kills the embryo? Is that physician assisted suicide? What if my frozen embryo is implanted in another woman? Is that child abduction? Should there be an amber alert? Be on the lookout for frozen embryo MZ202415? What a person gets drunk while carrying an embryo, is that contributing to the delinquency of a minor? If the bartender served that woman, should he lose his liquor license? Tobacco? Heroin? What if my gun accidently discharges and hits the embryo (play Clint Eastwood movie music here)? Is that armed crinimal action? Unlawful use of a firearm? Criminally negligent homicide or involuntary manslaughter, or woman slaughter, or embryo slaughter? What if the power goes off at the lab, the embryos thaw and die, can I sue the electric company for wrongful death? What if a tornado hits? Do we count all the dead embryos in the death toll? Does one have to bury their dead embryos or cremate them, or are they considered biohazards? Is that under FDA control? The EPA? Or can they just go to a landfill? Do I need a headstone for my dead and buried embryo? Here lies “Sixteen Cells Stearley.” Only the good die young. I can continue 🤣🤣🤣
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Welcome to the, DEEP SOUTH, where, women became like the “negros”, during the, Civil War, era… except, that what’s taken away, isn’t just the most basic of freedoms of, life, liberty, or the “pursuit of happiness,” but the right over, our, bodies!
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If an Embryo is a human, so is an egg and a sperm. And every month, millions of children are killed deliberately in Alabama. If a judge can declare themselves God in Alabama, I can declare myself God here. 🙂
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I am from UK where things are not quite so difficult about this topic. I must say it all gave me a good laugh but it is really serious in fact. Interesting that most of the restrictive laws, never mind the ridiculous ones are mostly adjudicated by men.
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Two of the nine members of the Alabama Supreme Court are women, but they’re all Republicans.
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Well, that explains a lot. Not a lot of brain cells perhaps.
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I think the Republicans are very similar to orange cats – they all share that one brain cell that rotates between them, so depending on what day it is, they may have it to use or they may not. Luck of the draw! It could be it was with Liz Cheney on the day they decided on IVF.
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A very good analogy! I entirely agree.
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Well I think that every IVF patient in Alabama should start taking Federal & State tax dependant deductions for ALL of their children, claim the Child Tax Credit (CTC), the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), claim their IVF costs as “childcare” expenses every year (we’re talking $$$ for THAT kind of child care!) & file for welfare due to their 16 children.
Just go to the Social Security Administration with proof of the embryos – in Alabama, that qualifies as a child, right? If they don’t give them one, then bring a lawsuit against them or heck, just assign them numbers. When it goes to either State or Federal court (or both) let’s see what they decide then! 😉
I’d love to witness a debate on how they’re children, but they’re not children -??? Federal law trump’s state law, so that’ll be ruled “not children” & Alabama will be forced to rule, in an actual court setting, whether they qualify as children – or not. If they qualify then the state will lose millions of $$$ in taxes. If they don’t, well then their NOT “children”. 🤷🏻♂️
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Most folks in Alabama know that store bought eggs are not fertilized
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Most folks who read political cartoons don’t take them so literally.
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Holy cow! what next—perhaps this is not a good comparison–but most girls start menstruation at about 13–at which time their ovaries produce an egg–if it doesn’t get fertilized by some “male” it is discarded physically each month. If this female lives to be menopausal age of around 50 or so–do the calculation–37 years of producing an egg every month—444 months? equals 444 eggs that are destroyed if not fertilized. So each female could be charged with murdering “444” children? What a lot of bs to exert power over women by some males( and the odd woman) Get out of the private lives of people and get on with governing your country in a sensible manner.
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Also, if the parents have child death benefits, then theyd be able to collect on the destruction of any embryos that are frozen & every woman who miscarries would get benefits, too. Are they going to start jailing women who miscarry as “murderers”? Because that’s about 30% of all women. And they’re designed that way by God/Creator, so will they put God/Creator in jail also?
Check out the accepted Alabama legal definitions of what constitutes a “child”. I bet that a 2-celled organism isn’t in there. (I just can’t wait to read the 1st court case that comes out about abortion!)
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