Stray thought hit me this morning. How many rich, white men, especially mighty evangelical leaders, lost their glory and grift by way of a mistress? A lot.
And what is the worst story? The one where the young, naïve woman in a fundamentalist group is made pregnant by the patriarch. He pressures her to get an abortion to save his skin. She then gets dropped and she turns to the press to get her pound of flesh and maybe some dollars. The story comes out and the poor minister and his sobbing wife have to ask their flock for forgiveness — but the money dries up and life is never the same.
Now, turn to red states today. The young woman gets pressured into going to a blue state for an abortion and comes back. Now, the patriarch has every reason to get her labeled a sinner and cast out.
If she goes public now, she is charged with murder. Nope, she can never talk — she can’t tell a friend, especially in the church.
Mom finds out and threatens the father — “you really want your daughter to be liable for murder?”. Nope, everyone has to shut up.
Heck, she even wants to tell the press he raped her — “you really want to be liable for murder?”. Once the abortion happens, the rapist has a get out of jail free card.
Illegal abortion with the ability of a man, especially a rich one, to get his victim to have an abortion elsewhere and use the law to force her silence.
The ultimate hypocrites win-win.