November 8th, 2022 mid term elections is an important date in America’s history. Not just for women’s rights and the power of women, but also pivotal for where do we go from here. Predictions were that women would make no difference in the big picture, that women are not a concerted group in support of their own rights. Slate reported that the conservative politicians believed that women would have a short memory and that the economy would be more important to women. That women would forget about the abortion right that was taken from them and instead be more concerned about “the price of milk.”
The Economy and Women’s Rights
That is not at all what happened though is it? Women of all ages supported pro-choice candidates across the country and while no state’s constitution explicitly includes a right to abortion, shifts have been happening. First Kansas, then California and Michigan, Vermont (a full 75% of voters) did vote to include abortion rights in their constitutions. Now, even far right Kentucky where even Republican women refused to codify the “born alive” law; and in Montana an abortion rights bill could still pass.
The mid term election strongly reflected how women will respond to the Supreme Court taking a right away. They have transformed the landscape for women. Women all over the United States responded by showing up to the polls, preventing the red wave that Donald Trump and his followers spewed as their BIG LIE. The Far right Republican BIG LIE rhetoric and other misinformation saw it’s decline and voter tolerance wane and push back and succeed at voting OUT those that are harming America.
We still have a long way to go, but we have made progress.
Access to Adequate Healthcare Includes the Right to Choose an Abortion
Women, and the men who love them, have spoken. Access to adequate healthcare includes the right to choose an abortion. When we garner our power together, women are unstoppable. Make no mistake, this is the battle of the sexes that has been coming to a head for the past hundred years.
In college, I read A Dolls House by Henrick Gibson. It was a powerful story about a woman standing up to her controlling, demanding husband who refused to allow her the right to work, vote, and ultimately, to care for her children on her own. Her incredible strength to stand up to male authority figures was remarkable at the time, because it is not something that was at that time questioned. Now here she was, on Broadway, proclaiming her right to full personhood. That, a hundred years later, we are still fighting that fight, is shameful. America is supposed to be a bastion of freedom and democratic process. Yet it was only 100 years ago that women even achieved the right to vote at all, and only 50 years since we obtained the right to a credit card in our own names.
As a woman growing up during the Women’s Liberation movement, I gave it little thought. My own life consumed with surviving the traumas of the very things the movement was pushing to change, I failed, at the time, to recognize what was taking place. Women were standing arm and arm and proclaiming that women deserve the same freedoms, respect, and rights as men. Even as I write that sentence I am appalled by what it suggests, that men continue to suppress the very people they claim to love. My own struggle with men who, under the surface, were misogynists, has followed the same path as the movement itself, and I did not have full awareness of that because the trauma of my own experience overshadowed he cultural battles.
Women’s Rights
Today, we are at a turning point in history. Are we going to continue to allow ourselves to lose our rights, to step backwards in our cultural growth? Or, are we going to recognize that it is time to stop the prejudice against half of the human population. I always found it odd to consider women a minority, when, in fact, there are actually almost an equal number of women on the planet as men. We are, and continue to be, considered a minority simply because our rights are not equal around the world. Yet, its even more remarkable that in this bastion of democratic societies, women have held governorships only 17 times until the 2000’s. A growing number of women are rising to political power (the powerhouse Nancy Pelosi upsets men worse than any other female public figure). The US is the only first world country to have never elected a woman as its leader. We have a lot to overcome in the perception of women as whole humans, with capabilities, and intelligence that match our male counter parts.
An uphill battle remains for women to obtain and retain their human rights.
This is not something I previously understood. In the past couple of years, I began actually reading Betty Friedan, and others who were the foremost voices for women in the past 50 years. My first exposure to understanding the impact of our suppression was in reading a book entitled Women and Madness which opened my eyes to exactly how much suppression, oppression, and criminal acts women have endured throughout history. Women’s power to procreate, to provide pleasure and legacy for their husbands has been met with a harsh and cruel coalition of “good ole’ boys” aligned to prevent us from living as fully human. Throughout history, white men have done their best to oppress people of color, they continue to do the same to women through the Dobb’s decision..
We are sitting on the edge of changing the course of history. This election, while it did not retain Democrat’s power in our Congress, was indeed a referendum for women. Women voted for politicians positioned to support restoring of our human dignity. Women politicians grew in numbers and young people voted in support of these rights.
Freedom is not Free
Pro Choice is a Democratic Right
One of the sayings that has been ringing in my ears for the past six years, is that FREEDOM IS NOT FREE. We have to take up the charge. We can no longer afford to assume that our rights are a given. Our current Supreme Court is the most biased in my lifetime. The overturn of Roe v. Wade was deeply disturbing to me primarily because it represents a shift in our foundations. My entire life SCOTUS was the bottom line protector of our rights. I have said (in regard to legislation removing someones rights) “it will never get past the Supreme Court.” The Dobb’s decision marked a significant change in that expectation. Now it is obvious that no matter what we vote for in our states, in our local governments, those laws we support with our democracy will no longer be protected by our Supreme Court. It was the balance of power that guaranteed our democratic process would continue to work for all of us. Now, thanks to decades of intense planning and strategic placement of key political and judicial positions, we are trapped in what can easily become legal fascism. Our laws are slowly turning in the direction of fascism with little recourse.
I’ve always admired our constitution, and trusted in its ability to promote peace, freedom, and justice. Not so much today. I don’t know about you, but I feel betrayed. Betrayed by the very authorities set up to dictate my and my descendants futures.
Losing the Rights that Make us Great
The continued degradation of our human rights will cause us to lose the very things that did indeed make us great, as a nation. We must now do whatever it takes to regain the rights we are losing every day. Women are dying, children are suffering, and it will NOT get better without education, pressure, and action. While it might not seem to be something that could directly affect you if you are male, it will mean having to care and support unwanted children as well suffer the losses of the mothers and even the children as they will face increasing odds at being able to obtain the health care needed at the time they need it. They could be denied critical drugs necessary for a life-threatening condition because of religious or someone imposing their personal moral judgement. Yes, an individual has the power to prevent you, your wives, your mothers, your cousins, your best friends from obtaining medication and other healthcare based on their own personal biases and beliefs. Your mothers, your wives, your children, your grandchildren, your nieces and your cousins will be affected and have their lives ended or destroyed because of the shift that has taken place in the last few years. Are you going to stand by and allow it to continue? Or are you going to be one of the voices or supporting the voices of those courageous enough to speak up?
You Can’t Take Democracy for Granted
You have a chance to continue to shape the political landscape more so today than ever. There are a couple of Senator races going to re-election. Your vote counts!
How Abortion Bans Lead to Fascism
Abortion Bans are Turning Mental Health Professionals into Mandatory Reporters
The multiple states banning abortions has a direct effect on the mental health profession. We are supposed to report anyone planning to commit suicide or homicide as a matter for the court to intervene upon. Ethically, and morally, this provides a dilemma for professionals that is unprecedented. Individuals and couples facing the very real choices of life or death for their family members will need to discuss and disclose the issue of their decision making process with their mental health providers. Should they choose to protect their own lives, or support their family members in protecting their own lives, their mental health providers will be legally bound to report their plans to abort to the authorities. THIS is exactly how a legal fascism exerts itself upon society and our daily lives.
What Can You Do?
What are you going to do? I know what I am doing and will continue to do, I will speak up, and I will continue to produce films exposing the realities we are facing as women attempting to live free and full lives in America. This is not a rehearsal. Though the films may be a dramatization of a reality, it is based on real life. And if you’ve ever watched a true story, you know that it is the most unbelievable of all. Who would have ever thought that we would be facing the type of BIG LIEs,
Recent Comments