I know it isn’t polite for women to show anger (I found this is still the case after recently writing a rant about corporate greed and covid frustrations, among other issues), but America better brace itself if the Supreme Court manages to overturn Roe v. Wade. Because we are about to witness how angry women look and act when the government tries to take away their autonomy.
As it is, we (and people around the world) are watching in horror as a shocking number of American elected officials behave as if we are living in Russia in real-time as doublespeak becomes the order of the day. Remember that January 6 insurrection and attempted coup, when rioters beat Capitol police officers, left several people dead and over 100 injured? Those rioters were “peaceful patriots” on “a normal tourist visit” to the Capitol, didn’t you know?
And now we’re on our way to a world where women and their doctors may be considered criminals if they choose to have or perform abortions. It’s already happened in some states. What’s next?
Stoning?
Although not technically legal, in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and other Islamic countries, it still happens. Women who have an affair, flee their marriages, or marry someone without the consent of their family can be buried up to their necks and stoned to death before hundreds of community members. In a country where Blacks were lynched before gleeful crowds (the last known lynching was in Mississipi, 1981), and where, until the early part of the 20th century, women were considered the property of men — married women could not own property because they were property! — and now in Idaho, a rapist’s family can sue to stop a doctor from providing an abortion to the woman he raped, is it crazy to follow this tortured road down to its logical dead end?
Just this week, the Taliban made an announcement “recommending” that in public settings, women must wear the burqa, the garment which covers them from head to toe lest some male becomes aroused. But here’s the best part: should a woman refuse to wear the burqa, guess who receives a visit from the religious police? The male relatives of the woman in question. After a third violation by the woman, the male relative would be jailed and subject to further punishment, turning husbands, fathers, and brothers against their wives, daughters, and sisters to protect their own hides. How different is that scenario from criminalizing doctors instead of women?
The new twist in the current abortion maelstrom is that even though some are pushing for it, the “less extremist” wing in the Takeover of Women’s Rights and Bodies Movement would like you to know that they hate the idea of women being criminalized — so icky a concept, right? We never asked for that! But the “formally extremist” wing of the movement does not want to stop abortions at six weeks of pregnancy, no, they want to stop them from the moment of inception — as in when Mr. Sperm meets Ms. Egg and decide to do the nasty up in the woman’s fallopian tubes! So, how do they intend to obtain this fertilization 411?
Forced microchipping of women, of course.
Think I’m being an alarmist? Is it hard for you to visualize women being microchipped? Not for me. It’s only what we can expect. And that’s after they take away same-sex marriage, interracial marriage, and recognition of LGBTQ rights. After all, none of that stuff is in The Constitution, don’t you know?
But in the meantime, before any of that happens — before honor killings and microchipping of women — here you are, 19 years old, working as a cashier at a McDonald’s in today’s Texas, earning $9.37/hour, and by accident you become pregnant. No problem! According to the American Taliban, all you have to do is ask your boss to give you a couple of days off, find someone to lend you the money, and drive or fly to the nearest Blue state — like Colorado — to get your healthcare. And that’s just the beginning. Because they next want to go after contraception. Why? Because adoption is the magic bullet! Everyone knows how easy it is to find willing parents for babies, especially non-white babies, don’t you know?
I’m way past the age where getting pregnant is of concern to me, yet I’m infuriated; livid; beside myself (I’m literally standing next to myself watching my agitation). Wait till you see what happens when pissed-off women start unfurling their fury at the entitled men and fake women spewing all this disgusting blather about murder of the unborn. I hope we never have to see that bullshit day. But I’m not holding my breath.
Image courtesy of Vecteezy
Well expressed Carine. I think you indeed will have to see that day. Responding with anger and hatred will do about the same as trying to put out a fire with gasoline. Let’s try this: Use the existing legal/political structures to: push back on this issue; mitigate vote suppression; strengthen and insulate the pro-choice laws in Blue states; otherwise strategize to live as 2 countries.
I’m not advocating anger and hatred, although anger is to be expected and just may be the gasoline that lights the fire under people to action.
I know this will annoy some people…but…I’m amazed at how many people are deliberately misunderstanding what happened recently in the Supreme Court re: Roe v Wade and are using it as an excuse to create hysteria (which is the opposite of what we need in this country at the moment). One very important thing to remember is that no one has overturned anything. Whether this will happen is anyone’s guess, but the fact that someone leaked a document that was meant to be private, and in the words of Justice Alito, was only useful to discuss arguments that may come before the court, is both disturbing and was deliberately meant to do exactly what it has done…create a path to mob justice.
A look at the actual history of Roe v Wade is useful. No less than RBG has written that it was bad law to begin with and an unwieldy compromise at best. The job of the Supreme Court is only to interpret the Constitution. In other words, it can only deal with what’s written on the page…kind of like classical music. The document contains a way for us to change it, and it has been amended some 27 times in order to make it work better. Roe v Wade was decided under the 14th Amendment which says that an American has a “right to privacy”, which is kind of shaky logic to establish clinics in every state to provide abortion services.
Many legal arguments have been made that abortion should have been decided under the 10th Amendment, which throws it back on the states to pass real laws to regulate it. The hypocrisy surrounding this issue is what annoys me, though. Both sides want to only see their side of it, which would ultimately make for bad law if either side prevails. The side against it is also the side that wants to limit contraception, sex education, and bring God into the conversation, conveniently forgetting that God designed our bodies so that teenagers are driven toward having sex, thus assuring there will be more abortions. They want to make abortion illegal…which will not stop it, but only drive it underground…which will result in the deaths of women. I always want to ask those people, “How many crack babies have you adopted and are living in your home?”
The side that is “Pro” chooses to frame the conversation in terms of the “Right to Choose”…but it’s really the right to kill and they don’t have the guts to admit it. I never hear the conversation about where to draw the line…is it OK to abort a baby 5 minutes before birth? 2 weeks? A month? Today, babies born at 6 months stand a very good chance of survival. Is it OK to abort them? Where do you draw the line? Heartbeat? Viability? When does the soul enter the body? When does life begin? The new laws in Texas are restrictive but they at least are trying to come to terms with this. At a certain point it is no longer “My body, my choice” because there is another body involved. I hear no discussion based on this fact.
I no longer am buying the slogans, or the hysteria, or people showing up at Judges homes trying to tell them what to do. The people on the court are serious people. They may have different opinions than you but those opinions are no doubt sincere and well thought out. If they get it wrong this time, the court can always revisit the issue, or the legislature, or the voters. In America we have many means of redress. It’s the first thing that the Constitution guarantees us.