California is going through it’s worst drought on record. Four years we have been suffering from a lack of water. There is basically no snow pack. The situation is dire and Governor Brown has done a number of things to address the situation like water rationing. But according to Republican State Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, we have the wrong approach. The drought is not due to a high pressure system sitting off the west coast pushing away winter storms. It is due to the fact that God is unhappy with us because we haven’t passed laws to make abortion illegal.

According to RH Reality Check, Grove was speaking at the California ProLife Legislative Banquet. And with a Bible in hand that she waved above her head, she said, “This is the infallible word of God!” The fact that people like this have political power is truly frightening. A lot of Americans are worried about the Islamic State. But it is over there. It isn’t in charge here. But people like Grove have a lot of power and they are no more rational. I don’t see how it would be hard to convince Grove that we ought to be stoning homosexuals, given that the Bible is “the infallible word of God!”

But then she got down to the subject of the California drought. “Texas was in a long period of drought until Governor Perry signed the fetal pain bill,” she said. “It rained that night. Now God has his hold on California.” In other words: if the state of California would just pass a law making abortions past 20 weeks illegal, our drought would be over. It’s amazing that NOAA hasn’t picked up on this simple solution. There’s no need for general circulation models; it’s all right there in the Bible. Except, of course, that it isn’t right there in the Bible. Like most modern American Christians, Shannon Grove decides on her own what the Bible means and then claims that that is the literal word of God. I call it hubris, and God looks down on that in the Bible.

What I think is fascinating about this is how it shows what the anti-choice movement really thinks of life. As soon as Perry signed that law, it rained. And then this year, well, the rain rain rain came down down down. And 46 people died in the flood this year. We don’t know how many people have died or will die as a result of our drought in California. But none of this matters, because people like Grove and her buddies in the anti-choice movement don’t care about humans after they are born.

Grove has also looked at California’s drought from a political perspective. Back in 2009, she was complaining about water used to support endangered fish. She said, “What civilized society destroys its own food source for a three-inch fish?” Of course, that’s not what she actually means. What she means is, “What civilized society puts the smallest pressure on corporate profits to protect an important ecosystem?” Of course, the issue isn’t the fish anyway; that’s just a nice way to blame our drought on those long-hairs. The point is that we can’t approach the drought in a rational way; the drought is an opportunity to demagogue in the name of business interests and fundamentalist Christianity.

Grove is, of course, not alone in her vile nuttery. World Watch Daily editor Bill Koenig has also blamed the drought on abortion and — What a surprise! — same-sex marriage. Columbia Christians for Life director Steve Lefamine had the nearly 2,000 deaths as a result of Hurricane Katrina all worked out, “God judged New Orleans for the sin of shedding innocent blood through abortion.” But somehow God never judges us for all the innocent people we kill in war. Consider this table from War Made Easy:

But these have nothing to do with the California drought. That’s because, once again, these people don’t care about human life. That’s why I refuse to call them pro-life — although there are people like Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig who I think do quality for that name. But people like Shannon Grove are just demagogues who want to deprive people of rights in the name of pushing their pro-corporate and authoritarian policies. It’s disgraceful. Maybe God’s mad at them and that’s why California is having this drought. But most likely it’s just that stable high pressure system.