Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:55 pm
The Republican War on Women is heating up and the photo above explains much of the reason why. Having a president who brags about sexually assaulting women surrounded by a cabinet of white misogynist males, emboldens those who hate women, and just a few days into Trump’s presidency we are seeing the evidence. Worse, the floodtide of hate began even before the inauguration. Emily’s List reports that as of January 12, there were already 46 anti-abortion bills introduced in 14 states.
The Nation obtained a leaked draft from the White House which presages further trouble for American women:
A leaked copy of a draft executive order titled “Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom,†obtained by The Investigative Fund and The Nation, reveals sweeping plans by the Trump administration to legalize discrimination.
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NARAL Pro-Choice explains “Make no mistake, this is a license to discriminate based on: contraception, premarital sex, abortion or being LGBTQ.”
Then there is this Trump nominee, a strong signal of where Trump stands on women’s reproductive rights:
With this kind of support for extremists on the Religious Right, the Republican response is, therefore, no surprise. There was not a Republican candidate in 2016 who supported a woman’s right to choose
Indiana and Missouri want to ban all abortions in defiance of Roe v. Wade and Missouri has even proposed allowing a court to declare custody, not over a child, but an embryo.
Anti-abortionists in Missouri were so gung-ho at having control of all branches of government that they had 14 bills ready to go when the legislative session began. You can see a list of them here.
Kentucky and Indiana, meanwhile, have proposed mandatory ultrasounds. Senate Bill 118, referred to Committee on Health and Provider Services in Indiana on January 4, says,
Mandatory ultrasound before abortions. Provides that an abortion provider must do the following at least 48 hours before an abortion is performed: (1) Inform the pregnant woman of the availability of fetal ultrasound imaging and auscultation of fetal heart tone services to enable the pregnant woman to view the image and hear the heartbeat of the fetus. (2) Immediately perform the fetal ultrasound imaging and allow the pregnant woman to hear the auscultation of the fetal heart tone if the fetal heart tone is audible. Requires the pregnant woman to view the fetal ultrasound imaging and listen to the auscultation of the fetal heart tone if the fetal heart tone is audible. Removes provisions allowing a pregnant woman to decline to view the fetal ultrasound imaging and hear the fetal heart tone.
That’s right. The women, we can only call her a victim now, does absolutely not have the right to decline to view the imaging or to hear the heart tone.
Guttmacher Institute reveals that “14 states require verbal counseling or written materials to include information on accessing ultrasound services,” while “26 states regulate the provision of ultrasound by abortion providers.”
Kentucky’s Senate Bill 5, “AN ACT relating to abortion and declaring an emergency” based on junk science and passed by a 14-man committee that asked no questions, bans abortion after 20 weeks. Roe v. Wade protects a woman’s right to an abortion up to 22 weeks.
In Arkansas, House Bill 1032, The “Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Abortion Act,†was signed into law last week by Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson which not only bans a certain type of abortion (D&E procedures) but allows the husband to sue the doctor to stop his wife from having an abortion. The ACLU is not amused. Holly Dickson, who is the legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas said,
“They created a whole new right ― the right of a husband or family member to sue a doctor on behalf of an adult patient. I cannot begin to tell you what the intent was, but we have raised concerns about that provision and the entire rest of the bill, which is unconstitutional.â€
Huffington Post reports that “Six other states have passed nearly identical laws, and in all four states where the law was challenged ― Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and West Virginia ― it was struck down by the courts.”
These are just a sampling of the onslaught of attacks on women’s reproductive rights in the Age of Trump, but as you can see, women are not going to do well by Trump. According to Guttmacher Institute, “57% of women 15–44 live in a state hostile or extremely hostile to abortion rights.”
Never mind that if state governments are hostile the majority of Americans are not, as this is an extremist religious minority trying to overrule the majority. Pew Research Center tells us 69 percent of Americans oppose overturning Roe v. Wade, a number which has been steadily climbing since 1992.
Just 28 percent who want to overturn Roe v. Wade, but then the majority of Americans didn’t vote for Donald Trump either.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
