By Karen Rubin, News-Photos-Features.com
What should have been a celebration of 50 years of women’s Constitutional right to reproductive freedom was instead of renewed call for “radical feminism” in the wake of the radical religious extremist SCOTUS6 overturn of Roe v. Wade – the first time in history the Supreme Court rescinded a constitutional right.
Some 200 protests, rallies, demonstrations were held around the nation – the marquee event being held in Madison, Wisconsin where Republicans resurrected a 174-year-old law from 1849 that has no exceptions for rape or incest and a crucial election for a deciding vote on the state supreme court will be held.
The Dobbs decision pushed the fight for those who champion women’s reproductive rights to the state level, even as the Republican Congressional Majority try to advance their nationwide-ban and other restrictions that have the effect of blocking access to reproductive health care as soon as conception – they are even attacking contraception.
And that’s not all: Texas is among the states trying to make it illegal for a woman to travel outside the state where abortion is banned to a state where abortion is legal – literally imprisoning women (how does that not violate the 14th Amendment’s equal protection?) – an Indiana congressman, campaigning for U.S. Senate has made passing a national ban on women traveling for reproductive health care illegal. Imagine. State Republicans have sued the Biden administration to prevent implementation of its order to make the abortion pill available without seeing a doctor and accessible by mail (50 percent of abortions today use a pill instead of invasive procedure); they are prosecuting women for miscarriage (one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage, though their prosecution seems to be mostly directed at minority and poor women). And they are going after contraception.
These are the same folks, by the way, who screamed bloody murder over having to wear a mask to prevent spreading a deadly pandemic as a violation of their bodily freedom, and who scream even louder over banning weapons of war from our neighborhood streets.
What is clear is that this is not about “life” but about the whole concept of reproductive freedom, choosing when and how to have a child or not. And they are doing it by flat-out lies, characterizing the infinitesimal fraction of late-term abortions (virtually all of which take place because of mortal danger to the mother or the fetus), as a regular practice of murdering a newborn child (doesn’t happen).
“On what would have been the 50th anniversary of protections under Roe v. Wade, my Administration is resolute in its commitment to defending reproductive rights and continuing our Nation's progress toward equality for all,” Biden stated in a proclamation honoring the 50th anniversary.
Among the actions Biden has taken in response to the Court's extreme Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision: he issued Executive Orders to ensure that patients receive care during medical emergencies; to protect access to contraception and abortion services, including access to medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration; and to improve the safety of patients, providers, and clinics. The Administration is helping safeguard patients' privacy over their health data and is ensuring that women everywhere have access to accurate information about their reproductive rights. Biden also created an Interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access, which includes Vice President Kama Harris, to lead a government-wide response, he stated in the proclamation issued to honor the anniversary.
New York City mounted two Women’s March events – one at Washington Square Park organized by Black Feminists Matter, attended by about 250 people who then marched to the Federal Building. The one I attended was organized by NYC Mobilization for Reproductive Justice around the corner from NYC’s 17th police district, from which they marched to St. Patrick’s Cathedral where they held a protest on the street and chanted “Not the church, not the state, women must decide own fate,” “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries,” and “Get your theology off my biology.” They were calling for free abortion on demand.
A government that can ban abortion can also force abortion – or sterilization – as this group reminded, noting that the government has a heinous record of sterilizing Blacks, poor, imprisoned, disabled and as recently as 2020, migrant women.
Because this isn’t about a “right to life” – if overturning a woman’s right to choose were about protecting the vulnerable, as the anti-abortion movement claims, those same activists would not be murdering doctors, threatening the lives of medical personnel so that they let a woman die rather than give her the necessary medical care, or letting women die rather than give them care. They would be more concerned about their abysmal rates of their maternal and infant mortality, child poverty and hunger, access to health care, clean water and air, child care, paid parental leave and protections for nursing mothers, would be advocating for a living wage – none of which they are - and would be just as forceful in addressing the epidemic of gun violence, now the number one killer of children.
No, this is about controlling women, bolstering (or reinstating) the patriarchal power structure. The gains that women have made since 1973 stem directly from the freedom, the autonomy that Roe bestowed, the progress women have made in careers, money, property, politics all are attributable to reproductive freedom. The anti-abortion fanaticism is about turning women into second-class citizens, with no more power or autonomy to determine their future than a brood mare.
These struggles fall disproportionately on Black, Indigenous, poor, on disabled, and migrant women, the vulnerable and marginalized – rich and well-connected women never had a problem obtaining an abortion, even before Roe. ("Maternal and infant death rates are higher in states that ban or restrict abortion, report says," CNN, December 16, 2022)
At the Florida, Bigger than Roe event hosted by Planned Parenthood in Tallahassee, the Vice President denounced “extremist” Republicans and “so-called leaders” in Florida for restrictions on abortion.
“Freedom and liberty, guaranteed by the Constitution but still a work in progress, is what enabled generations of Americans to chart their own course, and decide their own future with ambition and aspiration – therein lies the strength of our nation,” she said. But as a result of the court’s decision, health providers “risk going to jail just for doing their job, and patients are denied critical care and even fear that they will be punished simply for seeking care.”
It has meant that a 10-year-old child in Ohio who was sexually assaulted and became pregnant had to leave her home -- had to leave her home state and travel to another to receive care. It has meant that the doctor who treated her faced death threats and efforts to take away her medical license. A 35-year-old woman in Texas, in the midst of a miscarriage, was denied treatment three times in three days at an emergency room because of that state’s abortion ban, and only after she developed sepsis, an infection that almost killed her, did the hospital finally admit her.
The denial of health care is not just limited to reproductive care. A pharmacy refused to provide medication to a 14 year old in Arizona who manages her chronic arthritis with medication that also causes pregnancy loss.
Florida healthcare providers face prison for up to five years for simply doing their job and is threatening pharmacists with criminal charges if they provide medications prescribed by medical professionals.
Florida is among 22 states which have declared they will not follow new federal rules that allow women to get medication prescribed by their doctor from a certified pharmacy.
The Biden Administration is attempting to counter these actions to make sure that doctors can legally prescribe, that pharmacies can dispense, and that women can secure safe and effective medication. But when Republicans force these clinics to close patients – through threats and intimidation – women also lose access to other basic care such as routine check-ups, cancer screenings, and contraception.
They don’t care. Cruelty and control are the features, not the bug.
“Be sure, no one is immune from these impacts, even in states that protect reproductive rights like New Jersey, Illinois, Oregon,” Harris declared, because Congressional Republicans are now calling for a nationwide abortion ban, even from the moment of conception.
“The right of every woman in every state in this country to make decisions about her own body is on the line... And I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: How dare they? How dare they? But let us ask, can we truly be free if a woman cannot make decisions about her own body? Can we truly be free if a doctor cannot care for her patients? Can we truly be free if families cannot make intimate decisions about the course of their own lives? And can we truly be free if so-called leaders claim to be, quote -- I quote, “on the vanguard of freedom,” while they dare to restrict the rights of the American people and attack the very foundations of freedom? We will not back down.
“Congress must pass a bill that protects freedom and liberty. A bill that protects reproductive rights. And President Biden will sign it.”
Passing the Equal Rights Amendment would help, too. Also, having a Supreme Court that respected equal rights, civil rights, voting rights, workers rights, and the concept of “equal protection” and “equal justice” for all.
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