Enraged Is An Understatement
I know it’s Thursday and this is not normally my day to post anything, but I have some things to say. I apologize in advance for an excess of typos: I could not stay asleep (got four whole hours) and am purely powered by rage at this point.
Texas has overturned Roe vs Wade with a bullshit, shadow docket, “Heartbeat” law, and the Supreme Court of the United States has decided to allow that in a 5-4 vote. The law bans abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy (so 4 weeks pregnant since the count starts from your last period), which is before the majority of people even know they’re pregnant. There is no exception for rape or incest. The result is that many Texans will be forced to carry pregnancies against their will.
Also, private citizens (including abusive spouses/partners or even anti-abortion activists & abusive with no connection to patients, but excluding gov’t officials) can now sue anyone who they “believe” is providing abortion or assisting someone in accessing abortion after six weeks. If they win, they are entitled to $10,000 and their legal fees are recovered if they win. They don’t even need to live in Texas. The people being sued are not entitled to legal fees even if they win. “People being sued” could include:
Doctors
Nurses
Staff Members
Counselors
Clergy
Uber drivers
Literally, anyone who “aids and abets” in some way to an abortion after six weeks.
This law is blatantly unconstitutional, but the fucking Supreme Court of the United States of America is doing nothing. This means that it is only a matter of time before it happens in other states. Every state is at risk for this now.
In Texas, right now, you cannot teach about racism and they won’t enforce wearing a mask to schools (which saves lives! Where are the pro-lifers for this???), but they will force a 12-year-old to carry a baby to term.
I am sooooo fucking angry.
In 2016, when Trump when it was announced that Trump was going to be president, I was devasted. As a black female in this country that meant so many potentially horrible things were coming. When Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, I was devasted cause I knew that she was an amazing person and literally the vote in stopping us from losing Roe vs Wade. And when the rapist Brett Kavanaugh and handmaid Amy Coney Barrett got in the Supreme Court, I knew the writing was on the wall, but I naively believed that Biden winning the election meant something in this regard. This country HATES women. It’s proven it time and time again. So, why the fuck am I surprised?
My husband got a vasectomy because, as I have mentioned before, we do not want kids. Vasectomy recanalization while rare, is possible and, even if we don’t like to think about it, 1 out of 6 women in the US are raped annually. If I were to get pregnant (let’s go with the recanalization route to make my and was subjected to this law, I would 100% find a way to have an abortion. The only reason I would be able to do that would be because I have the money. The majority of people do not. Hell, less than 4 out of 10 people in this country can afford a $1000 emergency. This would be flying out of state, seeing doctors out of state, hotel/Airbnb, the actual cost of the procedure, missed time off work (assuming they even approved it), and more factors that I am sure I am missing.
For a lot of people, this means having back-alley abortions, which is fucking terrifying, or having a baby they do not want (in a state that is on the higher end of the maternal mortality rate). How many babies will be put up for adoption or left in hospitals? How many more kids in foster care? How many kids would be raised by parent(s) who never wanted them in the first place? How many people will be financially devasted by a child they did not want? How many people are about to start throwing themselves down a flight of stairs in hopes of that being enough to end their misery one way or another? How many women+ (not just women who can get pregnant) will be forced to carry a stillborn child to term cause it was deemed to not be a risk to the carrier?
How do people hear stories like Kristin’s and feel nothing?
PS: If you have anything shitty to say to her, keep it to yourself. No one is asking you to comment. If you do say something shitty to her, I WILL be replying to you, and I will not stop. You will need to block me. You have been warned.
Abortion is healthcare. It is a human right. These people are saying that we are less than human. I guess I should be used to that being a black female in this country, but this seems to be a different level of rage for me.
So, what can we do? I honestly don’t know. I feel helpless and I hate feeling that way.
What I AM doing is putting my money where my mouth is. Planned Parenthood and Raices already got donations from me today. The Satanic Temple, Act Blue, and ACLU are getting ones as soon as my paycheck hits. They will all continue to get support from me as we fight this because is a fight that NEEDS to be won. There is way too much at stake.
PS: If you read this post and went, “FOGA is getting political. She needs to stop.” I would advise you to leave and not come back. Because this isn’t “political”. People’s lives are at stake here. If you cannot see that, then this is not the place for you.
Well, this is the place for me. I too am mad. Don’t know what wlse to say but wanted to show solidarity.
Solidarity for sure.
Thanks for readng.
Life is political and if people can fix their mouths to tell us not to talk about THIS, they’re gonna need to fix it some whole other way.
I barely slept either.
I didn’t have high expectations for Biden but it sure was supposed to be better than “just barely not as bad as the other guy because at least I’m not starting toxic shit.” I’m furious that we fought this hard to get this many Dems in office only to be in this position without hardly more than a peep from the administration.
Yep! All of that and more. And it would have been MUCH worse if we didn’t fight this hard. That’s part of what terrifies me for 2024.
Thanks for reading.
Part of me hopes that this is the thing that gets everyone to wake up and smell the reality but part of me worries that Roe will just… be gone. I’m so glad I’m mostly past childbearing years and, especially with the pandemic showing how little society cares for actual parents, glad that I am past those years sans child. It’s so surreal to me that Roe…. just slipped away in the night. I cannot even.
I agree with you. I hope that we are able to fight and get this reversed, but I am also trying to prepare for a world where we do not. That’s just awful to think about, but the way everything is going, better to be safe than sorry.
Thank you for reading. 🙂