"Reproductive justice means Palestinian liberation." Are "progressives" hypocrites, stupid, antisemitic - or all three?

Every day brings more "shaking my head" moments. Here's today's.

At a pro-abortion rights rally in Chicago ahead of the Democratic National Convention, a speaker said, "Reproductive justice means Palestinian liberation."

This is not a new thing. In fact, a letter with almost identical wording, "Reproductive Justice Includes Palestinian Liberation," was signed by dozens of so-called progressive organizations in October. 

Let's set aside how there is no relationship between the two in any universe. 

Palestinians are, by and large, anti abortion. Abortion is against the law except in cases where the woman's life is in danger. But beyond that, Palestinian society itself does not tolerate abortions.

An article written in August 2023 starts off this way:

“I would never accept an unmarried girl at my clinic,” Malak*, an OB/GYN from Gaza tells me firmly. “This has nothing to do with freedoms, this is religion. In all religions, adultery is forbidden.”

I was dismayed but not shocked to hear a doctor prioritise her religious beliefs over her medical ethics. I have been researching access to sexual and reproductive health services (SRHS) in Palestine for the past three years, and have repeatedly seen how norms sanctifying virginity and shaming non-marital sex are so entrenched in Palestinian society that they supersede a doctor’s duty of care. This is part of a wider pattern in Palestine, and most of the Arab world, where strict gender norms and taboos around sex limit access to SRHS, particularly for women and girls.

This is a consistent pattern. This, and other article written by liberal Palestinian women, try to blame Israel for the difficulties that Palestinian women have in getting abortions, but if you read the articles carefully you see that Israel has nothing to do with it: both legal and societal pressures make it nearly impossible to get safe abortions. 

A 2018 study mentions:

By law gynecologists may not conduct an abortion in Occupied Palestine unless a recognized Muslim physician declares with reasonable certainty in a detailed medical report that continuation of the married woman’s pregnancy will endanger her life and the gynecologist has a formal certificate of approval from the Islamic mufti authorizing the abortion. The mufti may or may not accept the medical report at his discretion. He often rejects such reports, telling the woman to “trust Allah, accept His will and keep the baby.”Without a health condition that is acceptable on religious grounds, a woman seeking an abortion must look for illegal and often unsafe methods to terminate an undesired pregnancy.

Is there a single progrssive activist protesting against Palestinian laws that all but prohibit - and indeed, criminalize - abortion? 

If there is, I can't find them. Not one word about existing Palestinian anti-abortion laws was mentioned in the open letter I mentioned earlier. 

This article says that Arab  women who live in "east Jerusalem" can utilize Israeli abortion services, but for women who are less than 12 weeks pregnant there is a cottage industry of east Jerusalem Arabs getting abortion pill Cytotec from their Israeli doctors to give to them. In Israel, abortions are easily obtained in nearly all cases, and some Palestinian women manage to get to Israeli hospitals to get abortions. 

These articles include horror stories of Palestinian women who hurl themselves off buildings or down stairs, or ask their children to jump on their tummies, or who use other dangerous methods to try to self administer abortions. All the nightmare scenarios that the pro-abortion rights crowd in the US warn about are actually happening in the Palestinian territories all the time. 

 If Israel disappeared tomorrow, Palestinian women would have even fewer options for abortion than they do today.  The fervent desire for "Palestinian liberation" espoused by the progressive crowd would result in more back-room abortions, more coat hanger abortions, more pregnant women hurling themselves belly first from heights, and more honor killings of those who bring their children to full term when not married. 

But the so-called progrsssives are silent about this. Just as they are about other Palestinian laws against women, against gays, against freedom of expression. 

Instead, they claim that their support for abortion, animal, gay, women's and other rights are somehow tied to "Palestinian liberation." 

The Palestinian laws for any potential state have already been written and are enforced towards Palestinian Arabs in the Wes Bank and Gaza, and they are the polar opposite of what the progressives claim to support. 

So are the progressives hypocrites? Or stupid? Or antisemites?

Or, perhaps, all three?

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