by Ruth A. Sheets
The states in the former Confederacy and Confederate wannabees are pushing to make more and more restrictive laws on their citizens, particularly those citizens who are not rich, white, straight, men.
I know the main purpose of such laws is to gain power for those rich, white, straight, men, but it is at least as much to keep others from having power. In the past few decades, women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community have been gaining some ground in being elected to office and holding slightly higher positions in business and industry. The privileged white men see that as a decrease in their own power and now it is time for them to take revenge.
The most blatant actions being taken are on two fronts: limiting or eliminating abortion and other reproductive rights for women, and limiting or eliminating voting rights for people of color. Despite the fact that Rowe v. Wade is the "law of the land" states have defied it to pass extremely restrictive bans on what is legal. How does that work? I guess when rich white straight men and the women they have recruited to their cause decree it, anything is worthy of being ignored, even the law. As of this week, in Kentucky it is now completely "illegal" to perform or obtain an abortion, even though it is legal in this country to obtain and perform abortions. Hmmm!
This Kentucky event did not come from nowhere, formed whole. Over the years, all kinds of restrictions to having a legal abortion have been tacked on. Then when other states saw that what another state had tried and found it had worked, the original restriction was extended: a 24 hour waiting period, then 48 hours, then 72 hours, often requiring the woman to return to the abortion center multiple times for no medical reason, while missing work or having to find child care for her kids.
When the time extensions worked, they moved to invasive procedures before the abortion could take place: vaginal ultrasound, lying about dangers of having abortion, forced counseling using lies and misdirection, requiring various permissions to have an abortion: parents, husband, rapist, etc. Those didn't prove sufficient to stop abortions, so, states declared that aborted fetuses had to be buried, abortion centers had to meet building standards that were completely unnecessary and doctors and others who performed abortions had to have privileges in local hospitals even though abortion is among the safest medical procedures performed. Of course the hospitals in the former Confederacy and other white states would not give doctors those privileges, which they should not have needed at all.
Texas passed a law that not only banned abortions after 6 weeks when a "heartbeat" could be detected (not a heartbeat since there is no heart yet, but who cares about reality and science?), they deputized anyone anywhere to report anyone anywhere who helped a woman to obtain an abortion in Texas – vigilante law. And, those snitches get to claim $10,000 for their reward.
A few other former Confederate states have jumped on board the vigilante wagon. They also want to jail doctors who perform abortions for 10 years, eventually imprisoning women who have abortions too. Missouri didn't want to stop there. They want to put women to death for having an abortion. That one didn't pass, but not by much.
The Supreme Court has allowed all of these extensions of illegal abortion restrictions through refusing to hear cases or as in the Texas case, through the Shadow Docket, a sneaky way to rule on something without accountability or hearing a case, or a public ruling with the names of the justices attached.
Voting is also working its way through the one-upmanship treatment. In 2013, John Roberts and his conservative Supreme Court decided to tear apart the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which had required states with a history of discrimination to get permission for any changes in voting policies in their state. He, a privileged white man, claimed racism was a thing of the past in this country so . . .
Immediately, state after state in the former Confederacy returned to their discriminatory ways with a host of bills to keep the "wrong" people from voting. When people found ways around some of the worst restrictions, new ones were introduced. When Black people voted on Sundays as congregations, Sunday voting was scrapped. When people who weren't the right kind of rich white male were elected, voter fraud was called. When election workers picked up mail-in ballots from Native American reservations, laws were passed making it illegal for anyone but designated family members to hand in ballots.
After what was nearly universally described as the best run and safest election in American history, Republicans in one state after another declared fraud and passed all kinds of additional voter restrictions from matching signatures of voters, (some signatures 50 or more years old when everyone knows people's signatures change over time), to forbidding anyone to give anyone food or drink while standing in voting lines that were designed to keep people of color waiting to vote for up to 8 hours sometimes in severe heat. Those long lines would never happen in the areas of the state with mostly middle to upper class white people because those are the people Republicans think they can count on, and usually they can. Besides, those white folks could cause trouble.
What has the Supreme Court done to end the one-upmanship? Mostly nothing. OK, they have arbitrarily allowed or disallowed gerrymandering, when gerrymandering should never be permitted in a democracy in the first place. So far, they have permitted everything else states are doing.
What can we the people do about the white state one-upmanship?
- We can demand that each woman has sovereignty over her own body and can make decisions for herself asking for advice and support only when she chooses.
- Congress can stop the Rowe v. Wade challenges by codifying
a woman's right to decide for herself into law. Certifying the ERA which
has been passed by the required 38 states would help too.
- Putting abortion in the realm of medicine where it
belongs, monitored by medical personnel instead of ignorant vengeful
politicians and judges.
- Voter registration be made automatic on the day a citizen
of this country turns 18. That would stop the challenges to the kind of
license presented when a person first registered to vote because every citizen
would be able to vote.
- Gerrymandering would be made illegal and every state would
have an independent board to determine the maps each decade with legislative
input, but not final say on the maps used.
- Election day should be a holiday and every workplace would
be required to give employees paid time off to vote. That wouldn't be a
problem if every state had unrestricted vote-by-mail.
Let's face it, racism and misogyny are alive and well in nearly every corner of this nation. It is mostly the states of the former Confederacy and Confederate wannabees run by Republicans who are doing the most damage to the rights of women, people of color, and LGBTQ persons. We need to call them out for their prejudices whenever possible and be sure we in other states are aware of our own biases so we are not participating in the revenge culture that demands we get even with those we think have taken what belongs to us alone. We can do this. It all starts with education, helping children of privilege see they don't deserve more than anyone else has, and it's OK. Then, there's voting.
No comments:
Post a Comment