Anything You Can do

September 1, 2021 is a date that will live in misogyny.  It was the day when the Texas law banning abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy went into effect.  This law is a multi-pronged attack on women and women's bodily autonomy.

For decades, conservatives mostly Republicans and men have been focused on keeping women from positions of authority in society.  In the past this was done by keeping women pregnant.  Birth control was around, but not particularly reliable, so families with 10 and 12 children were not uncommon.  When a woman gave birth to a passel of kids, she supposedly couldn't think about education or work outside the home and she was expected to be too exhausted to argue with the man of the house for power even in her own domain.

One part of this law ignores the fact that most women don't even know they are pregnant at 6 weeks, and six weeks from when, the woman's last period?  What kind of marker is that when women ovulate at different points of their menstrual cycle?  Supposedly 6 weeks is when a heartbeat can be detected.  So, a heartbeat exists without a heart since the heart of the fetus has not yet formed by 6 weeks.  Oh, I forgot, ignore science for some kind of religious distinction of when a fetus can be counted as being alive, or something.  Some religions claim the potential of fertilization is the beginning of when life begins.  That, of course, is absurd, but back in the depths of time, before humans understood how conception occurs, and there was some understanding that after a man had sex with a woman, a baby could happen, the act was the important thing.  Men did it and caused the baby to grow so in some way, owned the "product" of that "union."  The woman was just the carrier.

Six weeks became the arbitrary line of demarcation between abortion possible and abortion impossible, in Texas, detection of some electrical impulses does it.

The law didn't stop there because abortion was not the real issue as mentioned above.  Texas legislators and governor wanted to crush any woman who chose not to be pregnant.  They instituted a vigilante apparatus to do the job.  They promised anyone who reported a woman for having an abortion after the 6-week line or even helped a woman to secure such an abortion, $10,000.  The victims of the vigilante actions had to pay that money to the reporters (sounds like post-war Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and modern-day China, reporting on family members and neighbors.   Hmmm!  Not too democratic!)

in the days preceding Sept. 1^st, women scrambled to obtain abortions and clinics worked overtime to meet the need, but could not accommodate everyone.  Women went across borders to other states or into Mexico.  Women made arrangements for friends in other states to obtain emergency contraception and chemical abortion agents, and sent them to their Texas friends and family members.

There are no exceptions in the Texas law for rape, incest, or health of the mother.  Have an ectopic pregnancy (fetus develops outside the uterus which cannot survive) too bad.  Those Texas male legislators and the women who want to be them just don't care.  Even Supreme Court Justice Amy Barrett said a woman can drop off an unwanted child in every state.  Yep, that was a woman making such a callous comment.  Then, I guess a woman with health risks can be sacrificed because it must be "God's will." 

The Supreme Court has been conservativizing for about four decades, the long-term plan, to make abortion illegal if a state legislature wanted it to be.  Who cares about nearly 50 years of precedent giving women the right to decide about their own bodies!  The now 6-3 majority conservatives on the Court was carefully selected and groomed to stand against Rowe v. Wade.  They mostly silently let the Texas law stand (shadow docket) even though it is clearly against the law of the land.  Why would they do that?  Well, it seems to me and a whole lot of others it was done to get people used to a really bad law.  When the Court rules on the Mississippi case, heard in December last year and a ruling coming up by the end of June with an anti-Rowe v. Wade  states can do what they want  decision, the Mississippi decision will seem less draconian and protests will be minor or at least manageable ("15 years seems reasonable, right?").

Republican states have been working hard to be ready for when that decision comes down.  Mississippi is currently working with the 15 week ban which is part of the current Supreme Court case.  Florida and Oklahoma want a law like that of Texas with a few modifications.  They are considering prison time for women or doctors or someone related to an abortion.  Other states are on board with that too and several kinda like the vigilante approach too.  Therefore, the state won't actually be involved with punishing women, it will be women's neighbors who turn them in, but it is not clear to whom.  As if that were not enough, in some states' proposals, the rapist will have rights over the child of the forced birth. 

Some members of the Missouri legislature want to make abortion a capital offense and are calling for the death penalty for any woman who has an abortion whether they have the abortion in Missouri or go to another state for the procedure. 

This reminds me of the song from the Broadway musical "Annie Get Your Gun."  The characters sing "Anything you can do I can do better; I can do anything better than you."  The former Confederate states or Confederate wannabees are now in competition to see whose bill can cause more harm to women.  And, some women are participating in this misogyny one-upmanship. 

There are a lot of challenges states will face once their anti-abortion laws go into effect:

- who is going to pay for the children who are born that the mother can't afford but does not want to "drop off?"

- What about the fathers of the forced births?  We have DNA testing now, so those men can be found.  Are they going to be forced to pay child support?

- What happens when a whole lot of women choose not to have sex and "get their tubes tied" so they won't even accidentally get pregnant or will that become against the law too?

- What happens when insurance companies really face the fact that having a child is a whole lot more expensive than having an abortion, particularly if that child has serious physical impairments that require intensive care indefinitely?

- What happens when one of those legislators in Missouri has a daughter or granddaughter who has an abortion and faces the death penalty?

Since abortion is not really the issue, it is women in the world, it is essential we all start seriously thinking what the next steps will be.  One state will start the "Anything you can do I can do better" scenario and the other states will pick it up and ratchet things up.  Maybe the Democratic states need to do something similar, but  toward increasing people's rights: 

- automatic voter registration for every citizen at age 18 - vote-by-mail and election day as a holiday

- abortion on demand - abortions fully paid for

- medical coverage for all - single-payer health care

- a fair tax structure - windfall earnings taxes. 

We women and allies had better get started because the former Confederacy and friends have a head start.  But, anything they can do we can do better, right?