ABORTION, THE PSEUDO-ISSUE

by Ruth Sheets

Election Day is past and many people are pleased while others are angry, ranting that Donald Trump really won except for voter fraud (which of course is not happening). It was Biden vs. Trump, the unifier vs. the misogynist, white supremacist in the words of my bias.

When I hear Donald Trump ranting against nearly everyone, I wonder how anyone supports him. But, 70 million did, just as he said 5 years ago, “I could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and I wouldn’t lose a supporter.” Unfortunately, I know he’s right. I suspect there are issues those supporters care about. It seems though, anything can be forgiven if the candidate claims to hold a particular position on an issue. The issue most prominent for moderates and liberals is human rights. The conservative issue, abortion. Nearly a quarter of a billion people have died of COVID-19 under Donald Trump’s watch, yet his supporters are not only staunchly with him, but kept many of his Congressional enablers in office. When interviewed, several Trump supporters said that Trump was against abortion. That was the issue? Really?

I understand moving toward insuring human rights for all people, but Why should something as minor as abortion be the issue? It seems to me that if women were being recognized as adults who have the capacity to make important decisions for their own lives, abortion would just be one more medical procedure to improve human life, safe, legal, and available when needed.

That is why I see abortion as a pseudo issue. It is the surface thing that can be pointed at to demonstrate one’s credentials as a good conservative, probably conservative Christian. The real issue is that women are seen by men in general as subordinates who should have only a minor place outside the home, in the "public sphere." Many men in power are scared of women because most women can do an amazing job in the work world and still raise kids and run a household, often without men. I suspect most men would be hard-pressed to do that. Now, when they attempt it, they are seen as superheroes. Men have been sure about their role and how important they are to everyone, assuming superiority to women, people of color, children, disabled persons, non-Christians. That leaves a very small "elite" group of white men who think they deserve to rule, make all decisions for the world, and be the moral police, except for themselves, of course. They can lie, cheat, do violence, plan wars and force others to fight them, and more and they want no opposition.

Women, people of color, and children often do stand up to men with varying degrees of success. A few are allowed in their circle, but only those who espouse the male majority viewpoint (Phyllis Schlafly, Kelly Ann Conway, Martha McSally, and Amy Coney Barrett, for example), the devoted surrogates.

Abortion is just one tool wielded by scared white men (and their surrogates) to keep women out of the way, too poor or wrapped up with kids they are no threat.

So, abortion is the conservative pseudo-issue. It is not enough to try to ban abortion because most women don’t have one, many conservatives oppose birth control too, and many women depend on that. That means women have no control over their reproduction. Men get their pleasure while women bear the burden and responsibility for whatever happens. It’s a weapon men have come to embrace and to force, shame, or coax many women into using against women too.

Since most religions are patriarchal, it is easy to slip anti-abortion and anti-birth control into the doctrine even if the sacred books do not mention it or give it short shrift among many dos and don’ts that today’s people mostly ignore.

Another proof of this pseudo issue status of abortion is the way pregnant women are often treated in the workplace and society in general. In many workplaces, few if any accommodations are made. Often there is no maternity leave, paid or unpaid. We push paternity leave before all women who have borne the struggle for 9 months get paid maternity leave. Then, of course, there’s the loss of wages, expensive day care, and shortened careers for women who take time to “raise” their kids at home.

The thing that amazes me most is how many women support this insanity. Misogyny is alive and well among men, but also among women. Why women are willing to accept their second-class status is unclear to me no matter how many times women have tried to explain it. The fallback for so many, “It’s God’s will.” When I point out that any mention of birth control in “scripture” is cursory, they ignore that and say “it’s what the Church teaches.” The media are on board too, constantly finding women willing to speak out against other women, making claims that are irrelevant to the discussion, but harmful to women in general. Their cry of “Right to Life” is merely a demand of forced birth. Not sure? Where are the conservative proponents of significant financial help for families after the child is born through age 18?

I find this abuse of women and our autonomy disgraceful, but until women who are more than half the population take our place in the circles of power, pseudo issues like abortion will hover over us and keep us from moving on to the important issues of saving our planet, providing food, shelter, and a decent living for everyone including children, and correcting the wrongs of racism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, agism, ableism, and more. There will be 31 Republican women in the House of Representatives starting in January. It will be interesting to see how they respond to the needs of women.

So, sisters and brothers of all political leanings, in the future, vote for people who do value women for more than the children they bear. See women as partners, as people who can make their own decisions about their own bodies and reproduction. Stop hiding behind abortion and birth control. We need to move on to put our focus on the real issues.