Forty three years ago tomorrow, SCOTUS decided Roe v. Wade, affirming a woman’s right to control her own reproductive choices. Since then Republicans have been negating that right, as much as they can. SCOTUS devolved into SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD). The Fascist Five Injustices seem determined to eliminate it, piece by piece. I’s time to fight back against this Republican War on Women.
Friday marks the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States. At this point, many Americans may assume that it’s easier than ever to access abortion services — but nothing could be further from the truth.
Legal abortion, proven to be both life-saving and essential to the economic security of women and their families, was a critical step in this nation’s journey toward gender equity. Roe was profound not only because it affirmed women’s basic right to health care and well-being through abortion care, but also because it ushered in medical standards and regulations that ensured women were safe during the procedure.
Expanding access to abortion care also bolstered the success of the then-newly established Title X program, which provides family planning services to low-income and uninsured families. Women gained unprecedented access to more doctors, enjoyed insurance coverage for the full range of comprehensive reproductive health services, and saw the ability to manage their fertility for the first time. This had a ripple effect on their ability to pursue educational and economic opportunities. In short, Roe gave many women control of their destinies.
However, history shows us that women have been denied the full benefits of Roe for decades.
Just seven years after the Supreme Court affirmed a woman’s right to abortion, the justices upheld the Hyde Amendment, a budget rider approved annually to this day that prevents women covered by Medicaid from using their insurance to pay for abortion services. Then, in 1992, the Supreme Court held in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey that a state could restrict an abortion procedure as long as it did not pose an undue burden on women seeking the service. Ever since, states have increasingly sought ways to encroach upon a woman’s ability to access abortion care. More than 200 state-level abortion restrictions have been enacted since 2010 — almost the same number as the total number enacted in the 15 previous years.
And this year, the Supreme Court will hear Whole Women’s Health v. Cole, the most significant women’s health case since Casey. Whole Women’s Health, a Texas-based reproductive health clinic, is challenging a Texas state law passed in 2013 that requires abortion providers to meet expensive and unnecessary regulations — including complying with the standards of ambulatory surgical centers and obtaining admitting privileges from local hospitals.
Whole Women’s Health amplifies how far we have strayed as nation from the promise of Roe, and how much remains at stake. The Supreme Court could affirm Roe in a manner that enables the right to abortion and ensures access for the most vulnerable women in Texas. Or the Court could deliver another ruling that further strips away this precious liberty for far too many women…
Inserted from <Think Progress>
To be clear, I consider abortion as the very last resort, but I recognize that I have no right to impose my own beliefs on others. Therefore I fully support women’s right to make their own medical choices.
Contact your Senators and Congress critter. Sign petitions. Supporting Planned Parenthood is a good way to prevent abortions by providing education and contraception to women. Oppose abstinence only education in your schools. Most of all we needs to keep the white House free from infestation by Republicans until SCROTUS becomes SCOTUS again. Next we need to put Republicans in every level of government from Senator to dawg catcher into the unemployment line.
Every Republican in office is one Republican too many!
VOTE!
9 Responses to “Fight Back Against the Republican War on Women!”
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My impression, TC, is that women also consider it a last resort. Although there are some circumstances where there really are no earlier resoirts, such as rape, with or without incest. But this Republican fantasy they apparently have about a woman walking past an abortion clinic on the way to someplace else and, on impulse, deciding on the spot to go in and have an abortion, is just that – a fantasy. I certainly would never claim that 100% of women are 100% responsible, but, as a group, I'd stack us up against men as a group just about any day. And the corollary is – if we weren't mostly responsible – but Republicans want irresponsible people raising more and more children – what the hell kind of future is that?
I agree, TomCat! In every level! People cannot get enough of other people's sex life's! This is just so much garbage! If SCOTUS could the importance of this law, the whole law, back in the 1960's, they should be the same in the 2010's!! The RepukkklicanTs have butchered this law and won't rest until they take us women back to the 50's! Back when "the lady" down across the tracks took care of such stuff with a coat hanger and sent you home to bleed to death!!! I haven't had to have one, but I remember the days and they weren't pretty!!! The people making these "New Laws" we're not around when a woman had to stoop to these kinds of things when her "boyfriend" skipped out on her!
The men pushing such horrid proposals are men that wish they'd been born a couple centuries ago when women (wives and daughters) would be considered their property instead of human beings.
Republucans consider women to be chattel,
I agree with you TC. Abortion should be the last resort and 99% of the time it is. No woman should be forced to endure a pregancy she does not want, cannot afford, or that is risking her physical or mental health. I saw the results of a backroom abortion in the sixties, before Roe vWade. It was horrible and the 18 year old girl nearly died. The right wingers are determined that the rest of us live by their standards. I supposed most of them don't realize that is also what ISIS wants. With the current SCOTUS, I am pretty sure they will not rule in favor or women.
I can sigh with relief that I don't have to live in such a backward country and didn't have to when I was in my child bearing years. No woman in her right mind will think of an abortion as anything but a last resort. No woman in her right mind goes to an invasive medical procedure in between shopping. First because the protocol of an abortion will take the procedure across a few days in most countries, second because any woman would rather prevent getting pregnant than have an abortion. In West European countries the demand for abortions is low because reliable, safe anti-conception is available to most women at low cost. Start with good sexeducation at an early age, make anti-conception readily available and the need for abortions plummit. But this reasoning is far beyond your average Republican Talibangelist.
Totally right on!
Thanks all! Hugs!!
I fully agree that very few women use abortion irresponsibly.
Lona is right. Europeans are fortunate.
Those on the right, those who think that it is okay to own other humans, in this counrty, have fought all kinds of humanistic oriented legislature and SCOTUS findings, sniping away at reasonable laws, and can be counted on to continue to do so, asses that they are!