The Democratic Party is partially to blame for these anti-abortion laws, even if they don’t want to see it

Dead bodies have more bodily autonomy than uterus-bearing humans in several states, and the list just keeps growing. Every few days is another news story about a new state joining the race to the bottom of how controlling their law can be.

It seems inconceivable that in 2019, such draconian policies are gaining traction.

Including with women. I’m looking at you Alabama Governor Kay Ivey.

They seem blinded by the conviction that they will never be in a situation where they might want to have that level of control over their own bodies. Science is thrown out the window in favor of religion.

Amazing how many constitutional scholars out there are pushing these laws based on their personal religious beliefs.

What constitutes life? Is abortion murder? The reality is that these questions are entirely irrelevant.

A living human cannot be forced to donate an organ or give blood to save someone else. If they choose not to and someone dies, is that murder? Lifesaving organs and tissue cannot be harvested from a corpse without consent.

Yet a living human who has a uterus is expected to donate their entire body to gestate an embryo to birth, which takes roughly 10 months barring complications, without their consent.

I’m exhausted from being so angry, frustrated, and helpless. I don’t live in those states, so I can’t vote in the state-level elections that give these monsters power.

I’m building my freelance business, which unfortunately means that I don’t have excess money to donate to organizations who are fighting the good fight. I do what I can to speak up on social media, but it seems like so little.

How did we get here?

It’s easy to blame Trump for this; he did embolden this kind of misogyny out of the closet by being openly and unapologetically callous in his objectification and dismissal of women.

However, he did not create these beliefs.

Democrats also bear a large part of the blame though they don’t want to see it.

Framing the discussion

We get bogged down in debates over what is life and when does life begin, arguments that favor the religious nature of the opposition to abortion availability. In reality, that has nothing to do with it. Do I control my own body or don’t I?

We argue the science of conception with people who categorically will not hear something diametrically opposed to what their religion tells them is true.

I can’t be forced to provide assistance in an emergency let alone donate a kidney to fully formed human being, but a zygote gets to hijack my body for 10 months? At minimum?

Focus people. We need to focus on the real issue.

Complacency about state-level races

Pouring money into federal elections while allowing Conservatives and Republicans to dominate at the state level has brought us union busting, erosion of safety-net programs, and now attacks on the rights of uterus-bearing humans.

I say “uterus-bearing humans” because women are not the only ones who have a uterus, but since Republicans don’t acknowledge that distinction, we know these are meant to be attacks on women.

However, we do not have to participate in the erasure of trans and non-binary individuals from the discussion as Conservatives would like to erase them from existence.

Democrats believed that real power is found at the federal level while ignoring the ways that state laws also impact our lives and can do so for the worst.

Proposing to leave people behind

Should women and other uterus-bearing humans be encouraged to leave these states?

That’s not an option for most people. It’s a privilege to have resources to uproot one’s life and move somewhere else on short notice. For a family, it is an even more monumental task. For low-income families and individuals, it is impossible.

Running away isn’t going to solve anything anyway. People like to predict that welfare rolls in these states will explode, but these are the same states that have blocked every attempt to expand safety net programs from the federal level. Indeed, they have sought every avenue to erode them. The War on Poor People has not stopped simply because a new front has emerged.

People are going to die.

We need to fight back.

What can we do?

We need to focus on the real issue and stop letting the people stripping us of our rights frame the question to put them in the best light.

We need to stop allowing the hypocrisy by engaging in discussions on their terms.

Stripping a human of their right to bodily autonomy and self determination by threat of violence and government control is not being pro-life. End of discussion.

This fight is just beginning and it will be a long road to root out this toxic brand of christian religious law that is being pushed on the rest of us (ironically by people who were fear-mongering about “sharia law” not so long ago) at every level of governance.

We need people willing to run for office who will fight to overturn these laws.

We need people willing to vote, particularly if they never have before, and fight off the ennui to make a difference.

We need people willing to protest and show that we are not asleep in the backseat.

We need to be willing to have difficult conversations with friends and family to tell them how we feel even if it causes some discomfort to try to convince them that there is another way.

No one is obligated to do any of these things, particularly sharing personal stories or endangering themselves. But those who can do so, who have the privilege to do so, need to think about doing so on behalf of those who cannot.

We are all in this together.

We need to do what we can do. It’s not the same for every person, but this isn’t just about women. If this movement to strip the autonomy of women around pregnancy continues to spread and become entrenched, then what is next? Who is next?

The transgender community has been under attack as well, with significantly less attention paid.

How many rights will we cede before it is too much?