From HUSTLER Magazine
Women’s Rights Under Attack
Leave it to the GOP to not only stymie continued progress, but slam-shift the country into reverse and head back to the good ole days, when women were forced to put their lives at risk with coat hangers and back-alley quacks to deal with an unwanted pregnancy. Recent Republican antiabortion laws are more than just an effort to impose new restrictions in some states; they comprise an all-out assault to make abortion illegal everywhere.
In May Alabama passed the strictest antiabortion law yet, with no exceptions even for rape and incest. Alabama state representative Terri Collins admitted the larger goal is to “get this case in front of the Supreme Court so Roe v. Wade can be overturned.” The knuckle-draggers are emboldened now with a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, so they’re storming the barricades. Similar laws have been passed or introduced in Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Texas and Utah.
It’s mainly the oh-so-Godly Christian right opposed to choice, supposedly because Jesus Christ mandated it, but there’s nothing in the Bible about abortion. They say we are a Christian nation, but we’re more than that. Our heritage goes back to the law and political structures founded by ancient Greece and Rome, where abortion was widely practiced. Actually, abortion has been practiced in most cultures throughout human history. The Supreme Court Justices who wrote Roe v. Wade studied its history before rendering their decision, and the judgment became a crucial cornerstone of the equal rights movement for women.
Behind the Bible-thumpers’ obsession about an incarnated soul being snuffed out, there’s the prudery—abortion enables more recreational sex instead of just for procreation. Do we really need to “be fruitful and multiply” on this overstressed planet? Bringing an unwanted child into the world at any time is not a good thing, but in a world already vastly overpopulated and straining natural resources to the limit?
We must support progressive groups like the ACLU, MoveOn and NARAL Pro-Choice America—organizations that are fighting back with #StoptheBans protests and proposed boycotts of states passing the most restrictive laws. In a full-page New York Times ad, 180 CEOs signed off on a statement urging all companies to stand up for women’s reproductive rights—not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because the new restrictions are also bad for business, hampering the ability to attract talented women in the workforce.
For states that pass these archaic laws, there will be an economic penalty to pay. Let’s make sure they do pay it, because without this fight, women will lose their reproductive rights—they will lose the right to make life-changing decisions for themselves. And the inevitable return to the dangerous, horrific practices of pre-Roe is wholly unacceptable. So put your pocketbook where your convictions are. Pro choice or no choice. You decide.
