In order to fully understand the push by Trump and Conservative politicians at the state and federal level to gut women’s rights, it is important to understand the role of religion in American politics. The ‘Christianizing of America’ began with The Moral Majority in the late 1970’s under Republican Strategist Paul Weyrich who also founded (ALEC), The American Legislative Exchange Council that the KOCH brothers are involved in, and the Heritage Foundation, a think tank whose job it was to come up with ideas on how to politicize religion. Weyrich also worked on behalf of Religious Right state legislators with a focus on Social issues like abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment. Jerry Falwell, the voice of the Moral Majority came up with the motto, “get them saved, get them Baptized, and get them registered”. Quotes by Weyrich and Falwell can be found in a video produced by People for the American Way called Life And Liberty for All Who Believe.)
By 1980 thousands of fundamentalist ministers had attended political training seminars and more than two million new voters were registered as Republicans. The newly politicized Religious Right helped unseat five of the most liberal Democrat incumbents in the U.S. Senate and provided the votes that helped propel Ronald Reagan into the WH as cited by encyclopedia.com.
A handful of Moderate Republicans warned Democrats, Centrists, and voters that the religious right was infiltrating the Republican party but few believed them
After failing to secure the 1988 bid to become the Republican nominee for president, televangelist Pat Robertson Created the Christian Coalition and hired Ralph Reed as the group’s political mastermind. To get their candidates elected Reed and Robertson taught them to use stealth: avoid publicity, stay out of debates, and work below the radar screen. Karl Rove, senior advisor to the George W Bush election campaign later brought Ralph Reed on board as a GOP strategist. During this period the darling of the Christian Coalition warned Evangelical and Catholic voters that if Al Gore were elected abortionists, radical feminists, militant homosexual activists, and other Liberal groups would bring an end to America’s "Judeo-Christian foundation”.
This is eerily similar to Trump’s message at the recent Christian luncheon hosted at the WH where he warned Christian leaders and their guests that if Democrats regain control of Congress and the Senate there could be violence and that Liberals would undo everything his administration has accomplished in bringing religious freedom back to government and furthering true Christian values.
The Political Attack Against Women Begins
Following the Republican takeover of the White House and Senate in 1980, Ralph Reed and hardline Conservatives pushed for legislative changes to end the Equal Opportunity Act, place restrictions on abortion, and end gay rights. A more recent case in point is Reed’s statement at the 2018 Faith and Freedom Coalition Annual Road to the Majority Conference championing the Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision in favor of the Christian baker in Colorado “as an important victory for freedom of speech, freedom of artistic expression and religious liberty”. By the mid-1990’ right-wing religion was firmly entrenched in Conservative politics. A 1996 poll conducted by the Pew Research Center found that a striking change in the attitudes of evangelical Christians, and other fundamentalist faiths as they related to mixing religion and politics. 70 percent of evangelicals, both black and white, agree that "churches should express views on social and political matters."
But it wasn’t until after the 2010 midterms when Conservatives and the Tea Party Patriots wrested control of the House from Democrats’ and reduced their majority in the Senate that the religious right was finally able to thrust religious values into the political arena in a major way. Not only did Conservatives stymie all Obama’s attempts to seat federal judges or pass any meaningful legislation, Congress and the Senate began chipping away at the Affordable Care Act and declared all-out war against Planned Parenthood. And following the 2016 presidential election, the Religious right with Trump and Conservatives in control of all branches of the U.S. government gutted funding for Planned Parenthood and severely crippled the ability of tens of millions of women to access health care services.
This was devastating to rural, isolated, and large urban areas in poor neighborhoods.
Attacking Planned Parenthood has helped Trump shore up his support among fundamentalist Christians and “pro-life” voters. Republicans, whose campaigns are bankrolled by far-right religious groups deliberately leave out the fact that abortion is only an extremely small part of Planned Parenthood’s activities—which also include everything from contraception to cancer screenings.
Trump’s ruling also ended funding for clinics that refer women to an abortion provider or speak about abortion in any context at all. For millions of women living in isolated or rural areas, both rich and poor, Planned Parenthood Clinics are all that is available.
As women, mothers, grandmothers, wives, and daughters we are powerful. Like Susan B Anthony and the brave women who refused to quit until they won the right to vote, we must follow in their footsteps going into the midterms.
FYI: www.newsmax.com/...Ralph Reed pledged $18 million dollars to help Conservatives keep the majority in the U.S. Congress and Senate in the 2018 midterms