Reason #8: Misogyny in the public sphere
Why do we need to defeat Donald Trump and ensure that a Democrat occupies the White House?
Let’s return to the subject of misogyny, defined as hatred, contempt for or discrimination against women. We have seen how Donald Trump betrays the women closest to him, What about all women? For much of history, women have been chattel, denied of human rights. Women have only had access to higher education since the nineteenth century. Women only obtained the right to vote a century ago. An equal rights amendment to our constitution, -introduced one hundred and one years ago – has stalled, specifically in red states. As a result, women work for lower pay and face a glass ceiling in promotion.
Probably the most obvious and onerous restriction of human rights has been the absence of a woman’s right to control their own body, specifically, the right to decide whether or not to bear a child. When Margaret Sanger began to provide reproductive education and offer birth control to women she was repeatedly arrested and harassed in the courts. In my early medical career, tragic deaths of young women from sepsis following backstreet abortions were a common cause of death. Roe vs. Wade finally gave women the right to terminate an undesired pregnancy in 1973. Current availability of the morning after pill allows termination of pregnancy without an invasive procedure.
But in the past decade there has been a steady and relentless encroachment on women’s reproductive freedom. Republicans seek to cull all literature dealing with sexual education for children from school and public libraries. Provision of contraception in women’s clinics goes unfunded. State laws and Supreme Court decisions not only make abortions illegal in many states, but now allow prosecution of medical care providers and women who go out of state to terminate unwanted pregnancies. The draconian extent of such laws puts women at risk of bleeding to death from tubal pregnancy, and other reproductive emergencies. The laws prevent termination even in the case of forced pregnancy inflicted by incest or rape. In a cruel paradox, even women who desperately want to conceive, are prevented by laws that criminalize in vitro fertilization.
There is no secret who is responsible for this attack on women’s rights. Republican governors and legislatures assault at the state level. Republican Presidents nominate and Republicans in the House and Senate confirm right wing judges and obstructed the right of President Barack Obama from exercising his constitutional right to appoint a Supreme Court Justice. The result has been a steady and relentless claw back of women’s rights in our highest courts.
Where does Donald Trump fit into this sinister agenda?
For most of his life, Trump showed no opposition to abortion, but in 2016 he vowed to appoint judges who would overturn Roe vs. Wade. This is one of the few promises he has ever kept, repeatedly bragging after the Dobbs decision that he is “the guy who ended Roe vs. Wade”. Next step? Republicans seek to ban abortion at a federal level using the antiquated Comstock law. We appear to be on a course toward the Republic of Gilead in “The Handmaid’s Tale”?
What is to be done? The answer is clear. Democrats, at local, state and federal levels, led by Presidents Obama and Biden, have opposed this dire threat. Kamala Harris has been in the forefront of this issue for the past four years.
Have a heart; have a conscience and vote for Democratic candidates – across the ballot – in November.
For a far more in-depth discussion of this issue follow this link.
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