{"id":41751,"date":"2024-02-07T12:21:41","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T17:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=41751"},"modified":"2024-02-07T12:21:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T17:21:45","slug":"forced-birth-is-doomed-because-pro-lifers-dont-believe-in-their-own-beliefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/02\/07\/forced-birth-is-doomed-because-pro-lifers-dont-believe-in-their-own-beliefs\/","title":{"rendered":"Forced birth is doomed because “pro-lifers” don’t believe in their own “beliefs”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Only *one* Polk elected official would even answer my yes\/no questions about whether they support Charles and Jennifer Canady’s dishonest, brutal, and unpopular war for forced birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY BILLY TOWNSEND<\/p>\n\n\n

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I predict that after it hears oral arguments this morning, the corrupt Charles Canady Supreme Court will follow its dictatorial nepotism instincts and deny the people of Florida their lawfully earned right to vote in a referendum rejecting forced birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly thereafter, I predict, the Charles Canady Supreme Court will impose the deeply unpopular Jennifer Canady 6-week forced birth mandate<\/a> (which is a de facto total ban on terminating a pregnancy, with no workable exceptions.) See article on most recent polling here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Canadys \u2014 Lakeland\u2019s own Charles and Jennifer, the first couple of gross Florida nepotism \u2014 have very very few actual public allies. They have no interest in even trying to build public support for their dictates. They care only about letting distant, bureaucratic power make their whims stick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, I suspect they imagine jamming 6-week forced birth down the throats and uteruses of the vast majority of Floridians and Lakelanders who oppose their state-sanctioned brutality will mark the end<\/em><\/strong> of this unpleasantness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They will speak. We 62-percent or more will quietly obey after some kvetching, after which they\u2019ll pat us on our heads. Our local officials will swoon and praise them. We\u2019ll all move on together in a happy forced birth paradise of cheerful condescension, backed by state violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s how would-be dictators always think of \u201cgoverning.\u201d The Canady instinct to is to stick to you because you can\u2019t do anything about it. They\u2019re usually right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not this time. This moment marks the beginning<\/em><\/strong> \u2014 not the end \u2014 of a very<\/em><\/strong> ugly and unpleasant moral war imposed on our communities unnecessarily by the collective dishonesty, moral bankruptcy, and unearned arrogance of \u201cpro-lifers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Canadys and their few allies will lose this war. It\u2019s just a question of time and the volume of blood and suffering and community division our silent \u201cleaders\u201d will passively impose on us while pretending they have nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do I know they can\u2019t win?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About a month ago, I sent the same three questions individually to every elected countywide elected official in Polk County and each Lakeland city commissioner. The overwhelming majority of these folks ostentatiously declare themselves \u201cpro-life\u201d and bleat out that \u201clife begins at conception\u201d on the campaign trail and political settings. So I asked simply:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Do you support Florida’s current 15-week forced birth requirement? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Do you support the 6-week forced birth law sponsored by Jennifer Canady?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Do you support the Nov. 2024 referendum to protect women from forced birth? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forced birth is experienced and enforced locally. The implications are felt by every pregnant woman at Lakeland Regional Health. Polk Sheriff Grady Judd was willing to hunt down an anti-forced birth protester <\/a>who tossed a pair of panties because Jennifer Canady told him to out of embarrassment. The Lakeland City Commission expressed a general openness to localized forced birth requirements back in 2021<\/a> in open meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the politicians serving at the local level are the future legislators and congresspeople who will legislate the forced birth rules that are enforced locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So my questions and the positions are deeply<\/em><\/strong> relevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And only <\/em><\/strong>Lakeland City Commissioner Stephanie Madden had enough respect for the public and herself to answer me. After some fairly tense back and forth, she said she supports the current 15-week law and <\/em><\/strong>Jennifer Canady\u2019s infinitely more brutal 6-week forced birth. And she opposes<\/em><\/strong> the referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I obviously find those positions \u2014 especially 6-week \u2014 a cruel and vast government overreach. But I respect<\/em><\/strong> Stephanie Madden, who I like both personally and as a Lakeland commissioner, for expressing them. It is far far more than Jennifer Canady herself ever did. She lied to my face and everybody else\u2019s when I asked her these same questions (minus the referendum) as a candidate.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of those \u201cleaders\u201d were completely unwilling to even state yes\/no public policy preferences on the issue that supposedly shapes their morality, drives their political party, and has completely upended what it means to get pregnant in Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now they want to avoid any<\/em><\/strong> public responsibility for the invasive government carnage their<\/em><\/strong> supposed beliefs have unleashed on the of rest us, which the clear majority of even their fellow Republican citizens don\u2019t want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations, fake pro-lifers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out these pro-life accomplishments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n