Earlier this year, Republican Rep. Sean Duffy refused to take a position on whether transvaginal ultrasounds should be mandatory for women seeking abortions because (in his words) “I haven’t had one.”
While Rep. Duffy may feign ignorance when it comes to knowing what a transvaginal ultrasound is, his wife Rachel Campos-Duffy can’t make the same claims. In an interview with the Appleton Post-Crescent, Campos-Duffy compared a woman’s right to choose with slavery and the Holocaust, and she compared those who fight to deny a woman’s right to choose to abolitionists who fought to end slavery.
Here’s the video.
Rachel Campos-Duffy and those who share her views on a woman’s right to choose are not heroes, and she’s definitely no William Wilberforce.
UPDATE: Here’s a transcript of Rachel Campos-Duffy’s comments, in case some of you can’t watch the video:
Campos-Duffy: “People here that are here tonight, I think, are really unsung heroes. They’re warriors. They’re human rights activists on the scale of William Wilberforce, who fought for the abolition of the slave trade. And so, often times, it can feel when you’re that warrior, when you’re in that battle, you don’t always – uhm – it can be demoralizing when you see things not always going your way. William Wilberforce lived to see abolition abolished in the British Empire.
“And those that kept silent during this time, I think, will find themselves on the wrong side of history. We often look back at things like the Holocaust and slavery and go, ‘How did they think that way?’ But cultures change, ideas change, as we get more information, and I think that’s what’s happening now. I think we’re seeing an explosion of information, of technology like 4D ultrasounds, and in the case of the internet, alternative media that’s telling us a different story than I think Planned Parenthood and the abortion proponents have been telling us since 1971.
“And so it really doesn’t make sense to me when people who purport to be advocates for women suddenly say, ‘Oh, we don’t need those pesky ultrasounds; you don’t need all that information.’ It seems very dubious – their motivation – because we always want the patient to have as much information as possible. Now, it’s true that once a father or a mother who are seeking an abortion see an ultrasound, it’s true that, you know, upwards of 90 percent of them decide not to have an abortion. Our opposition may not like those results, but those are what people decide after they have all the facts in front of them.
“I think that having a medical facility nearby in case of an emergency – we’ve seen again in the case of Pennsylvania and several others – that women sometimes die under these procedures. And they need to get medical help right away.”
Isn’t the requirement for a trans vaginal ultrasound by a secular/political person, group, or branch of government, in effect, practicing medicine without a license?
And especially without a physician’s recommendation for a medical procedure?
And without approval by the patient?
And isn’t there a Constitutional amendment that protects a citizen’s right to practice his or her belief or faith?
And, in addition, doesn’t the Constitutional amendment protect from the imposition of a belief or faith upon a citizen by others?
So many questions with illogical or wrong answers by Republican politicians and their wives!
I’ve heard the argument made that forcing a woman to bear a child against her will is slavery – enslaving her body in the service of the fetus.
I don’t understand how “slavery” applies to the anti-abortion view, even after listening to Rachael Duffy.
Frankly, there is no room for a third party in an argument between someone and part of her own body (even if that part may someday be a separate person). You can affect and support the woman but you can’t punish, imprison, threaten, coerce or terrorize one without harming the other.
the link isn’t working, can you provide a transcript and repost?
All the links are working for me. Which link isn’t working for you?
don’t you think that they were being just a bit deceitful by not identifying her as the wife of a US Representative rather than a reality TV show?
Yeah, but like you mentioned elsewhere, that’s likely because most folks will recognize her for her exploits on reality TV rather than as the spouse of a U.S. Congressman.
Identifying themselves as “Wliberforce Saints” rates among the Evangelical Right’s most disgusting delusions. It’s a common meme, though. What never seems to get mentioned in their self-glorifying comparisons to Wilberforce is that the noble abolitionist fought against the institution of slavery as a capitalist institution. If only modern day Evangelicals could find such Godly-inspired zeal.
Obviously the wrongful parallel between abortion and the Nazi holocaust is damning – Anti-Choicers will all be cast to Hell’s abyss for applying it. It’s the other subtler historical revisionism that might go unnoticed in Campos’ proselytism, namely her assertion of that which is demonstrably false regarding history. Indeed, cultures change, ideas change, and we get more information – as she suggests – this his what Progressivism relies upon. Not Conservatism. The ideas about abortion did change in the 60s and Conservatives would like to take us back to a time before the 60s – regressively to the era of back-alley abortion. Campos is attempting to couch the regressive Anti-Choice position as Progressive – it is absurd. Framing “regressive” and “progressive” and vice versa has been their tack for quite some time now – but they’ve really been ratcheting it up as of late.
The bottom line is that most abortion providers routinely provide various forms of ultrasounds at various points in a pregnancy. The latter can detect pregnancy early. The procedure itself isn’t the problem. It may even be the preferred choice by a medical professional – but that choice should be made by a medical professional, not Trauma Nanny Lazich, the GOP cabal, and not the “Wilberforce Saints” rank and file. Trans-vaginal ultrasounds can provide medical providers the information needed so women don’t delay an abortion. This is proper use of information – the kind relevant to a medical professional. A woman who chooses to view an ultrasound is one thing – and many do – it is quite another to be forced. It is medically unnecessary for a woman to view an ultrasound.
The key differences here are coercive force and misusing scientific information. This bill is intended to force women into emotional crisis by preying on their emotions and their bodies at a time when women are most vulnerable. State-raping a woman and forcing her to go through the ultrasound results – Ad Nauseum – is not providing her with “information.” The latter is medically unnecessary and designed to create a cumbersome and tortuously emotional experience for a vulnerable women. Let’s be clear – It is not viewing the contents of an ultra-sound that is at issue. At issue is a woman losing control of her own her medical care, independent of her final choice, where the potential long term consequences come to bear. Scientific studies do find negative impacts to a woman in the long term when she is forced to undergo medically unnecessary procedures.
But, the medical community doesn’t support the idea that 90% of women who view ultrasounds choose not to abort. There’s no medical evidence supporting that notion. The idea derives from speculative conjecture in a footnote from a 1983 editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine – not from longitudnal studies. What the self-identified Evangelical “Wilberforce Saints” won’t tell you and won’t likely admit to themselves because their coercive religionist agenda won’t accommodate it – is the medical data reveals wide-ranging reactions and that viewing ultra-sounds does, quite often, help women to choose abortion. I think it’s worth repeating so the Compos-Duffys understand – it is not the content of an ultrasound that is at issue. It is attempting to manipulate women into behaving the way Evangelical Extremists would like women to behave by means of forcible coercion that is at issue.
And that odd little bit there at the end about “women dying from these procedures?” – Dog Whistle for Trap Law – which is what this State-Rape legislation is. Trap Laws like this also serve Anti-Choice propaganda by attempting to instill the idea that abortion is dangerous – medically reckless. But, the medical community disagrees.
And the medical community disagrees that abortion is comparable to the holocaust.
And Trap Laws have absolutely nothing to do with providing women with “information” and everything to do with closing down clinics and doctors; and Trap Laws have everything to do with driving up health care costs.
sorry – typo 2nd paragraph last sentence “and” should be “as” so sentence reads —
Framing “regressive” as “progressive” and vice versa has been their tack for quite some time now – but they’ve really been ratcheting it up as of late.