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The Republican Onslaught on Abortion Rights is Not Over [1]

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Date: 2022-10-07

The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade and end half a century of federal abortion rights, is not the end of the GOP’s quest to end abortion rights. Speaking 100 days since that fatal decision, President Joe Biden and Vice president Kamala Harris spoke about the continuing efforts by Republicans to end abortion rights in America.

Abortion Bans Are Founded in Laws Framed When Women Couldn’t Vote

Harris remarked on an Arizona judge who upheld an 1864 ban on abortions, without any “exceptions for rape or incest”. In Wisconsin, an 1849 ban was upheld. In both instances, Harris notes that bans were put into effect when women did not have the right to vote. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Republicans resort to laws and justifications from an era when women had no control over their own bodies. In the Supreme Court’s opinion , the majority opinion was at pains to defend its decision to overturn Roe v Wade, pointing to the long history of abortion being a criminal act, and that, “American law followed the common law until a wave of statutory restrictions in the 1800s ex- panded criminal liability for abortions.” The Supreme Court pointed out that 75% of states had bans on abortion by the time that Roe v Wade was decided. In other words, the Supreme Court’s justification for its decision was that centuries of abortion bans, instituted when women had no right to vote, meant that abortion was not a legitimate right! When the decision came into effect, many states suddenly reverted to pre-Roe laws, such as Mississippi, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, and 13 other states, mostly in the South and West, led by enthusiastic Republicans, had “trigger bans” ready. Today, a dozen Republican states have abortion bans in effect, with no exceptions for rape or incest, putting the lives of 30 million women of reproductive age at risk. 22 million of those women would not be able to access abortion after six weeks.

insider.com

It should be noted that several states have, as Biden said, begun to deny access to contraception and other basic reproductive health care services. Biden said that in this century, it should not be a matter of controversy that women need access to reproductive health care, and yet, once again, Republicans have returned the country to the laws and norms of a time when women had no voting rights and were judged by their ability to bear children and be good wives.

With Republican leaders such as Sen. Lindsey Graham backing a federal ban on abortions, it’s clear that Republicans are not done with their attacks on abortion. We are long past the fiction that the fight over abortion was about states’ rights versus federal government overreach. The fight for abortion is really a fight over the rights of women.

Republican Hypocrisy

Republicans have long wrapped themselves around the flag of family values, insisting that they are defending the integrity of the family. Yet, these restrictions on freedom are not about the defence of American families, they are about controlling women. This becomes even more clear when you consider the private lives of leading Republicans. Donald Trump was a favourite of evangelicals and the anti-abortion crowd, despite a history that showed that he was far from being a standard bearer of family values. You couldn’t make up a candidate whose life was more contrary to conservative principles than Trump. Republicans backed Trump, not because of his ethics, but because he gave them what they wanted, and what they wanted was a president who was not afraid to violate norms, and help them alter the course of American history toward a darker future in which the rights of women and minorities were heavily restricted. Trump’s appointment of pro-life Supreme Court justices has been hailed as one of the greatest acts of his presidency. It didn’t matter that Trump has been accused of paying for abortions.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/7/2127628/-The-Republican-Onslaught-on-Abortion-Rights-is-Not-Over

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