THE NEW MISOGYNY, JUST A RERUN

By Ruth A. Sheets

We are facing a strange time with a weird bunch of actors.  I don’t know about you, but I would not have believed so many people would be on board with the effort of dragging our nation into some “golden” past when women were irrelevant well, except for doing all the work of bearing and raising our children and pampering a controlling husband or male partner.  I knew there were forces of misogyny doing their best to undermine women at every turn and to keep women out of nearly every position that had some authority attached to it, but I didn’t realize just how malignant the efforts were and that when they released the Cracken, it would be huge and target women at every level, more than a century after women got the vote.

Going on 52 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that women should have the right to abortion up until the fetus is viable, currently about 24 weeks.  There was enormous celebration then because previously, for so  many women, to end a pregnancy meant getting “help” from someone who had to perform the “procedure” in secret which often meant in unsanitary conditions that could have a bad outcome:  some women died or were unable to become pregnant afterwards.  Even knowing that, many women still chose abortion.

In the 1960s, a group of women in Chicago, the Janes provided safe abortions for women, that is, until they were set up/betrayed, and several of them were arrested.  They had an underground network of activist women trained by medical personnel to provide abortions to women through a word of mouth network.  They figure they performed around 11,000 out of 11,000 safe abortions.

By the late 1970s, Republicans and conservatives in general needed a cause.  The War in Vietnam was over and they weren’t getting traction on anything else.  They had staunch anti-abortion folks in their ranks and chose that to be the issue to run on even though the majority of Americans was in favor of abortion being legal.  Men were mostly behind the move, but realized they would have to recruit women to promote the issue.  They found a few and they tied the anti-abortion stance to pushing the value/wonder of being a stay-at-home mom providing total care for her kids and her hubby.  Of course the women doing the pushing of this movement did not live what they were promoting, but they whipped up the women to such heights they didn’t even notice that Phyllis Schlafly was a lawyer, and the other woman leaders were also professionals, not stay-at-homes.  Hypocrisy!

The movement gained traction through the ‘80s and ‘90s, but the Supreme Court still ruled that women had a basic right to abortion care, but let the states take bites out of that right, and many states took big bites:  waiting periods and expensive ultrasounds that were totally unnecessary, the criteria for facilities that provided abortions, etc.  Protesters harassed women going to perfectly legal clinics, providers were killed, clinics vandalized, and workers terrorized.  Some effort was made to stop the violence and harassment, but not much and the bad behavior continues. 

Meanwhile, in significant numbers, women have entered many fields that were once nearly exclusively male:  tech, engineering and all types of design.  Orchestras have many female members.  About 20% of Congress is female and women have been elected to state legislatures too.  There are female governors even in some “red” states.  Very few women are at the top of major corporations, but at the mid-management level, women are steadily increasing in number.  Many women are journalists, influencers, news anchors, and sports reporters and announcers.  Women are scientists in every field.  The majority of college students and graduates are women too.  I mention this because the movement to drive women back into the home, no birth control, popping babies at the will of the sperm and the state is ultimately not a winning proposition for any political party. 

Donald Trump and his handlers, while in the White House were able to put on the Supreme Court 3 justices who along with the three conservatives already there, have decided that the old days were much better than today, so have handed down numerous decisions under John Roberts that have set a framework to promote rich white men and corporations and diminish everyone else.  That includes ending the abortion protections women had by letting states’ mostly old white male and conservative female legislatures decide about a woman’s bodily autonomy.  Right now, people still have some respect for the Court, but it is on the edge of losing it. 

I, like many other women and our allies, are hoping younger women are putting together networks like the Janes all over the country to provide abortions, to help with miscarriages, and to stockpile Mifepristone and other abortion medications to make them available to anyone who needs them.  Most of us have read The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and are determined it will not happen here.  We women and our allies need to make it clear to the men and their female surrogates who like J.D. Vance and his master, Donald Trump that we do not appreciate their misogyny, calling women childless cat ladies who have miserable lives and want everyone else to be miserable.  Women don’t appreciate being told that post-menopausal women will provide the child care for the younger women rather than our government providing help to afford child care.  It is not OK that right now at least 20 states have pretty much banned abortions.  Why?  They want to control women.  What they need to realize is that even if Trump is re-elected, women are not going to return to being baby factories and care-givers for selfish child-men.  Misogyny has been around for millennia, and a bunch of scared men are trying to use it as a weapon and they have courted women to go along with the game as long as they get to share in the male power.  Those female surrogates don’t see that they will only be given as much power as the men around them permit in their rabid misogyny.

So women, and allies, if we care about our future and want the struggle to be a bit less problematic, we need to ditch this new, old misogyny, declare that we are not going back,  and vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and Democrats up and down the ballot because Republicans have decided women are good only for doing men’s bidding, and care nothing for the quality of the men doing the bidding.

FIFTY YEARS ON

 By Ruth A. Sheets

January 22, 2023 marks 50 years since the Supreme Court in a 7-2 vote ruled the right to abortion is constitutional.  They assumed women had a right to bodily autonomy although they didn’t call it that.  They understood the Constitution permitted women, as well as men, to make decisions about their own bodies and future.  Unfortunately, over the years, conservatives who needed an issue to pump their supporters up to a ridiculous frenzy on their way to power, clamped onto the issue of abortion which over time expanded to include women’s  rights in general.

A bit over a century before the Roe v. Wade decision, the Pope in the Roman Catholic Church declared abortion anathema, not the exact words, but close enough.  The supposed reason was to save women’s lives since abortion could be dangerous.  Women were not seen as much, so the Church had to couch its decision in god language, a mortal sin to have an abortion.  With five Catholic conservative justices on our Supreme Court, their task is clear, stop abortions at all costs in god’s name.  The Church orders it. 

A decade earlier, in 1857, a  Harvard-educated New England doctor, needed an issue to prove how important and professional he as a doctor was.  Horatio Robinson Storer settled on abortion as that issue and began his crusade against women and the midwives who supported women’s reproductive needs.  Through Storer’s efforts, abortion went from being a non-issue to becoming one of the most contentious issues of the second half of the 19^th century, and women had essentially no say in it.  Few states or territories had laws against abortion before Storer came on the scene, but by 1900 nearly every state did. 

Storer and others as time passed, all men of course, had little or no evidence that midwives were incapable of caring for women’s reproductive needs, or that abortion was so terrible.  It didn’t matter, he was a medical man and at the time doctors (nearly all white men of course) were trying to be established as the authorities on everything related to health, including women’s bodies.

Moves against abortion began  three-quarters of a century after our Constitution was ratified.  The founders most likely never even thought of abortion and considered anything beyond their brief participation in begetting a child to be women’s work and promptly ignored it, well unless a baby was born, then he could claim it as his property. 

Were Alito and the other anti-Roe justices aware of this?  Did they even care?  I suspect they knew and had to find a legal justification from before our nation’s founding they could use to do what they had intended to do all along.  Alito et al should be ashamed of their choices of  law-makers to cite, OK and to even overturn a precedent with no pressing need.  But, when one’s goal is in reach, any argument will do.   That’s particularly true if you know you can’t be challenged.  The expectation of infallibility on the part of the conservative justices lately is disturbing.

Right now, the Supreme Court seems to be walking on the edge of a cliff.  They could listen to the American people and start ruling in our favor or keep moving closer to being blown off the cliff where they will no longer be seen as relevant.  This past year, the six told states they had limited ability to restrict gun ownership, yet told states they can restrict a woman’s right to abortion.  Essentially they said, “white men, get a gun to use if you are scared” (white men seem to be scared all the time), but women, you have no right to your own body if a bunch of white men in state legislatures say you don’t.  Yes, racism and misogyny are alive and well on our Supreme Court and there is no evidence a remedy is at hand.  Women of color and poor women will suffer most, as usual.

Restricting abortion is cruel.  It condemns women and children to carry a pregnancy whether it is the right thing for them or not.  Who gets to decide, mostly rich, straight white men in power and their female surrogates.  The men will never get pregnant and the surrogates want the trickle-down of power they may get agreeing with powerful men.  Those women and some men have been brainwashed to believe their god is against abortion.  If that were true, wouldn’t one expect that Jesus would have said something about it.  If He had, it would have been recorded and passed down.  He didn’t and It wasn’t.

As so many feminists of all races, creeds, and nationalities have said for years, women should  have the sole decision of whether to maintain a pregnancy, with no interference from legislators at any level.  And if one listens carefully to the anti-choice faction, their “reasons” to force women and children to remain pregnant are undemocratic (since more than 60% of the population supports the right of women to seek abortion with few or no restrictions).  

So, let’s see, a collection of rich, white, straight men and their surrogates oppose abortion so women are condemned to carry fetuses to term, held as criminals if they have a miscarriage, losing their lives while waiting to be sick enough – close enough to death to have an abortion, seen as criminals to be jailed if they use chemical abortion aids or leave the state to get an abortion, jailed to force the woman to continue a pregnancy.  That sounds like a kind of involuntary servitude, vulnerable women trapped in a system that has denied their rights and freedoms for a set of religious beliefs in a nation whose Constitution declares there will be no establishment of religion. 

A few years back, I learned about a group of women in Chicago in the late 1960s who called themselves “The Janes.”  They were heroes, women and a few men who saw a need and worked to figure out how to provide abortion services to thousands of women.  Finally, they were betrayed by someone who just had to prove she was a handmaid of god or something.  The prosecutions never went anywhere, though because of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.

We need “Janes” everywhere in our country now, doing everything they can to help women who need a termination to a pregnancy.  We need a network (possibly secret) of people who can distribute abortion pills and transport women to abortion clinics.  We need brave doctors who will help the few women for whom the pills don’t work properly.  We need courageous doctors, nurses, and midwives who can provide abortions after the 11^th week and those who step up and provide appropriate care for women in medical crisis so women won’t have to come close to death to get help.  We need prosecutors who will dismiss abortion cases unless there is actual evidence of wrong-doing by a provider.  We will require judges on federal courts at all levels that will dismiss cases brought by people against women who have gotten an abortion.  In short, we need some courage throughout our nation.  I know some exists, but there needs to be more.

Then, those of us who do not have a medical bent need to keep calling out Republicans and others for their disinformation and hypocrisy of wanting forced birth while providing absolutely no services to help the women who don’t even have the wherewithal to pay for prenatal care or giving birth.  Republicans whine in protest at being called racists and misogynists while regularly demonstrating racism and misogyny. 

We the People should also take turns when we can to be present at abortion and other health care facilities where anti-abortion folks are jeering, taunting patients, and lying through their many times magnified supposed pictures of abortions.  We have left the ground to them when we should have been there more openly.  We can also heavily support candidates in every district, every community who believe women have the right to whatever health care they need, including abortion.  Ditch the toddler-adult candidates who can’t see past their own “beliefs” to let others have theirs.  We the People can do this! 

And so, the challenge for us 50 years on is knowing the anti-women, anti-everyone who is not rich, straight, white, and male movement will continue working to hurt us all if not thwarted.  They will pass archaic laws and work to enforce them no matter who is harmed.  That is cruel, but cruelty is their point.  We the People can stop this if we work together as the Janes did 50+ years ago! 

WHEN SUPREMES GO ROGUE

by Ruth A. Sheets

There are almost no words to describe the anger and frustration I am feeling now toward 6 Supreme Court justices who have decided they don't give a damn about women and our rights.  For them, our rights are open to being given and taken away at the will of an unelected body that has become hyper-partisan.  They need no reason except their own personal beliefs and religious biases.

All but one of the six are Roman Catholics, and the sixth (Gorsuch) might as well be.  The Catholic bishops are frightened that their power over people is waning, so they are using their influence to threaten elected officials of this nation to withhold the sacrament of Communion, a sacred part of the faith, and demand loyalty from practicing legislators.  Why would these men do that?  Their targets believe women should have the right to make decisions regarding their own bodily autonomy.  Can’t have that now can we?  Besides, those targets also think the separation of church and state is critical to maintaining our democracy.  Hmmm!  Can’t have that either!

Catholicism has become even more authoritarian than it was a half-century ago when Roe v. Wade was handed down with a 7-2 decision from a conservative-leaning Court. 

The misogyny of the Catholic church is the main reason I left the faith as a teen.  What is amazing to me since then is that the church has doubled down on keeping women out of power and unable to make bodily decisions for ourselves.  A majority of Catholics want bodily autonomy but remain in the church hoping, I guess that they can bring about real change.  I can sadly inform them, it will not happen.  Those of course, men, who rule the church under the Pope are selected for their conservatism and adherence to certain points of doctrine, even if far outdated and destructive. 

Abortion was not declared a sin until around 1869, but it has become one of the pillars of the Catholic Church.  The mid-19^th century was the time when women found out in large numbers that they didn’t have to be pregnant all the time and watch so many of their children die in infancy.  Abortion did not have to be a hit or miss operation performed by midwives and other community women with few resources but a lot of knowledge.  Doctors (men) could now do it, and for money.  Done right, it could be safe.  That meant women (admittedly rich women for the most part) could enjoy sex without as much fear.  It would be harder to shame women for getting pregnant out of marriage.  Can’t have that! 

This play for more power and influence in our government by the bishops is disgusting.  It would be great if a whole lot more women left the Catholic church.  It would be let’s say, fun to see how men try to keep the church going without their female handmaidens.

When Supreme Court justices pander to a church that is out of touch with what it means to be a loving caring, honest human being, we are in trouble!  And we ARE in trouble.

The Supreme Court has just stripped away our Constitutional right to abortion, citing as a reason, the writings of a 17th century guy who was into killing women as witches. Of course he opposed abortion because even at its most primitive, abortion sometimes led to freedom from constant male pressure to satisfy his “sexual needs” without having to bear another child, which of course, the father would not actually be raising.   

After its success with overturning a 108 year gun law in New York and the 49.5 year ruling that the right to abortion is Constitutional,  The Court is on its way to taking away more of our rights as Americans, just because.

Clarence Thomas, the justice whose wife helped organize an insurrection is saying that a bunch of other rights are on his hit list.  Why was he even allowed to rule on abortion rights since he was a credibly-accused sexual harasser in the workplace?  And why was Kavanaugh permitted when he was credibly accused of attempted rape by one woman with credible charges by other women the Judiciary Committee was never able to interview and the FBI under Trump didn’t investigate?  Two men with that history tied up with their Catholicism made them sure bets for voting to overturn Roe.  They should have had to recuse themselves, but alas, the Supreme Court has no code of ethics to follow and we know their personal ethics have a lot to be desired. 

So, Thomas has the next targets:  LGBTQ persons, birth control (I guess banning abortion is not enough to keep women barefoot and pregnant), and giving corporations more rights to harm us and our planet (OK he didn’t state it quite that way, but pretty close).  How much more of this infringement on our rights are we going to tolerate?  When will we as a people rise up and say “no?” 

It had better be soon because the Republicans are studying the Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán to see how to make our country a dictatorship with them at the top.  Yes, what fun it will be ruled by a bunch of fools who have no idea how to govern but are sure that everyone but the very rich white folks is a taker while those good rich white guys are so generous and will teach those awful poor people they have to work at whatever pay the boss wants to give them and the women stay home with the kids they are forced to give birth to.  Poverty is just what happens!  Homelessness is what poor people deserve because their 60 hour work weeks just aren’t long enough.  If they had worked harder and longer, they would be able to afford housing.  The government shouldn’t have to pay for them, those losers!

They will insist everyone but themselves and their donors are lazy and they will pump that message out with the rest of the BS people will have to consume since they will control the media.  The courts will be delighted to take away more rights and dismiss the Constitution because those Republicans just don’t like it.  They don’t want people to protest or complain about their rights either. 

One may wonder what will happen when the effects of global warming hit. Well, who knows.  Because Republicans dismiss science except when it is finding a cure for their cancer or other personal complaints, they will have no clue what to do and those who do know will be out of power – remember COVID?

I wish I had a more positive outlook, but things are not looking good.  When one political party has no vision and no good ideas, it is hard to make a democracy work.  When that same party has the goal of taking away rights that have been enshrined in our Constitution for 50 years and more, then encourage the states to do as much harm to women (and their citizens in general) as possible, there is not a lot of hope.  And, when guns have more power than the people who will be harmed by them and when fetuses have more rights than the woman carrying them, it is hard to see any sanity reentering our lives any time soon unless Republicans are voted out of office all around the nation.

However, there are some things we can actually do if we have a mind to.

• Start with the President.  He could approve opening abortion clinics on federal lands.  There are federal lands in every state.  That is a stopgap, but could work for a while. Temporary pop-up clinics could be set up with housing for the staff and any other resources necessary on military bases and other federal installations.  
• Federal contracts should be given only to corporations that support women’s bodily autonomy actively and through medical insurance coverage
• A serious underground for abortion services and medications should arise training all kinds of women to perform basic abortions through 15 weeks, then only spend money to send at-risk women out of state.  There are homemade abortion devices that are safe and effective and could be taken apart quickly into the basic components if people come snooping around.

- Every woman from age 10 to death should go online and look up information about abortion clinics and abortion care every week so it won’t matter what information Google reports, no one will be put at risk since everyone will be looking.

• Give funds to states that offer abortion services to help with extra costs for women in the Confederacy and Confederate wannabee states who come for help.

- Vote vote vote!!  Choose candidates who stand for the rights of the people over corporations, over religious beliefs, over partisan garbage.  Ask each candidate to swear on their religious book that they will work to insure the rights of women, people of color, disabled persons, LGBTQ individuals, and more.  If they can’t swear to it, they do not deserve your vote.  Today’s Republican Party is not your mom’s Republican Party, so don’t vote for them on auto pilot.

• Make some waves: 
• - declare Lysistrata months when no woman will have sex with men at all;
• -conduct strikes of various kinds that let people see just how much women do;
• -make and regularly publish lists of the women who have died either in childbirth or while pregnant because they are forced to remain pregnant;
• - Sue the Confederate and Confederate wannabee states as well as the Republican Party  for the care and suffering of children born with extreme disabilities that forced-birth laws required to be born.
• -put up billboards with the names of convicted rapists in communities;
• -leave churches that consider women nothing if they are not virgins or moms with lots of kids (Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons, etc.);
• expand the process for getting women to safe abortions and getting abortion pills to women even before they become pregnant - perhaps have a neighborhood supplier;
• -shame huge corporations who have stood against women’s rights into getting them to fly charter planes from red states to places where women can get quality abortion care.

In short, there are things we can do.  I suspect some of these could get attention and help women while we work to overturn the current Supreme Court.  It’s time all of us get involved.  Change will not happen unless we demand it and we had better demand it!

ABORTION AND RAPE

by Ruth A. Sheets

On NPR's "Morning Edition," Friday, May 6^th, a story was broadcast about the Boy Scouts sexual abuse cases being settled with a significant amount of money to be spread out among survivors.  One of the victims of rape (when he was 12), reported how horrific the experience had been.  The other boy raped the same night on a camping event was so traumatized he drank himself to death by age 18.  The survivor being interviewed told of his life being tormented by the experience.  He is now 70 years old.

I suspect some folks listening to this story got a flashback to Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barret's comment in the December 2021 hearing of the case to overturn Rowe v. Wade.  When asked about a female victim of rape carrying a child to birth, she flippantly said that every state had a way to drop off a baby "no questions asked."  At the time I was furious at her lack of empathy and compassion, , a female member of the Court, dismissing the trauma of rape.  Having heard the report on NPR that morning, I find I am still furious at her insensitivity.

Rape is traumatizing even for males and the courts are finally paying some attention.  People used to joke about what would happen to men when they went to prison, implying they would be raped by other incarcerated persons and somehow they would deserve it, an OK punishment for whatever crime they were accused of, "ha ha."  It made me sick to hear the laughter because I understood that prison in itself is an experience that impacts every aspect of life during and after, and if rape had occurred too, the victim's life would be scarred by it, just as the former Boy Scouts' lives had been.  Neither experience is good for society.

Men are finally being permitted to talk about their rape at the hands of Boy Scout leaders and clergy.  They are winning court cases as they bring into the light child abuse that should never have happened, but which was passively permitted for generations.  Men sometimes are challenged these days as to whether "it" happened as they remember, but because reports are so widespread, they are impossible to dismiss.  Besides, men don't deserve rape.

Women have had a very different experience.  Women, if they report the rape at all, are very often doubted.  They are told "he thought you consented," essentially calling the woman a liar.  We've all heard "when she dresses like that or walks alone, what did she expect!"  And, younger women often did not realize that what was done to them was rape.  A possible side effect of rape of a woman is pregnancy.  If a raped woman becomes pregnant (and yes, Republicans, it does happen), she can have the double trauma of the rape and the unwanted pregnancy, possibly resulting in a live birth.  Justice Barrett implies the raped woman (or child) can just raise the child or "drop it off."  Her narrow experience of the world can't allow for abortion, a safe way to begin healing.  Why is that?  What happened to Justice Barrett that she feels nothing for the rape victim, only for the fetus?

Men get to be traumatized for life by rape.  Women get to be traumatized for life, but in public, over and over while dragged through court telling and retelling their  nightmare and are informed by mostly men that the fetus resulting from rape has more rights than the woman/child.  And men get to codify that in law.  One thing to keep in mind, sex of any kind between a child and an adult in this country is still rape, as is forced sexual contact with a person of any age.  Refusing abortion to a victim of rape is a compounding of the crime. 

I see rape here as symbolic of the many ways women are treated in law and society, dismissed as children, unable to understand what really happened to us, not allowed to make decisions for ourselves or without men.  It's disgusting and needs to be stopped!  I want to be clear that I believe abortion should always be safe, legal, and easily accessible and that men should not be involved in a decision to keep a pregnancy unless the woman chooses to include him.  Donating sperm, no matter how it happens should not ever give a man power over a woman.  Once that is established, we can tackle the other anti-woman functions of our culture. 

Women are trained to believe, from birth that males are superior.  I remember in school being told boys are better in math and science (you know, the elite subjects) because their brains are made that way. And, just in case it didn't prove true, boys were steered into science and math courses, catered to in those classes, and usually got the best grades whether or not they deserved them.  We all knew boys were getting advantages, I mean, the girls knew.  Such extra attention can really build a lot of confidence, being told you are good at something.  If the male brain thing were true, it would be very difficult for even women's schools and colleges to graduate, as they regularly do, women who are leaders in fields of guess what, science and math. 

Throughout history, girls in many families were prepped for marriage from before they even entered puberty, constantly reminded that they've gotta have a man.  The corollary of this is "I'm waiting for grandchildren, and you'd better give them to me!"  At the same time, girls (not boys) are supposed to be pure.  If a girl becomes pregnant, unmarried, she is a slut.  And to shame her for life, for this result of sex with a male, she must carry the fetus to term, give birth, and figure out how to raise or give up the now-born baby, even if she's a child.  Back in the "dark ages" forced marriages used to be conducted to "protect" the raped girl's reputation whether she wanted it or not.  The boy/man, "he was just such a good person for agreeing to marry her" blah blah blah!  Few people asked why they wanted their daughter married off to a rapist.  Oh wait!  It still happens in some cultures today!  That is a crime against womanity.

This is the 21^st century.  We know how to safely keep women and children from staying pregnant.  We can't guarantee no man will rape a woman or child.  We can, though charge and convict the rapist and provide safe abortions.  That is the very least people who claim to be "pro-life" should advocate for.  Do they?  Of course not!  They are stuck.  When people have been programmed to believe women can't be trusted with bodily autonomy, and that somehow the fetus is more worthy than the woman or girl, their moral compass and judgment are lost.

I do not diminish the suffering of men who have experienced rape.  It must be as bad as they say it was.  It needs to be understood that women's experience of rape is at least as horrific but with the added stress that she could become pregnant.  In the current anti-woman atmosphere in this country, the victim can be condemned to carry the child of a rapist, and she should be OK with that, some kind of "god's will" nonsense. 

Let's face it, forcing anyone to remain pregnant is abuse, forcing a child to stay pregnant is child abuse, pure and simple.  I can see why anti-abortioners may be OK with it.  They are often the same ones who are OK with hitting kids, leaving children in poverty, and keeping children from knowing about the diversity of people who inhabit their world.  That does not mean the people of this country should go along with this manufactured second-class citizenship for women.  The sad thing is how many women like Ms. Coney Barrett can't even imagine the challenges other women face.  She is praised for having 7 kids, 5 of them not adopted, but she can't see past her privilege, massive advantages, and good healthcare to other women who may not have her advantages and her certainty that she has God's ear.

Another problem, anti-abortioners really don't care about abortion as much as they care about power.  If they were so certain of the righteousness of their anti-abortion stance, they wouldn't have to pass so many laws to keep folks who don't agree with them from voting and from obtaining abortions.  Persuasion would work just fine.  This makes it clear to me and many others that abortion is truly a control issue.  Control pregnancy and you control women.  The "pro-life" words coming from the anti-abortion mouths are spoken to distract us all from the real issue, "keep women from power," and unfortunately, a whole lot of women are complicit. 

Finally, it seems to me, some of the most outspoken supporters of abortion and women's bodily autonomy should be men who have experienced rape because they know how it feels to be controlled by another person and have no way to stop what is happening.  As men, their protests may have more weight with white mostly male anti-abortion folks.  Hey male survivors, we need to hear your voices in favor of the right of women to bodily autonomy and abortion. 

Every human being should stand with women and men who have been raped because it is a sexual crime against humanity used by men to control and hurt others.   Women who are pregnant from such an attack should have the right to choose what happens with that pregnancy.  End of discussion!  

WHAT'S THE END GAME?

 by Ruth A. Sheets

On Monday  evening, May 2, 2022, a rare leak from the Supreme Court hit "Politico."  It was a 98 page male diatribe against women's right to bodily autonomy in the guise of "States rights," and a fortunate event so we can see what the plan is.

Justice Samuel Alito, a white male wrote in this draft for the Court that the original Rowe v. Wade decision 49+ years ago was wrong.  He makes a claim that abortion is not in the Constitution so the Court should not have permitted it on a Federal level. 

Uh-huh!  Not in the Constitution, huh?  The  Constitution does not talk about a lot of things like lying, cheating, killing, using drugs, allowing corporations to deny people rights, and more, yet the Court over the past 233 years has ruled on them.  Our Constitution did not say that all Black persons should be slaves and that they could never be citizens, yet the Court ruled on those things and not in favor of Black persons on the whole, until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 despite the passage of the 13^th through 15^th Amendments, and they even struck down the 1875 Civil Rights Act.   As if that were not enough, in 2013 they struck down the most important parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act because one of the worst offenders before that act was passed, Alabama, didn't want to let Black people vote anymore.  

There is no "God" in the Constitution as most of those at the convention were deists who did not believe in dictating one's religion, yet the Court has permitted businesses and others to deny rights to people on religious grounds.  There is nothing in the Constitution about campaign financing yet the Roberts Court had little trouble calling money speech and forbidding any campaign finance limitations by state or local governments through "Citizens United."  Therefore, Alito's argument is ridiculous, but I am sure it made him feel good writing it and doing just what the Roman Catholic American bishops wanted him to do.  And, I suspect he caucused with the other 4 conservative Roman Catholic justices to make sure he got the argument just right (or Right enough). 

Keep in mind, there have probably been more lies tied to Rowe v. Wade and abortion rights told by Republicans than for any other issue in our lifetime.

The archivist who should have published the ERA as the 28^th Amendment to the Constitution, ducked out recently on his responsibility to publish the ERA as the 28^thAmendment by retiring.  No supporter of democracy will thank him for that.   The ERA could have given women bodily autonomy as men have, and make the whole abortion challenge a moot point.  That could still happen, but . . . . 

I've heard it said that Donald Trump wanted Amy Coney Barrett to write the anti-abortion, anti-Rowe v. Wade ruling as a slap in the face to all women since it would be a woman who would be taking away their rights and justifying it.  That's why she was nominated in the first place,  to replace a feminist icon, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, after 2 definite anti-Rowe v. Wade white men were nominated by Trump, one of them credibly accused of attempted rape (perhaps of other things too, but the FBI never allowed those other reports to be seen.).  I guess the men didn't trust their misogynistic ruling to one of the most misogynistic women anywhere.

I understand there was no consideration of the impact of reversing Rowe v. Wade on the American people in the leaked draft.  The reason, the correct people will be harmed, so, no need to address it.  All of those impacted will be women of reproductive age.  The middle and upper class women can get to an abortion site while disadvantaged women of all hues will be stuck carrying pregnancies they should have been able to terminate if they chose too, forced-birth. 

The conservatives on the Supreme Court have only contempt for women and show it by letting illegal laws go into effect (the shadow docket), by not hearing cases that would give women rights declaring the lower court case should stand, and more.  In short, women are the targets of this punitive ruling whatever it looks like in its final form.  Poor women and women of color will pay the price for this smug conservative ruling that "States' Rights" is at play here.  Of course it isn't.  It's fear that women will be stepping up to claim a full place in the power structure of this country, and that white men won't be able to control them anymore. 

Poor women and women of color already receive the worst healthcare in this country because medical corporations have decided that is acceptable.  Hospitals and clinics regularly close, refuse to see, or treat people badly if they live in rural areas or in communities of predominantly Black and Brown people.  The huge urban hospitals do not want to meet the needs of those who can't afford their services, particularly if they don't have the high-end insurance that the hospitals feel warrant excellent care.  Reproductive service centers provide a lot of the best care for these women and now will be forced to close, leaving the women with nothing.  VICTORY! 

John Roberts whined, in writing,  after the leak that someone had "violated the confidences of the Court" but he doesn't mind his court violating the confidences of women who choose or need to secure abortions.  Yep, hypocrisy.  This Court has it in abundance yet the justices want us to respect them and their decisions.  Brazen, but typical of white males in power these days.

What is the end game?  Republicans/conservatives erroneously named themselves "Right to Life" back 40 years ago or so, but what they really were and are is anti-women with an anti-abortion emphasis.  They are salivating now that they have their goal in sight.   They have wrapped their heads around this single issue for so long, they will need something to prove they remain just as mean and hateful, to keep the attention of their base.  There is no end game.  Republicans will continue to do as much damage to our nation and its people as possible and they will always have excuses for their stances.  I suspect the next immediate targets will be:

- get the states to pass the most restrictive abortion bans possible.  The private for-profit prisons are emptying of drug users and innocent people.  Women and abortion providers can fill the empty spaces to fulfill the contracts.   Some states even want to put women to death.  Well, women will already be dying because a lot more women die from pregnancy than abortion (14 times the number), that is when abortion is safe and legal.  The rate will be higher when abortion is illegal because abortions will still happen just as they have for thousands of years.  They might end in death as the forced pregnancy might too.

- Contraception is incorrectly called abortion by the anti-science conservatives who are ignorant of just about everything related to the human body.  It seems what they want is forced pregnancy, some kind of "god's will" nonsense.

- Abortion has nothing to do with "gay marriage," but that is a next target.  Those antis fear everything they don't understand and everyone who does not see the world the way they themselves do.

- Allowing states to ban interracial marriage is another hopeful arrow in the conservative quiver.  They hate anyone who is not white and "pure-blooded."  It is disgusting that people with such backward racist beliefs have so much power and influence in our democracy.

- Maybe men, particularly non-white men will be targeted too with DNA tests to prove they are the fathers of the babies born to women who have experienced forced-births but can't support the child.  Ooooo!  You one-stand men might owe child-support.

There are a few things we women and our supporters can do:

- If you have the slightest chance you might be pregnant, get a test now and arrange an abortion ASAP if you want to discontinue the pregnancy.   Some organizations are helping women get to where they need to go to get one.  Take advantage of their help if you need it.

- Women, get an IUD or implant birth control device ASAP if you don't want to become pregnant in the next few years.  The crazies are on a roll and you should feel the target on your back because it's there.  Some organizations can help with this too.  Check with Planned Parenthood or NARAL for suggestions.    

- Men, if you do not want to be involved in child-support and don't want to father another child, get a vasectomy.  A few days of pain and discomfort could save a woman's life and your reputation.

- VOTE VOTE VOTE!!! for people who believe in women's rights of bodily autonomy.  Be a single issue voter for a time or two.  Just because Republicans did that and now have a pathetic base who goes along with whatever Fox "News" says and can be easily manipulated doesn't mean it will happen to folks who actually think things out.  Besides, it would only be for a short time.  You know there are so many other important challenges to our society and world.  Republicans don't! 

- In every place possible, speak up for women's right to bodily autonomy.  That should be one of the most basic rights, one which the Supreme Court should not be able to deny.  Seeing women as having an innate right to bodily autonomy, could end the whole cascade of other rights-warping Republicans want to do.

Remember, there is no Republican "end game."  They will continue to take away people's rights as long as we allow it, so let's stop allowing it!

ONE-UPMANSHIP IN OUR REVENGE CULTURE

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.

THE NEXT TARGETS

by Ruth A. Sheets

It should be unbelievable the fervor with which Republicans have jumped in recently with their anti-LGBTQ bills and laws designed to hurt children and adults, but it isn't.  Republicans have always despised the LGBTQ community, immigrants, Black Americans, well, anyone who is not white and male, and yes, rich, but not to the level they stalk these groups now. 

Republicans are pursuing this line of attack because they believe Rowe v. Wade will be overturned this summer or sooner and they are trying out (test ballooning) the next groups toward which to turn their venom.  They have to pick someone because once they lose abortion as a rallying point, they need a group to attack to maintain the attention of their base.  Hate, anger, fear, lying, cheating, and deceit have worked well for Republicans over time and are all they have.  Republicans have no positive, constructive ideas to offer.  Hell, they couldn't even support the most qualified candidate for the Supreme Court in decades because she was Black and a woman, two of their hated, feared groups. 

Republicans are regularly sending up test balloons to see which of their rights-limiting, bills and laws stick with their scared, malignant base.  Among their techniques, book banning, blaming/accusations of whatever they can dream up, "don't say "gay" acts, lying about a graduate study course Critical Race Theory taught in kindergarten, calling LGBTQ folks, and anyone they can, pedophiles, banning doctors from helping trans kids, and so much more. 

Republicans are also doubling down on women because they fear that despite their draconian anti-abortion laws, women will still find a way to get safe abortions.  Can't have that!  So, go after abortion even more strongly by wanting to criminalize everyone who thinks abortion should be a woman's decision.  In the meantime, also go after contraception, interracial marriage, and whatever comes into their pathetic white male, and white female surrogate brains. 

Can we expect help from our Congress or Federal courts?  No!  Democrats currently have among them some who are OK with all of the above and Republicans are just waiting for November when their seeds of hatred will drag their loyal base to the polls.  The courts are often willing to agree with whatever Republicans come up with (Texas abortion ban). 

One answer, we need to stop them by getting more Democrats to vote this year.  Oh wait!  I forgot, Republicans have targeted voting too, particularly voting by people of color and poor people, groups which tend to vote for Democratic candidates.  It is worth noting that if we can't stop the Republican rush to the bottom soon, we all lose, and will be paying for it indefinitely.

So, stop feeling stressed and let's get to work.  First of all, most of these attacks on women, LGBTQ persons, immigrants, and others began in the former Confederacy.  It seems those states just can't let go of the idea that certain groups are unworthy of rights and respect so, deserve white male ire.  They can make any laws they want to keep those people down.  Well, the Confederacy lost, so let's stop pretending this new iteration has anything to offer the rest of the country.  Unfortunately, the infection of dishonorable laws is spreading from its consolidation in Texas, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, to the Confederate wannabees:  Oklahoma, Kentucky, Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas, even to the "blue" states, pushing the disgusting anti-American legislation even further.  The purpose of all this evil is to keep everyone under the control of white men and the few white women they permit a bit of power. 

Republican insurgents are running for office even though our 14^th Amendment to the Constitution forbids it.  The same thing happened after the Civil War when rich white former Confederates ran for office to drive out the Black men who had been duly elected.  Repeating history is not a good idea.

We the People need to put power into the hands of the groups targeted by Republicans.  If Republicans propose a bill anywhere in this country right now, its aim is to harm one of their target groups or to give away some good stuff to the corporations who donate to their party's candidates.  We know this, so it means we who care must stand against and when possible, ignore the laws they rubber-stamp across the former Confederacy and vaccinate Americans against this horrific political illness.

Writing to and calling legislators who are on board with the Republican hate movement and writing letters to the editor can draw attention to the illegality and anti-American positions they are taking.  Republicans are targeting our children, our schools, our churches if they are not Catholic and evangelical, and they are working to take away rights of people living in this country to make decisions for themselves.  These are the same men who often put their friends, family, and neighbors at risk because like scared little kids, they wouldn't get vaccinated for COVID-19, (definitely the easiest vaccine I have ever had).  I can't help but wonder which group will be the next target after these child-men have put down women, LGBTQ persons, people of color, and immigrants.  Will they go after each other?  

I refuse to give up hope, though.  Democrats shouldn't give up either.  Right now, nearly everything I get from candidates and people currently holding office has its primary purpose, securing donations.  I understand it takes money to run a campaign against folks who have tax loopholes and other structures to oil the Republican machinery, but more important than the money is the message.

The Democratic message should be one of practical solutions to people's  real problems.  Dems need to point out where their constituents are strong and have weathered some hard times, giving them hope they can continue strong with some positive assistance.  Constantly reenforcing people's negativity and directing their frustration at other people may win some elections, but does not solve problems.

Dems must identify real needs as well as successes, and how the people can participate in the solutions to the problems.  Start simple.  Gas prices are outrageous?  Encourage people to now and then walk to somewhere they usually take a car and point out what they might notice along the way:  the spring colors, the butterflies, the deep blue of the sky, things they can't pay attention to while driving.  Encourage folks to raise the home or office thermostat in summer to, say, 78 or 80 degrees when it is hot so it won't be such a shock when coming in from the heat.  In winter, lower the thermostat a couple of degrees below 70 and wear a sweater around the house.  Mention these as money-saving activities.  Then provide practical help to get folks through the more difficult struggles.  Regularly check in with voters to see what they actually think and what they still need.

We could fix this Republican need to do harm if we acknowledge that we are all in it together, then help people to have a more communal approach to living.  Question every bill proposed in any legislature to see who gains, who loses, who is targeted, who is doing the targeting.  That's a lot of work, but if we can stop some of the destructive bills before they even reach the floor of a legislature for a vote, we could avoid a lot of pain and suffering.  It is worth employing our humanity to protect the humanity of our fellow Americans.