Living in the Bubble and Legislating Morality

It has been fairly obvious that since the Republicans took control of the state legislature and the governor’s mansion; there has been more social conservative legislation passed as the state struggles to create jobs.

The passage of “Sonya’s Law” by the Wisconsin State Senate is just the latest example of the failed legislative process. Whenever, government entities attempt to legislate morality, it becomes a legitimate point of contention and provides further proof that government needs to stay out of issues concerning moral decisions. When deciding on moral principles and imperatives, whose morality are they legislating? They seem to forget that we live in a diverse culture and many religions. The assumptions and suppositions that they make, literally place them in a perceptual bubble out of touch with the wider realities of society.

In the Republican controlled Wisconsin legislature, there is an overwhelming level of hypocrisy.  Out of one side of their mouths they support personal responsibility, personal freedom, free will and choice; but out of the other side of their mouths come legislative actions that restrict those very imperatives they claim to support. I have yet to hear anyone on the political right explain how moral legislation; that extremely restricts sex education, access to full service women’s healthcare, restrictions on birth control, extreme restrictions on adolescent sexual behavior, and in this case restricting access to pregnancy termination; is clearly in the public’s best interests. When pushed, it always comes down to some very questionable moral reasoning. For this reason; Senator Mary Lazich has become the leading moralizer and the most hypocritical of all who are currently serving, including Glenn Grothman. In private, I refer to her as the personification of Dana Carvey’s NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” character of the “Church Lady”. 

 Driven by a particular belief system that finds the fact that pregnancy termination is the law of the land and they equate it to murder; they feel impelled to bypass the law and make every effort to circumvent the law and restrict access to a legal medical procedure by passing laws and restrictions that are not only onerous but mean spirited. If this bill becomes law, then there will only be three locations left to seek pregnancy termination; requiring travel to either Milwaukee or Madison. That is clearly an undue burden on women, especially women of limited means. This piece of legislation is not only a War on Women, but more clearly a War on Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood is an important element of women’s healthcare and provides valuable services to especially the low income. They share the goal of wanting to reduce the incidents of pregnancy termination by providing factual education and birth control. However, when a voluntary decision has been made to terminate a pregnancy, they want to assure that it is done safely and in a non judgmental environment. They represent the “real deal” concerning providing women’s healthcare and not the ruse offered by crisis pregnancy centers, which are usually fronts for some religious or social conservative organization.

Out of the bubble has also produced the Charter School and Voucher Movement. Again since the law of the land has clearly differentiated the secular nature of public schools; social conservatives are using the private school as a means to circumvent the restrictions of the law. By going through private schools they are able to teach their form of morality and social conservative correct mythologies and fantasies. For those of us who don’t support their world views we are burdened with having to pay for it with taxpayers’ money.

While we struggle in Wisconsin with trying to recover from the “Great Recession”, our elected officials have proven they are focused on a social agenda and not our fiscal wellbeing.