I don’t usually re-blog my own posts, but this week, like many other folks, I have been taken aback by Donal Trump’s ongoing war on women — in particular, his claim that women who have abortions should definitely *not* be not punished, or punished, or not.
It has been said that Trump has equally enraged both right-wing conservatives and left-wing liberals with his comments. This is because left-wing liberals are supposed to be pro-choice, and right-wing conservatives are not supposed to say they think women should be punished (it doesn’t poll well with, for example, women).
Instead, they are supposed to say things like what Todd Akin blurted out in 2012; namely, that nature (i.e. God) has ways of ensuring that abortion is never truly necessary.
Hence, the following re-blog. The view Trump was trying to express has a very long history, and is unlikely to go away any time soon. Especially if he becomes President…
Brian Hughes is an academic psychologist and university professor in Galway, Ireland, specialising in stress, health, and the application of psychology to social issues. He writes widely on the psychology of empiricism and of empirically disputable claims, especially as they pertain to science, health, medicine, and politics.