American Women SOS
SOS
The drum beat keeps getting louder on erasing women’s rights in America. So to the women of the United States, in the words of Whoopi Goldberg in “Ghost” - “You in danger girl”
On top of an already crushing past decade rolling back women’s body autonomy and reproductive rights in the United States, the last two years in particular (beginning with the overturning of Roe V Wade by a corrupt supreme court) has been particularly tragic for women everywhere. Even for those women yelling nonsense about religion and faux Christian Nationalism, that have no business in our laws (we have a separation of church and state for a reason), they will not fully understand what they have done until it is too late. Doctors live in confusion & fear about other medical procedures that will save women’s lives but could send them to jail (see this story in Florida, Texas, or Missouri), some states not making any abortion exceptions in case of rape or incest (see Idaho), or seek to criminalize medications (see Louisiana), inexplicably seeking to restrict IVF like Alabama, and now the Senate GOP blocking a bill to guarantee access to contraception, after parading around a crazy "expert”. All of this has nothing to do with “pro life”, especially given mothers in states with abortion bans nearly 3 times more likely to die, and that there has been little to no movement on healthcare improvements for either pregnant women nor for children once they are here in the world, let alone proper paid parental leave. In fact, a new study finds childbirth is more deadly in the United States than any other high-income nation, especially for Black women. How much more do these people need to say or do to make it clear they do not respect women, their bodies, or their choices?
*Follow the work and writing of Jessica Valenti and Jill Filipovic who are covering all of this on substack
*See this map to understand rights or restrictions in your state + know your reproductive rights
*See this timeline of women’s history milestones in the USA
Sadly, this post I wrote about reproductive resources a few years ago, will have to be completely rewritten now given the changes and wide range of access state to state. And while some may roll their eyes at the “Handmaids Tale” comparison, we are very much on the way, and author Margaret Atwood has spoken extensively about how she pulled situations from real life and legislation to create the story and violently patriarchal world of the book. No wonder some states that have the most brutal laws against women, like Idaho and Texas, have sought to ban the book.
We are half the population, more educated and successful in business than any other time in history, and yet despite the large majority of the USA that support women’s reproductive rights, a slim (but demented) majority are seeking to control us. This is also a losing issue in elections - with both red and blue states voting overwhelmingly to restore abortion access in their state. Sadly, when it comes to national elections, there is one particular demographic that continues to blindly vote against their own interests, and by the time it comes back to bite them, it will be too late. And with women seeking to take control back in many countries around the world (see Korea’s 4B movement), and the frustration & momentum here too, it is most defintley time for matriarchal rule.
So use your voice, fight back, support Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, and make sure you are registered to VOTE —> Vote.org
