American Women Under Assault

The recent rush by certain states to enact legislation to curtail a woman’s right to an abortion is a disturbing and frightening trend.

 

Before we get too deep into this particular marshland of weeds, let me repeat something I’ve posted on this blog before.

 

I am not FOR abortion. The concept of ending even the potential of human life runs anathema to my values, my way of thinking.

 

But I am not for telling a woman what to do with her body. Her life, her health is her business.

 

It is not my business. It is not the business of congressmen, governors and presidents.

 

The variables a woman faces in the decision to terminate a pregnancy are too complex for us to legislate to the degree those on the political right would seek to impose on women today.

 

One state’s law carries a 99 year prison sentence for a woman having an abortion.

 

Consider the average prison sentence for a man convicted of rape is 10 years. If a woman chose to terminate a pregnancy caused being raped, she would face the bars of a prison cell ten times longer than the man who raped her. 

 

What the hell is going on?

 

Since the Supreme Court ruling on Roe Vs. Wade back in the 1970s which granted women the right to have an abortion as a constitutional right of privacy, the religious right has been gunning to have Roe Vs. Wade overturned. And there has never been a better time than right now.

 

With the Republican controlled US Senate rubber stamping every Donald Trump nominee for US appellant courts, conservative judges are flooding into these court vacancies. And at the top of the Judiciary, two Trump appointees to the Supreme Court are tipping the court to the political right.

 

It should be pointed out that Trump himself is not selecting these guys himself based on his inherent genius for understanding the law and the constitution. He picked Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court for his TV ready central casting white family man looks.  Kavanaugh and all the other court nominees Trump sends over to the Senate are on a list provided by the Federalist Society, a hard right political group that has been grooming would be judicial candidates for decades to advance conservative causes. In 2016, the Federalist Society scored big with Donald Trump getting to the White House. Why would Trump doing any work to vet court appointees when the Federalist Society has already done the work for him? And it keeps the base happy.

 

Donald Trump may be a fucking moron but he does know his audience and that audience has been sucking hard on Li’l Donnie’s oversized backside because they’re getting what they wanted: conservative judges all the way up to the Supreme Court for the express purpose to over turn Roe Vs. Wade.

 

Religious conservatives are not looking to reduce the number of abortions in this country. If that were the case, they could’ve declared victory years ago. Improvements in contraceptives, health care and sex education have coincided with a commiserate reduction in abortions.

 

Religious conservatives are looking to eliminate all abortions in this country.

 

Eliminating Roe Vs. Wade will not accomplish that.

 

Before the landmark Supreme Court ruling, women could get abortions. It wasn’t always safe or sanitary. Unless you were rich. If you were a young woman with an unfortunate condition of being with child sans marriage to a proper husband, there were always options for such a young woman to quietly and relatively painlessly disavow herself of that unfortunate condition. 

 

Roe Vs. Wade levelled the playing field. All women regardless of status could have access to an abortion as needed. 

 

Reversing that decision would disproportionally affect poor women and particularly women of color. If you’re rich, even if abortion is outlawed, you will have options regarding your unfortunate condition.

 

These efforts to roll back a woman’s rights over her own body and heath stink of hypocrisy. 

 

The same politicians trying to protect a life before its born are the same people who are quick to cut and slash social programs that provide health care, nutrition and education for that child after its born.

 

The same politicians blathering about the sanctity of life are the same people who support capitol punishment.

 

The same politicians  who profess fealty to the righteous cause of preserving life will not hesitate to put that child, now grown, on a battlefield far from home to bleed and die in a war. 

 

The same politicians who argue that government should stay out of our lives are passing laws to have that same government tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her own body.

If a woman needs to make choice to end her pregnancy, I will grieve for the potential of that life lost forever. 

But the current assault on the rights and liberties of American women is egregious to me.

I grieve for our country that has lost its way.