Entirely appropriate characterization of the matter, Wade
Simply, it IS: deja vu.
(As I've mentioned before in these parts: this is the SECOND time I've witnessed-Live Murican spinelessness in the face of demagogues (like Joe McCarthy.)
I KNOW about coat-hangers; maybe Oz folk aren't aware of the patois and especially that symbol:
Murican 'dry cleaner' establishments returned cleaned clothes on those minimalist/aka Cheap garment hangers, formed from bent wire.
Often..
TOO-often these were re-bent to try to make a medical 'scraper' to attempt to dislodge a zygote (or earlier form) from a Woman's Own Uterus.
Working alone.
A slip meant.. a puncture,
meant.. TOO-often sepsis
--then FEAR: if I go to a Doctor/Hospital: They Will
Many died; many more were rendered sterile or worse--as a consequence of untreated infection.
(Or loss of blood if a haemorrhage occurred.)
How/when did you find this little parable?
so apropos re today's Repo Warz on Women. Here's a linked video of an event (which never hit my radar, alas) of Mar 3, 2012 at the State Capitol of Virginia USA:
http://www.youtube.c...&feature=youtu.be
['Who are you protecting' said the crowd:] 'Protect' is a frequent part of police slogans
--but that originated before they got tanks, half-tracks, SWAT teams and became another arm of the Fatherland-military.
After Roe V. Wade [how's That for Synchronicity?] these Draconian procedures were rendered Null/Void and.. deemed/memorialized! in the single word: despicable.
Today the demagogues sprout like weeds here; not some single 'Communist-hunting bloviator' like McCarthy--but hundreds of his spawn, in 2014
empowered by the now-rampant forces of ignorance, spite/malice and 'control-freakery'. (Agitated by billionaires wanting things left Unchanged, for all obvious reasons.)
Maybe the abrupt Cut-off of this story is most appropriate--reminiscent of a guillotine? or, close-enough: that gallows.
(Your familiarity with the madness of Murican tropes is.. astonishing!)
Cheers..