Did you hear the news?
On Sunday, New York state passed a budget deal that includes a ban on single-use plastic bags across the state. Cities and counties will have the option of using paper bags and charging 5 cents each per bag. 3 cents will go to an environmental fund, while the other 2 cents will go towards “local programs to buy reusable bags for low-and-fixed income consumers.”
The ban goes into effect next March.
Democratic lawmakers, who control the state legislature, praised the plastic bag ban. “It’s clogging our sewers and pipes and littering everywhere. And it’s the worst thing for the environment,” said one. Of the optional paper bag fee, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said, “I do believe that we have to get away from paper bags, too.” So we know a ban on those will happen on down the line as well.
They’ll tell you that they passed this legislation in order to protect the environment. To save it for future generations. “The convenience of plastic bags is simply not worth the environmental impact,” another Democratic state legislator was quoted as saying. “By reducing our state’s usage, we will see less litter in our communities and less plastic pollution in our waterways.”
A little over two months ago, the New York state legislature also enthusiastically passed a bill that completely decriminalized the act of aborting members of future generations at any stage of pregnancy, including when an unborn child would be able to live and breathe on its own. But the bill didn’t just protect abortion providers.
Anyone who murdered a mother and her unborn child would also be protected from being charged with the murder of the unborn child, no matter the stage of pregnancy.
Jennifer Irigoyen was murdered in her Queens apartment building about two weeks after the bill passed. She was 5 months pregnant. Her unborn child appeared to be the target of her murderer, who happened to be her ex-boyfriend Anthony Hobson, 48. According to local reports, Hobson “targeted the 35-year-old woman’s stomach.” He’s been charged with Irigoyen’s murder but not that of her unborn child, thanks to New York’s Reproductive Health Act.
The state of New York also has a travel ban for all “non-essential state travel to North Carolina.” It was put in place in March 2016, after the controversial HB2 “bathroom bill” was signed into law by then-governor Pat. McCrory (R). In painting himself and his state as “anti-discrimination”, Governor Andrew Cuomo (D), it seems, did not and does not approve of any bill that maintains a woman’s right to safe spaces like gender-segregated bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and the like.
In 2014, Gov. Cuomo said on public radio that pro-lifers “have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.”
New York Democrats are often quick to criticize North Carolina Republicans, but the optics behind what they say are quite fascinating when you step back and look at them.
Consider the fact that you have a state that fancies itself as welcoming, non-discriminatory, and progressive but yet is so unwelcoming to conservatives, is discriminatory against women desirous of safe spaces for themselves and their children and is regressive when it comes protecting unborn children and making a murderous ex-boyfriend pay for killing one.
But they’re gonna save the environment, y’all. One plastic bag at a time. For the children.
Stacey Matthews is a veteran blogger who has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a regular contributor to Red State and Legal Insurrection.
