Despite having better things to do and write about, a recent article published by Deutsche Welle annoyed me enough to get me to write about the non-debate happening in USA and discuss abortion.

Whatever goes on between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton is not a debate, even though people called it that not just once, but on three separate such events. It’s pointless to look at it as anything other than Reality TV with a dumb bully and a power-hungry old lady (rs-illustration).

My personal attitude re: abortion is shaped by a very simple observation. If somehow, the most beautiful, extinct and unique flower would start growing in my stomach or intestine, I would consider sacrosanct my right to end its life whenever I wanted to, even within days of it blossoming, especially if it endangered my own health and survival, without the government getting involved, except maybe to provide the surgical help via universal health insurance. I think it’s incumbent on any libertarian and human being in general to see that as obvious and virtually axiomatic.

LE: Don’t think the comparison is totally off-track, someone once grew beanstalks in their lungs (dm-peasprouts).

For some reason, there are people in this world who argue against this right, but only in the specific case when it is hurting a woman rather than a man. It is a big deal in USA, and one of the many “dog-whistle” issues forming the rural-urban schism (inbo-cra). Naturally, it came up in the 3rd installment of the Clinton-Trump Reality TV series.

Here’s how some guy signing Horatiu Pepine at Romanian Deutsche Welle (dw.com/p/2RTgl) does his roMansplaining (Google Translated).

This reference to Romania is particularly interesting in terms of what Hillary Clinton did not want to say. It is well known that Romanian legislation on abortion is very permissive and not since yesterday or today, but since the fall of communism in 1989, i.e., over a quarter century. Therefore, to give Romania as an example of pro life policies show rather the candidate's intention to avoid a direct reference to Ireland. How can you give Ireland as a negative example in a US presidential debate? It's unimaginable! But the liberal candidate avoided, just as well, to evoke Nicaragua, a country where abortion is completely banned since 2008, or - even more so - the Dominican Republic, which maintains very close relations with the United States, and where the Constitutional Court annulled in December 2015 the century-old law which decriminalized abortion. But with so many Hispanics voting and who seem to be a big stake in this presidential election, and so many diplomatic impediments it would be risky. If she were inspired by the wish of an honest debate, she could have evoked the developments in Spain or the more recent ones in Poland.

Therefore, because she was after an easy rhetorical effect and she seems unscrupulous, Hillary Clinton chose two “exotic” examples: China and Romania, which she presented as two extremes of the same evil. One where abortion had become mandatory and the other where it had been banned. She did not say when: by the same logic she could have evoked France before the Veil Act of 1975. China is the official enemy and Romania’s reaction is nothing to fear, for it does not matter.

In short, the writer, blinded by his ideological opposition to abortion, seems to suggest that Clinton is using Romania as an example when other countries are better examples but she avoided using them because those countries are somehow more important, and that she might not be aware of how the legislation in Romania has changed.

Now let’s look and listen to what Hillary says ( https://youtu.be/NfdRmnT0Weo?t=284 ):

I’ve been to countries where governments either forced women to have abortions, like they used to do in China, or forced women to bear children, like they used to do in Romania, and I can tell you that government has no business in the decisions that women make, with their families, in accordance with their faith, with medical advice, and I will stand up for that right.

Just in case Google Translate failed him, “USED TO” refers to the past. What she is saying is that both the Romanian and Chinese policies re: abortion have changed but were, or “used to be”, bad. So even though she wasn’t specific in years, she did say when: in the past.

Perhaps Mr Pepine is confused because in contrast with German, which is very precise, English may seem, by comparison, vague. Yet German has its own subtleties, even in covering the two presidential candidates, as Rebecca Schuman tells us in Slate.

During my time reading Romanian blogs I’ve come to discover that this anti-abortion view is widespread in Romania, almost as much as homophobia, religiosity , xenophobia and the belief that Romania is somewhat important and should matter internationally more than it does. These backward attitudes, shared by other nations in the region, are all connected to Romania being so rural.

The simple explanation is that Romania is a far better example for the horrors of outlawing abortion. Rich or middle-class Irish and other women seeking abortion in the West can easily travel to countries where abortions are legal and cheap. Romanian women of similar status could not and the results were on the TV screens of the world for two decades after 1989, in a movie and some write for news outlets these days, as shown by Roncea. There are of course poor women who also need abortion, but we don’t know and don’t care about them.

I’ve been planning to discuss the emotional experiences that underpin my logical support of women reproductive rights and of being in control of their body, but I always run out of time and patience long before I even start that story. Since the Romanian public is left with similarly piss-poor analysis of the abortion issue, Trump’s outlandish claims re: Hillary’s position have been fact-checked and debunked by too many media outlets, e.g., ut, wp, cnn, vox, sl8 and they’ve even unearthed Donald admitting to having asked his mistress to have an abortion.

There are, however, many issues still worth discussing, such as CETA and Canadian visas, with Adrian Luca suggesting that visas are not worth fighting for, but uniform corporate taxes in EU would hurt Romania much more.

LE: an even clearer explanation of what abortion entails in medium.

Sources / More info: dw.com/p/2RTgl, inbo-cra, rs-illustration, cu(a)v-ort, dm-peasprouts