Godwin's Law states that "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one," and apparently, it's becoming applicable even in our characteristically restrained and well-mannered state Senate halls.
New York State Senator Ruben Diaz, a Democrat from the Bronx (and, it must be said, a Pentacostal minister with a penchant for wearing cowboy hats), wrote an email to his supporters on Tuesday containing the following well-reasoned analogy.
[Hitler] chose to send the Jews to Auschwitz…. That was not their choice, that was Hitler's choice. Murderers, assassins and criminals are pro-choice. They choose to put a gun to your head and take your life. That is not your choice. That is their choice.
So, that's… reasonable. Of course, that line of thinking would also indicate that God is a pro-choice individual. Hurricane Katrina, most tsunamis, and a good deal of the earthquakes in the world (at least, the ones not caused by supervillains) — totally not our choice. His choice.
Diaz continued:
What God says here is, that if you hurt a pregnant woman and she loses the baby you have to pay a penalty not because it was a blob of tissue that you killed, but because it was a life.
Apparently, these comments are motivated by The Reproductive Health Act, which is being pushed by many NY state Democrats. Basically, women in New York are only allowed to get late-term abortions currently if it's likely that the pregnancy will kill them. Under the RHA, this right would extend to cases where a woman's health is at risk, or where the fetus has a fatal medical issue.
Interestingly, this little nugget of crazy is actually a return to the well for Diaz, who previously called abortion "the American Holocaust," noting that "I want to compare Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust to what is happening to abortion in America… Do not point the finger at Hitler, we are worse."
Two things here. One, Republicans do not have a trademark on outlandish statements with absolutely zero grounding in fact; and two, how is anyone who said "Do not point the finger at Hitler" seven years ago still in office?