SCOTUS refused to stop a de facto abortion ban in Texas.
I remember when RBG passed, I considered going in to renew my IUD years before it was due because of the uncertain status of reproductive rights with a hyperconservative SCOTUS and a rabidly extremist Republican party overtaking the relatively tame establishment. It's probably going to get to the point where women need to start tracking SCOTUS more and more often as people get galvanized by these decisions.
The fact that 30+ laws suppressing particular kinds of votes in 18 states have passed since Jan 1 is also concerning to me: most of these laws do things that are just openly hostile to helping people vote, getting as petty as preventing handing water to people waiting in long lines at urban centers to cast their vote. Other laws focus on preventing mail-in voting during a deadly pandemic (a pandemic, I might add, that has been politicized along partisan lines; such that preventing mail-in votes tends to skew against particular kinds of votes).
I am concerned that those that are hostile to womens' bodily autonomy and reproductive rights will not only sweep the Senate but take the House in 2022, particularly as Biden's presidency flails.
I am also concerned that an Electoral College victory becomes increasingly more likely for forces hostile to women's autonomy as voter suppression laws are sure to keep red states deeply red: it is unlikely we will see the likes of Georgia going blue again anytime soon.
Most concerning of all is this, though: if the GOP has the perception that they don't have to worry about winning a general election (after all, why should they at this point), they will worry about winning primaries instead: and primaries attract the most extreme, most partisan of voters. I believe this will lead to an even more extremist rightward lurch of the party and further detach it from reality, sanity, and decency.
Backed by all three branches of government, I believe women would suffer significantly.
The fight wasn't over in 2020: I believe this has just been the deep breath before the plunge. The real battles will be in 2022 and 2024.
I remember when RBG passed, I considered going in to renew my IUD years before it was due because of the uncertain status of reproductive rights with a hyperconservative SCOTUS and a rabidly extremist Republican party overtaking the relatively tame establishment. It's probably going to get to the point where women need to start tracking SCOTUS more and more often as people get galvanized by these decisions.
The fact that 30+ laws suppressing particular kinds of votes in 18 states have passed since Jan 1 is also concerning to me: most of these laws do things that are just openly hostile to helping people vote, getting as petty as preventing handing water to people waiting in long lines at urban centers to cast their vote. Other laws focus on preventing mail-in voting during a deadly pandemic (a pandemic, I might add, that has been politicized along partisan lines; such that preventing mail-in votes tends to skew against particular kinds of votes).
I am concerned that those that are hostile to womens' bodily autonomy and reproductive rights will not only sweep the Senate but take the House in 2022, particularly as Biden's presidency flails.
I am also concerned that an Electoral College victory becomes increasingly more likely for forces hostile to women's autonomy as voter suppression laws are sure to keep red states deeply red: it is unlikely we will see the likes of Georgia going blue again anytime soon.
Most concerning of all is this, though: if the GOP has the perception that they don't have to worry about winning a general election (after all, why should they at this point), they will worry about winning primaries instead: and primaries attract the most extreme, most partisan of voters. I believe this will lead to an even more extremist rightward lurch of the party and further detach it from reality, sanity, and decency.
Backed by all three branches of government, I believe women would suffer significantly.
The fight wasn't over in 2020: I believe this has just been the deep breath before the plunge. The real battles will be in 2022 and 2024.
