North Dakota Governor, Jack Dalrymple, has just signed into law the country's most restrictive anti-choice legislation, which considering all the anti-choice legislation now being passed is saying something. Unfortunately, other than wringing their hands, the women of North Dakota don't seem to be willing to do too much about this nasty turn of events.
Although, it may not be fair to single out the women of North Dakota. As far as I can tell, women in all the other Republican run states that are eliminating a woman's legal right to reproductive healthcare services haven't been roused enough to take action either.
What the heck is going on? Why aren't women in North Dakota, Mississippi, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Arkansas, Ohio and Texas, just to name a few of the states vying to see who can pass the most restrictive abortion legislation, taking to the streets in righteous fury? When did we get so passive about our lives and our bodies?
Are we so far removed from Roe v Wade that we don't remember how hard we fought to see it become the law of the land? Have we forgotten the back-alley abortion horror stories that fueled the movement and influenced the highest court in the land to guarantee us access to safe, legal abortions no matter what state we lived in?
Women make up more than 52% of the vote in this country, but you would certainly never know it by our failure to react when the male dominated legislatures in red states cheerfully pass laws to take away our most basic rights. As much as we depend on Planned Parenthood and NARAL to keep up the fight, they can't do it alone. Where the bleep are the rest of us?
We have considerable collective muscle, and yet for some reason, are reluctant to use it. Maybe it's because most women in this country have grown up under Roe v Wade and can't see that it is not only being dismantled, but that if given the chance, the current Supreme Court is more likely to overturn it than uphold it.
Whatever the reason; denial, fear, indifference or plain stupidity, women need to wake up, rise up and shake off the awful malaise that has enveloped us and allowed these insufferable men to commandeer our lives. We did it before and we can do it again.
From this moment forward, there should not be a Republican governor or legislator in the whole country that goes to bed each night without worrying about alienating the all-powerful women's vote.