Abortion Rights: “Approved” Circumstances by Demand Only
When Roe v Wade was overruled yesterday on the heels of a major 2nd amendment decision, the message was sent loud and clear:
Your child/children must come into this world regardless of the circumstances, but no matter the circumstances, they will not demand these children are afforded the right to exist without worrying about being shot.
The right to carry guns with liberal, unbridled freedom, it seems, is more important than the basic tenants of ensuring a woman’s reproductive rights. School shootings will not stop anytime soon, but something that will is the ability to have safe and affordable opportunities, especially within minority and/or under-served communities. This is going to have a devastating effect on women who aren’t in the position to have a child but do not have any feasible or safe options to terminate.
This outcome is sadly not something that sprung out of nowhere, and not due to the ‘accidental’ leak a few weeks ago. With Trump’s election in 2016, the roots of this wretched plant began to grow and festered over the half-decade. It was often said that Roe v Wade was never in danger, that the risk level was impossible, that many of us were simply overreacting. And yet, here we are in 2022, facing something no citizens of any country frankly should be subjected to:
Your circumstances only matter if we legally demand it so. Because when vocal minorities, and in this case those who are anti-choice, are given the circumstances to allow their hateful and frankly myopic demands to become validated, thus the rights of those they seek to disenfranchise can be struck down, one vote at a time.
It’s certainly going to an uneasy path going forward, especially given that other important rulings are at risk due to a court of conservative, hypocritical old white men who prefer the ‘good old days,’ a vile woman who probably wishes the Handmaiden’s Tales was actually real, and one judge (Thomas) who has no qualms about his wife’s role in the insurrection. This includes contraception access and same-sex marriage and forthcoming rights, and perhaps interracial marriage, but Clarence Thomas would never allow the last one because that personally impacts him unlike ‘correcting the error’ of legal gay marriage.
Where the US goes from here is not certain, but one thing is - to counter those votes we lost, we must continue to punch our own and make our voices heard. Now more than ever, it is vital to vote in the midterms this fall to ensure we can continue the fight. Grassroots donations, volunteering, and protesting are all great actions we can take, but voting out those who wish to take our votes away will ensure we demand that those bigots no longer have the circumstances to take away our rights.
Because we demand better circumstances.
