Friday, June 24, 2022

Friday, bright and dark


My daughter and her love flew in last night, and were gone again this morning, on their way to Atlanta to see their friends get hitched. They'll be back in the city permanently four days from now, moving into their new Brooklyn apartment, and I am so ready for that. And tonight, Arrindell Arms will throw open its doors to yet more company—the Jamaican cousins. it's turning out to be a fairly eventful socializing time for our family, and work is fairly intense, too.

In far grimmer news, the regressive Supreme Court this morning reversed Roe v. Wade, allowing states to deny women the right to make their own reproductive decisions, to govern their own bodies, to exercise sovereignty of self in their health care choices. Now, in some states, women can be criminally charged with murder if they abort, with no exceptions for rape, incest, or even ectopic or non-viable pregnancy, cases in which abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother. Women can be charged with a felony even if they are simply wearing an IUD for contraception, and if they accidentally miscarry, they may be forced to prove that the loss was an unintentional event. Doctors, too, can be jailed, as well as anyone who helps women access this form of health care, and all manner of other insane Handmaid's Tale-type scenarios are already being legislated. Significantly, the majority decision was based in part on the right to abortion not being encoded in the constitution, which means there are many more rights that the court can now take away by using this case as precedent, rights like same sex marriage and the use of contraception for starters.

It makes my head explode that the law is forcing women to give birth in a nation that does not support women in choosing to have an unplanned child; there is no universal health care, no universal child care, no paid family or medical leave; we have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the so-called developed world; and lawmakers have no interest in the life and welfare of the mother or the child once born. This is not about any religious belief and faith. This is about the subjugation and control of women, through the subjugation and control of their bodies. The only hope is for voters to install a sufficient Democratic majority in both houses of Congress in November so that some reparative action might be possible. If the Republicans gain control, they have pledged to pass a federal law banning reproductive choice everywhere  

I don’t even feel like leaving up this post. It all feels so enraging and mind bending right now. As my friend Maryam cried into the void—Where is our revolution?!

 

16 comments:

  1. Supreme court, so radical! there is no supreme court- Ruth got out just in time! Democracy and a nation of law and justice is such a bloody myth, so blatantly obvious! Strategy is needed- another way of getting things done as just voting is no longer an option. Thinking outside the box , as they say...underground . The youth saw this coming- they have trained in the procedure, hoarded morning after pills, that sort of thing. Realizing that this so called BS ruling sets us up to lose more rights- there will be revolution, futile probably. since it will be one big shoot out! Force babies to get born and then shoot them ?I dunno, i would rather not live in this effed up country , if I had youth on my side i would leave forever, and never look back.

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  2. No words. It feels like this country is irretrievably broken.
    Xoxo
    Barbara

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  3. It's sickening. I heard it on the news this morning and wondered where is the low priced childcare, year long mat leaves, free medical care for moms and babes. Women have officially become chattel in the USA.

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  4. Our country is going down a path I have feared all my life. That crazy, right-wing, white supremacist mindset. I am so worried, and I often think about where we should move if it gets worse. But really do I want to wait for it to get worse? Ugh. Such a nightmare of a time.

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  5. I haven't felt like this since 45 got elected. I knew on that day things would lead to this. I am hollowed. I am devastated. I am so quietly angry I could self-implode.

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  6. Your blog is where I heard this news. Yes, a Friday that is bright and dark, with ominous echoes of Election Day 2016.

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  7. It's beyond words what has happened. Apparently Clarence Thomas wants to reconsider contraception and whether it should be allowed. What's next? Will they be taking all of the condoms off the shelves? Mark Cuban's website is selling abortion meds for not a ton of money. Fertile birthing people should probably stock up now. If the republicans get the house, senate and presidency, they'll pass a national law to outlaw abortion, then there will be no hope for women. Well, that was an uplifting comment I just wrote. Sorry.

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  8. Reading about this from Canada...I'm appalled.

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  9. As I've said many times, who needs outside enemies. A cabal of extremists is destroying this country that was at one time a shining light. No longer. America now stands for religious control and oppression, the very things the founders fought against.

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  10. My heart is breaking for you, truly. What a stinking mess the Republicans have made of the Supreme Court and issues that, for me, should not be issues. A woman should be able to control her own body. Period. End of discussion. Did you ever run across a report of what happened in Canada? Abortion was illegal in the first half of the last century. When a challenge went through the courts, the Bill banning abortion was declared unconstitutional and the illegal challenges all failed. But the Federal government has never got around to passing any other laws. So, there is no law about abortion, pro or con, in Canada. Free range for women's control of their bodies. Now, in some provinces it is difficult to get an abortion due to lack of provincial funding, but it is almost always just a short jump across to the next province. And the morning after pill is as close as the nearest pharmacy. Not perfect, but, as we say up here, not too bad.
    In some ways, you have a wonderful country. In some ways, not so much.

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  11. Mazie Hirono's Tweet is brilliant -- it helps leaven the horrible news of the past several days. The religious extremists who have managed to take control of at least one branch of our government (and who continually threaten the others) will stop at nothing because, like a deluded maniac, they think God is on their side. I believe all of this DOES have to do with religion, which as a method of social organization has oppressed women for many centuries. Some religions have worked to move beyond those antiquated ideas, but a whole lot of them haven't. It just turns my stomach that the USA is becoming a theocracy. (And I have no doubt George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, as problematic as they were by today's standards, would feel the same.)

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  12. I just can't stand it. I am enraged, burning slow and steady, nearly all day long. Thank god for flowers and blue skies, for rain and swimming pools and the people I love.

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  13. Horrific news and totally unbelievable in 2022.

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  14. It's insane. And, like Steve, I believe it IS about religion, but the result is the same: women as second class people. I worry from a distance, because this evil is also showing its face in Canada. What happens in the U.S. drifts north all the time.

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  15. Queen, I’ve been screaming that since I got here in 1993.

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