Missouri State Senator Brian Nieves just could not help himself last week. He decided it would be a good idea to show how much he was compensating for something by posting a picture of his gun, complete with a measuring tape to show off the size of it:

But, as is normal when these kinds of right-wing zealots start posting pictures of their guns, it quickly escalated into a shouting match, with the state senator yelling at an Anglican priest, saying some very horrible things about the lives of women. What eventually transpired has now became Facebook history. While Senator Nieves deleted his more outrageous comments, once something is said on the Internet, as we know, it is never truly gone. Not only did the senator believe that an Anglican priest was a reporter for local newspaper The Riverfront Times, but he got into an abortion debate with the fellow. Yes, you read that right: Senator Nieves got into an abortion debate… with a priest (verified; it was in fact a priest of the Episcopal church).

Here are some of the more notable comments made by Senator Nieves on his Facebook page, including one in which he classified liberalism as a disease:

“Am I the only one who sees the consistent, predictable, hypocrisy of liberals? Every Time… Every Single Time – 100% of the time, they attack first, they name call first, they act like a bully FIRST and then when I answer back in similar or like manner – They complain!! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!! It’s literally comical. It’s like the Kindergartener who runs to the teacher crying, ‘Mrs. Smith, Johnny hit me back!’ So predictable! I play them like a small fish you know your just gonna throw back anyway.”

“I honestly wonder, and I’m being sincere about this, if liberalism is indeed a mental disorder. A person commits a heinous crime, the kind we hear about in the news, and they are not allowed to be executed but an innocent baby who is wrapped in the comfort of his/her mother’s womb – Having been created by God – can be literally ripped apart, viciously murdered, and this ‘Man of God’ supports it?!?!?! WOW!!”

“I believe and the actions of ‘liberals’ today confirm on many levels liberalism is a disease and we are reaching epidemic levels, if we don’t have a cold hard wake up we are in sincere trouble. Again IMO.”

Or attempting to mock one of the women who commented on his thread:

“Does anybody know who Jane is?? I think it may be a fake name? If you look at her page – Oh My!! She, or he, is ‘Very Interesting’ to put it mildly.”

Then there were his comments on abortion:

“Really?!?! Are you sure you want to stick with that definition of partial birth abortion? Really? Didn’t you say you have an advanced degree? Your statement about ‘Life of the Mother’ is one of the most common yet kindergarten ways of proving that you don’t even know what a partial birth abortion is!! You are a ‘priest’ and you speak about matters of life and death for which you don’t have an ounce of knowledge?!? Shame on you.”

“‘Life of the Mother?’ Your own argument proves it is a matter of convenience! Tell me this – Do you even know what a partial birth abortion really is? No, seriously, do you actually know what it is?? If so, explain to me what a partial birth abortion is.”

So, the life of the mother is “a matter of convenience,” Mr. Nieves?

He, of course, denied ever having said it, but here is the screenshot, for when he inevitably deletes the comment to try and hide it:

To answer his question, there is no such thing as a “partial birth abortion.” The closest is the dilation and extraction abortion which was developed in response to anti-abortion activists putting restrictions on alternative methods for saving a woman’s life should complications require an abortion after 18 weeks. Restrictions put in place by anti-women activists like… Missouri State Senator Brian Nieves.

The term partial birth abortion was coined by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) in 1995 to create a category they could apply to any procedure they wished. Helpful when you coin terms yourself; you can apply them to whatever you want to… and so they have. The dilation and extraction abortion is only done when the life of the mother is at immediate risk, so the attempt to bring it up is Mr. Nieves’ way of saying that he wants the right to see women dead. All the better to vote against him in the next election, right?

The problem here is a common one for all conservatives: they live in a fantasy world, divorced from reality. To them, all pregnancies are perfect, without complications which put the life of the mother in any danger. But the truth is, the very act of being pregnant puts the expectant mother at risk. Thanks to anti-choice legislators like Missouri State Senator Brian Nieves, the rate of women dying from pregnancy has doubled since 1987. From internal bleeding to gestational diabetes, the fact remains that the life of the mother is always at risk during the pregnancy.

Oh, but that’s right, if the mother lives or dies is just “a matter of convenience” to right-wing loons.