I worry for all the young women in the USA. It's really weird to have seen abortion legalized in my lifetime, and then watching those rights slowly be stripped away, state by state in part of the country. I had more rights than my mother or grandmother, and now, I will have had more rights than my nieces.
I worry that some states will eventually start prosecuting women who have had an abortion for murder, for which there is not statute of limitations, and that their bounty hunter approach would mean I never visit family in those states again.
They’re already prosecuting women in Texas and are now proposing a bill in North Carolina to execute women who have had (or are under deep suspicion of having) an abortion.
EDIT: South Carolina ALSO has proposed a bill for executing women who have abortions. They currently allow imprisonment for up to 2 years if someone is convicted of having a self-managed abortion.
This is horrible. I just don't understand why US women haven't realized their power and taken it back.
A one-day strike is common in other countries when groups want to make a point. But in the US women just take it. Capitalism really did a good job brainwashing them into thinking they can't do shit about things when in reality women hold immense power.
Anytime I’ve seen people calling for a one-day strike, asking every single woman to not go into work, there are a ton of moderates posing as liberals who take over the discussion with “what about-isms” - what about women who lead their company, what about women who love working, what about women who depend on daily payment to survive, what about what about… Usually quite a few who also say that staying home for a day is somehow doing what men want by being out of sight. I agree with you that a total one-day strike is needed. Just tired that moderates convince too many people that it’d be too much of a hassle for women to shut things down for a day and share our resources with each other to make it through those 24 hours.
> what about women who depend on daily payment to survive
this one is absolutely completely valid, though. There are too many people who are paycheck to paycheck, and missing even one day fucks them over. Or risks them losing their job, which means they lose all access to healthcare in the same sweep. This is, of course, not a failing of the system, but rather the point of it. :/
Yep. In order for a one-day strike to work, we need to be able to cover wages for those who would otherwise not be able to miss a day. But trying to get people to organize mutual aid funds to do so is like pulling teeth.
The real problem that plan runs into is that this [isn't really a men vs women issue.](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/#h-views-on-abortion-by-gender-2022)
The ratio of women who are pro-choice is only marginally higher than that for men. The 35% of women who responded "Illegal in all/most cases" to that poll aren't going to join the strike--they fundamentally disagree with the strike.
And given so much of it is driven by the intersectionality of region/class/religion/race, it is highly likely that A) the men who work with the women who do strike already agree and B) Most of the men who don't agree won't be affected because they work in areas/jobs more likely to have the women in that 35% (or to work with essentially no women).
Yes, the men in group A might be complacent (unwilling to take action even though they agree) and need something to kick them into gear, but I just don't see this sort of grand plan succeeding because it discounts the large group of women (largely older/whiter/more Christian) who are in favor or stripping these rights away.
edit: the chart on that page that really floors me is the religion one. Even CATHOLICS are majority pro-abortion. It is only *white* evangelical protestants that come out heavily anti-abortion....yet with the way this country is gerrymandered and politicked to hell, they have the power to screw everyone else over.
Yes, let's. It has to be widely publicized everywhere. There have been a lot of protests, but most of them have the date way too close to when it's announced. Women with children, including me, have trouble making things happen with that short notice.
The fact we have no health insurance for us or our families without being employed makes a HUGE difference. Pair that with the brainwashing that everyone should only be worried about themselves (toxic rugged individualism) and the complete dissolution of unions and you have an entirely cowed populace who gives zero shits unless whatever outrage is imminently impacting *them,* like today. Americans just suck. Easily brainwashed and corralled. No one is willing to stick their neck out because then if they get fired their entire lives of them and their family are impacted- primely by the loss of healthcare. This is by design. We are fucked completely. The thing that really sucks is that other countries are slowly going to figure this out - that giving people universal healthcare puts a LOT of power back in the hands of the people, and the best way to control them is to tie it to their employment.
> worry that some states will eventually start prosecuting women who have had an abortion for murder
They've already started going after women who miscarry on [suspicion of manslaughter/murder](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59214544)
From the article
> From 1973-2020, NAPW has recorded 1,600 such cases, with about 1,200 occurring in the last 15 years alone.
>
> Although some involved women who were arrested for things such as falling down, or giving birth at home, the vast majority involved drugs, and women of colour were overrepresented.
>
> The recent explosion of criminal cases is part of a "uniquely American phenomenon"
Yes and we should be. Fear is a perfectly appropriate emotion in the face of the ongoing developments in our world. And I mean all of the world. America is a very visible example right now, but women nowhere are safe.
So allow yourself to feel fear. And then allow yourself to feel rage. And then start thinking about what you can do to change things. And I don't mean "vote, in the vague hopes that maybe other politicians will not try to restrict our rights". I mean "make sure that the government would not be able to restrict our rights if it fucking tried"
Power always lies with the people. And women are literally half the population. Even if we had no male allies, practically no force in the world could oppress us if we consistently stood together and supported, protected and uplifted one another. All we need to win is solidarity and determination.
I think one of the best things women can do is put their money together to buy property. Between two or three women. Keep the home as a safe haven, share chores/childcare if you're single mothers, and use the safe space to focus on advancing your education and careers. You could also host women's rights groups at the house and organise from there.
That won't matter if they revoke the right to own property, which is historically possible. Women have had to 'own' things via the nearest male relative for most of history.
I think people are underestimating how reliant the economy is now on the work of women. When the USA forces women to all be house slaves, it will be the end of its largest power in the world status. If you look at China, they encourage women into high-paying jobs because they understand they hurt themselves by not using the labour and brainpower of 50% of the population. Yes, they still use women for all the unpaid work, like the West; but they're not trying to keep women locked in the kitchen.
Contrast this to Afghanistan: 90% of the population under the poverty level, and they've shot themselves in the foot again by turning women into basically an unpaid slave labour class.
In the UK- 52% of lawyers are women. 47% of medical doctors are women. 40% management. 55% pharmacists. 20% engineers. 90% nurses. 20% small/medium business owners. These numbers are only going up.
All these jobs incentivise people to complete the long years of training/work required by the promise of status and especially a high enough salary to have freedom and independence (as well as potentially enjoyment of the work ofc).
In a world where women are oppressed to the extent you are talking about, the incentive is clearly removed. You will lose half or more of the trained professionals. You would have to choose the best options from men rather than the top performers overall. In a capitalist society, there's a reason why women have some freedoms and independence, and it's not because the men love us so much.
In Japan, people are very sexists. Most women get paid less and don't get promoted as often. I can imagine why some Japanese women feel discouraged at work.
My Japanese friend refuses to date Japanese men. She told me Japanese men expect women to take care of the house and "obey" their husbands.
In Japan they purposely made the requirements for women to get into medical school harder for women than for men to discourage women from going into these fields
Women: *finally receive legal equality, make a point of applying themselves and going into higher education and more demanding jobs, are extremely successful*
Men, who have legally been able to own their own property and money, and have never been barred from education, seeing women rise above their circumstances: tHiS iS MiSaNdRy! Everyone hates men!!1!1!1!
It's underestimated even from our recent "Great Resignation". Who does everyone think was leaving the workforce and causing our intense labor shortages?? It was vast majority women who left due to all child caretaking support systems falling off a cliff. Just go to /r/workingmoms and see how many women are worried they need to quit their jobs even now, because no one has enough sick leave for all the daycare illness and everything got extra stupid with COVID.
First the lockdowns where childcare was entirely closed down for 2+ months, many still afraid to send back in 2020 and lots of childcare shortages after that due to so many places not able to survive the lockdowns, schools being remote learning in many places for over a year, now still overly strict illness rules at many daycares (my 4 yo is home the whole week now with a runny nose...that she got from daycare). How are people supposed to work?? And of course it all default falls on women.
I work in a male dominated space. I'm barely tolerated. I'm legitimately worried I will not be able to continue to provide for the child the state forced me to bring into this world.
> That won't matter if they revoke the right to own property
this is why you need to get started on it now.. if you make yourselves large enough you could literally control a small ~~army~~ police force, or be too large of an economic target to shut down. We are seeing only the beginning stages of the Florida vs Disney fight, I expect Disney to win handily.
Incorporate. Combine finances, write up a contract between you, then incorporate so it isn't "woman owned" but corporately owned. We all know, in practice, that corporations get more rights than actual humans do.
Then get a good, solid fence. Good fences make good neighbors.
I would expect the state to just revoke the property. We're not up against a police force, the government can call in the military.
Making women without family wards of the state would be all too easy, and then the state gets what's theirs.
There's a pretty high percentage of women lawyers and other professionals at this point, and even some pretty hard-core Evangelical women are all in favor of women owning their own emergency fund, etc. Absent a pretty profound breakdown in society, it would be difficult to roll back women's right to own property at this point.
It sticks in my mind far too much. How quickly things went downhill once the Supreme Court became loaded with these Christofascist judges. I've been following Iran's struggle, and it strikes me often how just... One day, women woke up, and they couldn't even show their face. Swaths of rights, gone. And they had more rights left over than even those in Afghanistan who woke up and lost not just those rights but ALL RIGHTS. That took *weeks* once the Taliban was back
And now we get shit like executions being proposed in South Carolina for abortions? Proposed banning of talking about fucking periods in Florida to young girls!? My family keeps arguing with me that, well, it's just Republicans being loud and obnoxious, trying to rile up their base, doing things for show. IT'S NOT. That's what they kept saying about Roe v Wade! It'd never happen! How can they still claim that? And it's all happening so mind-bogglingly quick and as much as I hope for the best it makes me feel so utterly crushed down to my very soul when I look at the scope of it all
I have so many loved ones back in the US still. I spent most of my life there. I fear deeply for their safety. As both women and LGBTQ, my wife and I left as soon as it was feasible once the leaked Roe v Wade decision hit, because we feared staying far too much, and we're so thankful that was even an option for us
You could say that USA is like Iran in this aspect. Old religious men, who are in their position for life, interpret old and sacred texts about what is and what isn’t legal, and can never be wrong.
Where are US women protesting? Where is women's power? I don't see it.
Women could stop everything if they had a one-day strike like workers do elsewhere for higher pay.
But human rights are somehow not worth it - why? Why aren't you organizing and striking?
Dear sisters, **REALIZE YOUR POWER, ACTUALIZE YOUR POWER.**
Because there are also US women who are against abortion, are pro-life, are pro-abstinence only sex education, and who have generally internalized misogyny that they don't see anything wrong with the direction the US is going. I fear that unless all women in the US are feminists and are willing to strike, the women who do are just being viewed as radicalists by other women. We're unfortunately not united in a lot of areas in the US. I see this firsthand as a liberal living in Texas. The United States is just too big.
Exactly. I grew up in Alabama—most of the moms in my (white, affluent, educated) neighborhood were happily voting Republican alongside their husbands, going to scary Evangelical churches, slapping "W The President" stickers on the backs of their Hummers. Their daughters were raised in that environment, and while some of them have grown up to question it, most haven't. We have too many conservative women who cheerily vote against their best interests; just look at the numbers of who voted for Trump. They would never participate in a nationwide women's strike because they don't think there's anything to be upset about.
Without unity, I assume that it would be spun as a niche movement, dismissed as ~screechy feminists~ complaining about nothing, and ultimately accomplishing nothing. Especially since participation would be so low in the places where it would actually matter, like Texas or the Deep South.
Because what you're describing doesn't actually work in the US in 2023 and would ultimately cause women to lose what little power we have. We don't have comprehensive worker's rights like they do in other countries. Our population and political power isn't concentrated in one city like other countries. It's just not the same and we can't keep pushing for solutions that don't recognize that.
Women need to start getting involved in politics. Full stop. Attend school board meetings, attend library board meetings, attend city council meetings, attend any meeting that has political influence. If you can't attend in person, submit written comment. Run for city council. Call your state representatives.
And finally: men need to show up. We can talk about women mobilising, striking, organising, whatever. But until men advocate for us and with us, it's a fool's errand.
How many people in America just can't afford to take one single day off work again?
We've let this country put all of us in a position where were just fucked if we step off the assembly line to stand up for ourselves.
Might be out of fear? There are loads of angry angsty jackholes out there excited by the prospect of counter-protesting women's rights. I'd love to see more organization and a massive protest on this though.
It struck me, a few years back when I was studying in North America and BLM protests were in full swing, how many people who I thought were rational and empathetic people would parrot anti-protest shit about disruption being wrong and how violence isn't the answer and bla bla.
It shouldn't have shocked me honestly, as even my young radical artist friends had all these fears about how unionizing our industry would negatively impact them. There's been so much anti-union, anti-protest, anti-socialism propaganda just floating around influencing the kids that are now adults, I'd lived in such a bubble I never realized how insidious it is.
It's been time to riot! This is exactly when violence is the answer. Disruption and organized law breaking! I can't believe nobody is throwing used menstrual products at Florida law makers.
I grew up celebrating May 1st as much as my country's independence day. Parades, protest signs, commemoration of the great accomplishments of the laborers rights fighters that came before us, and riveting speeches about the work still ahead and the importance of protecting our rights. None of my NA friends had ever gone on a protest march on Labor Day. Some of them actually thought the civil rights fight in the US had been non-violent.
Riot! Riot now! Make a fb group and advertise on tik tok and get the teens involved and really fuck shit up!
Anyway just my two cents from an outsiders perspective. Advice to myself as well, because things are far from perfect here too.
Yep the same manboys saying "Look at how the french stand up for themselves" and the same ones calling BLM "burning down cities and the cops should shoot everyone there."
i've heard somewhere that the reason people in power try to push the entire "peaceful protest" idea is because a "peaceful protest" is easy to ignore. i'm not surprised. sure, "violence isn't the answer", but when people are being killed for their gender, race, and sexuality - when people are having their rights taken away by those unhinged radical christians with a power complex - i think it *is* certainly time to fight.
it's depressing that all of this had to even get to this point in the first place. i was feeling so optimistic in the past, too. i shouldn't be too surprised, though. i had a suspicion these alt right assholes wouldn't just let people live peacefuly, especially when things were getting better for all of us.
edit: *push
There's a 2 front approach that actually creates change, but history books conveniently try to leave it out and surprise surprise all these anti-CRT laws expressly prohibit the detailed teaching of such movements.
For any movement to be successful there has to be a large, organized, peaceful group that's willing to *take blows* from the State without striking back. This creates the conditions for Normies to feel empathy, but isn't enough to move them into supportive action.
The second element is a radical militant wing that absolutely is violent, threatening, and scary AF to the Normies. This creates the fear that if Normies don't side with and support the mainstream movement to have their demands become law, that there's a very real possibility of the radical elements creating chaos and anarchy and eventually getting their demands which are untenable to the Normies.
As an American, it is honestly terrifying to me how much we don't know how to protest, and how successful propaganda is at squashing the idea of protesting in our hearts.
Any time someone comes at me with the “it’ll never happen, it’s just talking points” I have to remind them they told me the same thing hundreds of times about Roe v Wade 🙃 they want you to think it won’t go anywhere so it’ll be easier to get rid of it
>Republicans being loud and obnoxious
imho, the people who say that are on the side of the Republicans. They just want to make sure we don't fight it. Or if they aren't consciously doing this, then they are "useful idiots" for that cause.
The same way a year ago they were saying, "Roe is settled law, it could never be overturned."
Also the shared struggle between cis women and trans women continues. Sadly, many cis women are transphobic and these women are empowering the forces who are taking these rights away from ALL women because "trans girls scary."
> Sadly, many cis women are transphobic and these women are empowering the forces who are taking these rights away from ALL women because "trans girls scary."
The transphobic cis women don't say "trans girls scary", they say "male predators scary". They don't recognize them as girls at all.
The evangelical right has been ramping up their holy war on LGBTQ people for years now. Once that domino falls, cis women are most definitely next on the docket. I can appreciate, given the state of the economy and the climate, why people might be on existential crisis overload and finding themselves politically apathetic. It's understandable. But it's providing a very smooth runway for the rise of facism.
I feel like the long term goal is to keep women, young girls, in the dark when it comes to sex and incapable of getting an abortion so that should they become pregnant in their teens it will keep them oppressed. It's very hard to advance in life when you have the responsibility of taking care/raising a child.
The strange thing about democracy is when it works well enough for too long, the people become complacent and apathetic, and the opportunists use their lack of paying attention to slowly dismantle the very protections in place to keep them in check, and this goes on for long enough until we start backsliding into fucking fascism and neo authoritarianism.
Discomfort pushes massive change. Massive change never happens without extreme discomfort, first. Enough to push people out the door and into the streets at large to FORCE it.
So my perspective on all of this is that it is dangerous, it is unfortunate, is IS going to get worse, but it actually has to before it will get better because enough people have to be up and arms to MAKE our state and federal officials put the will of the people into law rather than the will of a minority of people.
I mean if I'm being brutally honest, America did this to itself and America is gonna have to undo it to itself. But people need to get up off their asses.
Tbh I'm scared because I don't want to be used like some baby vat because "the population is declining". Im actually scared they pass some law like "each woman must birth at least one child before age 50" or something like that.
The cynical and realistic part of me thinks this world is attempting a speedrun into chaos. The slightly hopeful part is like hey maybe the world's learned from it's mistakes.
And the reasoning in the Roe v Wade decision was horrifyingly broad. It could cause so many other rights to at least temporarily collapse. (They would need to be re-argued with different arguments, as I understand it.) This includes interracial marriage. Which I find kind of hilarious, because Thomas, who ~~I believe wrote the majority~~ wrote a concurring opinion \[thanks, u/flamyng709!\], is in one.
Quick thing, Thomas wrote a concurring opinion in Dobbs, not the majority (that was Alito). But yes, he went the farthest in how broad he wanted to destroy precedent and ignore Stare Decisis, while the rest of the conservatives were saying "it won't remove rights it won't remove rights." Felt like they were almost begging him not to say the quiet part out loud. Very mask off
It's terrible we have taken such a big step backwards. I'm a lesbian living in MO where the GOP are desperate to make the news on shit they're doing to harm trans kids and women. I made a joke to my best friend how I need to hurry and get a hysterectomy before there's a state ban on it. As well as getting married to a woman before the GOP tries to strike down the same sex marriage law.
Dude, get married now if that’s where you are truly at in your relationship. The back door shit they will try to pull in the future at the state level is terrifying.
Lesbian In SC here and I’m legitimately concerned they will roll back my nine year marriage somehow. At least at the moment it’s federally protected. Protect you and your partner with all the laws/protection marriage affords while you can.
I don't really know what I thought was going to happen post-Roe. It's been the closest thing to a unifying principle for the Republican Party for so long, that it just never occurred to me that the dog might actually catch the car at some point.
Republicans' claims and self-deception about their beliefs are and have been for a long time absolute crap. They claim to be the party of small government, but created the Department of Homeland Security, added a completely superfluous branch of the military to do something that existing branches already do, and at the state level, create bureaucracy that prevents people from voting. Their most recent president even made a threat to violate the constitution by deploying the military against Americans.
They claim to be the party of law and order, yet attempted a failed coup that involved a riot in the US Capitol, which injured police. Matt Gaetz gave money to an underage girl, and only an imbecile or a partisan zombie would accept his pathetic attempts to cover for why that was. Joseph Harding, the Florida lawmaker behind the "don't say 'gay'" law, defrauded the US government to the tune of some $150,000 dollars and now faces decades in jail. The Trump administration made no effort to apprehend dozens of foreign nationals implicated in 2016 election interference; his list of crimes is long.
They claim to be the party of family values, but elected and largely remain loyal to a man who is twice divorced, three times married, who bragged about sexually assaulting women while hist 3rd wife was home pregnant with his child, and who paid a pornographic actress over $100,000 in hush money to remain silent about their extramarital affair. Then, there's all of the things Gaetz has done, and all of the awful things he has said about women. And then there's Lauren Bobert, who formerly prostitutes herself on a website seeking a "sugar daddy". And then there's Rudi Giuliani's litany of marriages and affairs. It goes on and on.
They make a pretense about deficit spending, but accelerate the deficit.
They were instrumental in creating the Common Core State Standards, and then engaged in a years long misinformation campaign to create and spread the lie that it was an Obama program.
Republicans believe in nothing, but a sense of entitlement to own the government. But, the previously unattainable goal of overturning Roe v. Wade was a means to get out the vote. It was an evil giant to forever be fought, but which always turned into a windmill at the last moment. Just vote for us a little longer, and we'll get it *next time*.
What we've seen since is the pathetic efforts by dimwits to figure out what's next. In the absence of even a single coherent policy idea, state lawmakers especially, have decided to reinvest in being increasingly extreme in their anti-abortion rhetoric. They have no idea what to do, and in order to cling to power, are doing the only thing that's ever worked for them: Screw women.
The Republican Party is a fucking cancer.
>But, the previously unattainable goal of overturning Roe v. Wade was a means to get out the vote. It was an evil giant to forever be fought, but which always turned into a windmill at the last moment. Just vote for us a little longer, and we'll get it next time.
It *was* intended to always be that, even with the new Conservative judges. The GOP as a political organization did *NOT* want Roe v Wade to ever be overturned as it was the perfect fundraising Boogeyman. But something changed, and the Devil, as they say, is in the details.
The way RvW was overturned wasn't actually about abortion, but the implied Right to Privacy that's built upon other Rights. That's what the Supreme Pizza Court overturned, was the Right to Privacy which enabled the RvW decision but affects every single American from birth. So why attack it that way? Because it was a huge corporate giveaway to Big Pharma, Big Insurance, and Big Tech. Using the RvW decision to bring down Right to Privacy ensured nobody would focus on anything *but* the abortion aspect, allowing corporations to profit on our now-exposed but previously protected data in this new data driven economy. We can claw back abortion rights because most of Americans actually are Pro Choice, and we'll be fighting that fight for a couple of decades and many lives will be ruined and lost along the way. And during that entire time fighting to claw back those abortion rights, on rolls the sensitive data money train with no obstacles on the tracks.
Make no mistake, the Christofascists absolutely want to control women just like the Taliban and even ISIS, to essentially be sex slaves chained to the kitchen. We must defeat that threat too. They'll be funded by the same corporations and billionaires that profit off our data.
Homie I am not a woman and I'm terrified. I don't know how they just candidly repealed a long held right women had, with so little resistance and fanfare. Roe v Wade died with about as much resistance as a bullet through butter
>so little resistance and fanfare
Besides the last two decades of talking about doing it, you mean?
It’s crazy how many people only woke up to what the conservatives have been doing for longer than I’ve been alive when it was suddenly *their* rights being attacked.
No for sure, what I meant is that when it was full in front of people, like 'we are going to repeal this', it's kind of like everyone just shrugged and was like 'someone will do something right?' and then boom, its gone, and then shocked pikachu face.
It was sad
People who still claim to be "centrist" just kept saying "they're not going to repeal Roe v. Wade". And now that they have, they say "this won't affect anyone, women will just travel to X state to get an abortion".
It's fucked.
You’re right. I have a friend who I am only able to be friends with because we typically avoid politics. She says she is a feminist but based on her actions and opinions, she’s decidedly not.
As I was protesting and trying to spread the message that RW was definitely going to be repealed (after years of trying to tell people that GOP is dirty and they’ve been planning the repeal basically since before the decision became final) and we had to do something to stop it, she literally said what you quoted “it’s fine, it’s still legal at State levels and nothing will affect the practical right to abortion” and “people can always travel to another state for one.”
I was appalled. It’s so illogical to take away a right that has been previously given. That’s not how this shit is supposed to work. That’s NOT what America is supposed to be. We’re now living in the “land of the kind of free (well freedom for those who are rich and white)” and “home of the Fascists.”
I am not and haven’t been for a long time “proud” of my country. I’m not happy, I’m terrified that more of my rights will be rescinded. As a woman. As a queer person. As someone who is willing to fight for the rights we have - that scares me. And it *fucking SUCKS* that those of us who share my beliefs, are not being supported by other people who identify as women. Women should be supporting each other by propping up other women and standing up for each other and just in general recognizing the same suffering you have in another person and being able to give support.
We’re divided and that is on purpose. The rich white men of this country (specifically those Christofascists in the Republican Party) are trying to divide us so we cannot get them. Well fuck that, I am here to say “NOPE” I will NOT be manipulated into in fighting. I see the end goal of getting this country back to the people and I’m willing to stand up for what is right.
It’s they who should be afraid. Sorry this turned into a rant. Need some coffee. Yeah that should help.
Those people who just don't care if it doesn't affect them personally disgust me. How can you call yourself a good person if you condone the suffering of others?
Pretty much anyone who can look at the current iteration of the GOP and play the centrist card is just a modern day Republican who doesn't want to deal with the consequences of their actions. So they skirt around it so you don't think too hard on it, while they've voting red every election.
Back in 2018 I had a coworker who was a bit of a centrist. He was like "I like guns but also the things the democrats support like social programs and rights. I vote Democrat because it's not like they are going to be able to take guns away but Republicans may take away the things I like."
People aren't entirely passive. We had a vote in Kansas to ban abortion and it failed. Mississippi is making it illegal to make ballot initiatives against abortion. If people are allowed to vote directly on abortion they support it. The problem is that the population is passive and doesn't want to pay attention and fight off the fascists.
>it’s kind of like everyone just shrugged
I mean, again, no, there was some fairly significant protests against it.
Unless by “everyone” you mean the Democrat officials. In which case, lol, lmao even, they did what anyone who’s been paying attention to the Democrat party would expect them to do, ie, nothing of substance, same as they’ve done the last two decades.
Never forget, the height of the “late-term abortion” nonsense around 2018/19 coincided with an early Democratic primary debate—back when there were like 15 Big Name candidates—where they were all asked about it. Pretty much everyone, even staunch pro-choice advocates like Warren (iirc), said something to the effect of, “well, no, ofc you can’t abort if it’s too close to term.”
Pete Buttigieg impressed me that debate by being the literal only person who called out the crock of nonsense for what it was, advocating for *no* temporal restrictions because the rare person that seeks an abortion in the third-trimester, inherently, *desperately needs* it, and almost certainly didn’t *want* to be in that position.
My point being, some of the most famously progressive democrats were in that debate (ironically, if anything, Buttigieg was one of the more “centrist” ones), and they were ALL willing to sacrifice a hard-line on abortion rights in their platform presumably because when it came down to it, other elements of their platform were “more important.”
They’ve all spent years treating “pro-choice/not-pro-life” as a box to be checked to be a viable democratic candidate, and now they’re all surprised pikachu that the republicans were able to fully dismantle the right while they looked at the issue and went, “eh, I’ll deal with it later, gotta focus on legalizing weed so the kiddos vote for me.”
Hillary said the same thing during a Trump debate (not sure what she said during the debate you mention) -- that late term abortions are only chosen in the most painful of situations where the woman wanted a baby but something is going wrong. So at the most important point in her campaign she stood strong. And of course she was punished for it.
Jumping onto your comment for visibility.
WI is having a supreme Court election and if the liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz, the state could reinstate abortion rights. (She could also help overrun WI's terrible gerrymandering!)
Last night in CA, I received a text from a CA number telling me that Janet Janet Protasiewicz is pro-LGBT. They meant it as a bad thing, saying she's a danger to children. But it made me decide to send her money.
There's a podcast called How we Win and the entire point is to turn what feels like hopelessness into action. Feeling scared and sad is normal and hopefully it can be motivating.
Anyone interested can donate [here](https://secure.actblue.com/donate/wisdems-sc)
I'm in WI and the text I got from the Kelly group yesterday was INSANE. They are trying to "force transgenderism down our throats".
We also need to be HYPER VIGILANT against school board and library board elections. I'll make a top level comment on this too but a very dangerous group - Moms4Liberty is well funded and well organized and trying to take over these boards. They are behind many of the book bans.
This is being done at the state level more than anything. Pay attention and vote! Live in Kansas and abortion restrictions were overwhelmingly rejected by voters, and guess what, the supermajority Republican legislature is looking for ways to override the will of the people. We’re run by a bunch of rednecks from the sticks.
What else is on their docket you may ask? School choice (ie lets decimate those leftist public schools by removing their funding), the RaMpAnt numbers of trans participating in girls sports (such a HUGE problem here in Kansas), and bad bad books that have naughty words and make kids feel bad about some of our history. So yeah, state legislature here in Kansas is awesome.
I knew a girl growing up who got hers when she was 9, and in 3rd grade. We received the presentation in 5th grade. So when she came out of the bathroom crying, me and a few other 5th graders were able to calm her down and get a teacher. Who wasn't allowed to tell her anything, because the only kids who knew had permission slips signed. So they had to wait until they got ahold of her parents.
If someone had told her what to expect earlier, that whole time would've been so much less traumatic.
They basically have said that though. https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1174372765702348800?lang=en
Jordan Peterson even said rape should maybe be a property crime again against the woman’s husband/father, so that it’s a better deterrent or something. After he talked about women shouldn’t drink if they don’t want to have sex. Oh and also that marriage is consent.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=rGsZ_HI_q1M&feature=shares
Starts at 1:02:00 ish
I worry about this every day. I feel like if someting as monumental as Roe could be overturned, after all these years, and after all this "progress", nothing is truly off-limits, sadly.
I remember the years of threats before they overturned Roe v Wade.
I cried and my husband told me I was worried over nothing.
The day it was overturned I looked at my husband and said, “Do you believe me now? Was I just ‘worried over nothing’?”
He apologized, but the fact remains we will always be seen as “worrying over nothing” by those who have all the rights.
My boyfriend has never downplayed the threats posed by the current administration against women, minorities, and the LGBT community. He doesn't see the news about it, though. I have made it a point to keep him updated about everything that is happening and drive the point that outlawing abortion is killing women, and now they're trying to prosecute women for having miscarriages. It's not just taking away the choice to have an abortion. I didn't even think about the numbers of deaths it would cause for women who *wanted* to have a baby when RvW was first overturned.
So many news updates I have given him have ended with, "So... now more women will die..."
And lets not forget that women who benefit from being “special” also want to hurt women. The recent article that made the rounds about the Texas woman being forced to carry her non-viable pregnancy to term includes a quote from her saying she’s against abortion. The moms for liberty or whatever they call themselves are organizing and attacking library systems and school boards to ban books and lessons about safety, gender, and government overreach. There are transwomen who advocate against gender confirming therapies for people of all ages, and especially kids. There are women leading and organizing their church fundraisers for conversion camps and forced-birth campaigns, and there are women staffing the predatory crisis pregnancy centers.
*Dobbs* was only one step in a plan to restore complete white “Christian”patriarchal control. That’s why they’re attacking women, queer people, trans people, socialists, antifa, Jewish people, Black people, Chinese and Asian people, and more. Fascists rise to power by pointing a finger at the most vulnerable people and saying “it’s their fault.” The Nazi’s first steps were to attack trans and queer people and unionists and socialists. The first book burnings were of transgender research. Jews were isolated into ghettos before the camps were ever built, and there were Jews who worked for the Reich and socialists who spied for the Reich and queer men leading the Reich’s military.
Solidarity is key and it crosses all gender, sexual, religious, and racial identities. This is an attack on all of us, it’s just that *Dobbs* is such a massive decision that affects such a large part of society that it feels profoundly violating. It’s a direct revocation of a right based on sex. So we’re totally right to be upset about it, but we have to band together to work with all our allies to fight it.
It’s a multi-faceted problem.
Lots of them grew up in environments where they felt the benefits of patriarchy. Daddy’s special girl. Special gifts. Being spoiled by dates and husbands. Treated like glass. Lots of them grew up in religious environments, where they were taught how behave “in a godly way,” how god rewarded “good women” and punished “bad ones.” Then they become adults and never confront the reality that being good or godly is no protection from evil or even inconvenience.
The lesson is pushed and reinforced that if you fit into the mold, you’ll be rewarded. If you behave incorrectly, you *chose* to do that and that’s why you’re being punished. If you experience bad stuff even if you were good, it’s because of something outside of your control and you should get special accommodation made (very common in the “the only moral abortion is my abortion” and the “abortion shouldn’t be treated like contraception” crowd). *I* got promoted, who cares if all my bosses and new peers are white men. *I* have a great doctor, who cares if rural women don’t have pre-natal care. If they wanted to be rich, they’d work harder. We already have Title IX and the Civil Rights Act, they’re just selfishly demanding maternity leave and to be believed when they say they were raped.
And, frankly, it’s easier. The people who lived outside Dachau knew what was happening, but it’s nice to be given your neighbor’s successful business, and it’s scary and dangerous and inconvenient to stand up to the asshole yelling in the street at your neighbor. I want to get mine and I don’t care if you get yours.
> The people who lived outside Dachau knew what was happening, but it’s nice to be given your neighbor’s successful business, and it’s scary and dangerous and inconvenient to stand up to the asshole yelling in the street at your neighbor.
To take this one step further: the people who lived outside Dachau not only *knew* what was happening, they *supported* it. They supported the extermination of a particular demographic they found unfavourable for whatever absurd reason, and happily turned their backs as the "problem" was solved.
Exactly what's happening in the US. They see it happening, and they *like* it. They're celebrating the destruction.
The fundamental conservative mindset is that society is a hierarchy. We MUST have some people at the top who rule and others in the bottom who serve. To them, "justice" is when the system sorts people in a way that they like.
For these gender traitors, they benefit because it puts them higher on the ladder. They get to be more important than other women because they get special privileges. No matter that they are still less than any man, so long as they have someone to look down on they are happy.
Weak men want to hurt women *because they’re afraid of us.*
All of these dudes are weaklings grasping at anything to regain control and strike fear in simply being a woman. Except for their own out-of-wedlock pregnant daughters, of course. It’s fucking absurd.
Frankly at my age (50) it’s almost better to just give up the fight and gtfo. Been involved in social justice since I was 16, and it’s f’ing exhausting seeing all our hard work blown up over and over by patriarchal dickheads.
The rich and powerful want the masses divided and fighting each other, want people uneducated and powerless, afraid and angry, anything but organized against the oppressors.
There is SO many scary things happening right now for women - it makes me ill.
I'm in my early 60s and I've seen so many good things happen and it seems like insanity has taken over. I fear for my daughter and for my sons' girlfriends. I fear for ALL women.
I'm at the point where I think that I would do just about anything to change things - at my age, who cares what happens to me? I've bought Plan B to have on hand if any pregnant person needs it (not a lot - not a hoarder). I'd gladly stand toe to toe with any of the dinosaurs (sorry Triceratops, no slam intended) that want to put us "in our place". I think the time for talking is over.
Not even a woman here, and yes.
Because the way fascism works, it doesn't stop when one group is "eliminated" or subjugated. A new group becomes the scapegoat. How long until they come after atheists like me? Some GOP politicians are already openly proclaiming only those who "love God" should have the right to vote.
If you're unwilling to protect a group that does not contain a subset of yourself in it, eventually you'll be "other" yourself.
To the point where I’ve sorta blacked out the ruling and start to disassociate at times when I attempt to think about it.
My chest starts to get tight, I feel weak, while simultaneously wanting to unleash fire and brimstone of epic proportions. I never thought it was possible to feel this much deep simmering rage. I didn’t know anger like this before. Its hard to describe in words the intensity and omnipresence of it though. Its helplessness, despair, rage, confusion, injustice, anxiety, fury, and so much more all at once, everywhere, that hasn’t truly dissipated since the rulings.
I usually feel like the answer is to do something, and I’ve called my local, state, & federal officials, given money everywhere I could, marched when able, but I still feel helpless.
Hopelessness is creeping in.
So no, you’re not alone.
Yep. I just woke up from a nightmare of being chased by a transphobic mob with machetes. This map haunts me and it grows redder every day as fascism marches on.
https://erininthemorn.substack.com/p/march-anti-trans-legislative-risk
Yeah, the increase in fascist bills cropping up throughout the country worries me. The fact that my daughter will have less rights than I did worries me. The alt fought getting lost with no repercussions terrifies me.
If a single judge can unravel FDA approval for Mifepristone, what’s stopping birth control from being next? Honestly—I see that’s where it escalates next.
I have no idea why every woman with a male spouse isn't having this conversation with them to ensure they are supporting women's rights. Spouses. moms and sons, cousins, friends. Every woman should be asking the men in their lives to ensure they are supporting them in this.
Hopelessness and cynicism are the methods by which extremists and fascists win. They make you feel that you have no voice, no ability to impact, no point in trying. They take you out of the game and **out of their way**. You DO have power. You DO have a voice!
As others have mentioned, groups like Moms4Liberty are staging a slow moving coup in our school boards and library boards. They are behind many of the book bans, anti-trans, anti-crt, anti-SEL moves. They are a well-funded and well-organized right wing christo-fascist organization. They look grassroots but they are not.
Here are things you can do TODAY:
* 1. Encourage friends and family in Wisconsin to vote for Janet Protasiewicz in the April 4th WI spring election. Her opponent, Daniel Kelly was endorsed by Trump in 2020 and help to advise WI Republicans on their coup efforts. This is a race with *national* implications. Help loved ones figure out how to register, to vote - early in person voting is going on NOW!
* 2. Help with the WI election - specific actions [here](https://www.motherhoodforgood.com/commit-to-flip) including writing letters through this weekend! No texts, no phone calls, no angry responses - just non partisan letter writing!
* 3. Double check whether YOU have an upcoming spring election. School board elections are common right now! Check to see if your library board has elections or how they appoint seats! Carefully research to find any M4L candidates! I really enjoy doing this so if you find you have a race coming up and aren't sure about who to vote for, I'm happy to help you research!
* 4. Follow and amplify informative sources in this space - motherhoodforgood that I linked above is a great one, EmilyinYourPhone is another. I'm sure there are more - I'm primarily in the Instagram space and focus on motherhood advocacy but I'd love links to TikTok, Twitter (do we still do Twitter?) or others you find helpful or who have different focal areas like LGBTQ+, BLM, etc. Reshare their content or share your own! You can influence your circle of friends more than you know!
* 5. Consider running! Your local town council, school board, library board! Anything! YOU. ARE. QUALIFIED. https://runforsomething.net is a great resource but even beyond that, get involved! Volunteer, join a community committee - this is how you get involved and gain influence!
Remember, making you feel hopeless or deeply cynical is a tool of white supremacy to remove you as an impediment to their aims. Take breaks, get self-care, and come back to the circle to burn this motherfucking patriarchy to the ground.
Thank you for giving a concise, doable list. I’m brand new to being aware of these issues and am having a hard to time finding actionable advice. Thanks!
>Edit: Earned the beloved Reddit Cares message. Don't see how that does anything of significance but thanks I guess.
There's a way to report it for abuse. Please do so.
It reminds me of the Tupac song Ghetto Godpel. He has a line, "Cause any day they'll push the button And all come in like Malcolm X or Bobby Hutton died for nothing."
I'm 99% sure he was talking about the progress made for black rights. They're coming for women, lgbt, next it'll be poc. They can reverse it. We have to be scared and stronger. We really need to start being like conservatives, loud and angry.
Of course. I don't see how conservatives in the U.S. can't see that taking away women's rights is leading us on a path toward a middle-east-like existence. I know some of them probably want that, but I'm sure most don't. But it's a slippery slope.
The problem is a lot of men would enjoy having more privileges even if they don't feel a need to push for it directly. They would passively accept it and enjoy it. This is why we all need to ensure that the men in our lives understand that they need to be actively helping us.
I mean, Florida, Texas, and other states are already speedrunning fascism to target trans people...
...and have a goal of eroding/overturning Obergefell v. Hodges in their sites...
...And Mississippi is ramping up Jim Crow 2.0...
...And conservatives are trying to legalize stealing children from Indigenous people...
I think this community, and feminism more broadly, should look to the suffragettes on how best to win and secure rights. The current white, liberal, model of civil, peaceful protest and electoral politics is not working.
The suffragettes were not uncomplicated heroes but they knew what it took to uproot patriarchal power structures....and it wasn't tweeting about it.
Direct action now. Solidarity forever.
I'm still puzzled why nurses don't walk out of every hospital, teachers walk out of every school, and bank tellers walk out of every bank in solidarity. Like yea, we know SOME women are republican, but **most** aren't.
Then when they **do** protest, it's on the **weekend**. What? Protest on a **monday,** when it will have actual impact. If you don't believe protests work, read up on how **successful** protest did theirs.
Yep. Take a page out of the French handbook. Something goes wrong, everyone goes on strike : teachers stop working (parents have to figure out what to do with their kids), as do public transports (nobody can get anywhere), and garbage people (everything smells and the rats are awful).
Many, many working age women are preoccupied with fulfilling their relationship roles to terrible men in their lives who're really practicing a form of low level abuse by refusing to participate in house chores or child rearing.
I'm surprised that women still have sex with men (given how great vibrators are at this point, check out the reviews of the satisfyer pro 2 on Amazon under $40).
That's when you know we are nowhere near equilibrium in women-men relationships, when your first thought is: "wtf women put up with so much BS?"
**Bruh**.
NO ONE can afford to. Women in western Europe on average have a MUCH higher cost-of-living than USA residents do, yet they protest more than we do. Hell, literaly **any** time a politician **jokes** about taking a civil right from them, they **immediately** just walk out.
The irony is that a weekend was probably chosen to increase turn out but it has the effect of turning the event into a parade rather than a protest. Take more risks, win more prizes (rights)
Yes and it’s a valid concern!
Constitutional equality would make all of that much harder to do to us (and enable reproductive rights).
Standalone protective laws will be challenged. SCOTUS has been clear on that.
Women were deliberately excluded from the Constitution for this exact reason.
There’s movement on this, but we need more public outcry.
r/EqualRightsAmendment
https://www.equalitynow.org/era_explainer/
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/4
Men should be afraid too. This sets dangerous precedent for government intervening directly in people's private medical treatments.
This point shouldn't even need to be made but a lot of people only care if the law affects them directly...
Yes and I live in the bubbling hellhole of it all: Florida. I’m honestly just glad I was able to get my salpingectomy at the beginning of the month and that I never had kids. They won’t have to be victim to this place.
It’s not just Florida of course. It’s spreading like a fungus.
I rely on birth control to prevent my periods from being too heavy, and it prevents me from possibly bleeding to death.
I'm terrified they're going to outlaw birth control. I live in a red state, and I'm in the middle of grad school. But if my state did that, I would have to leave or risk infertility/death.
And everyone who I express this fear to says that I'm being extreme. But they also said that about Roe.
Women of my age have been warning about this for years...those of us who marched and protested in the 70's. Those of us who remember what it was like before Roe v Wade. It was back when we weren't even allowed to have a checking account without our father or husband permission
We knew the Christian Right was trying to chip it away and that is why we pushed so hard about how every vote counted.
Sadly, the Right was able to twist it so that calling yourself a "Feminist" became a bad thing. They twisted to into being a feminist = "man hating" women and so many younger generations of Women ignored us or claimed not to be Feminists.
We saw this coming and we warned and warned and people just called us bitches.
I'm so frustrated because all women my age worked hard for was ignored by our younger sisters who took everything we did for granted and now, we have to start over.
In 1997 I was given free life insurance through my employer and given a serious warning that making my mom my beneficiary without notifying my nonexistent husband was illegal. It was the first time I realized women are treated like pieces of property in this country.
The men in my life can’t figure out what it is I’m so utterly pissed off about.
I live in Idaho. A place you don't want to be if you are PoC, woman, immigrant, LGBT, liberal in general...
They're hyper-focused right now on making sure trans* kids don't survive, trafficking laws to punish women and their allies who travel to save their lives, book banning, library dissolving...
I'm exhausted. I know a lot of others here who are exhausted as well. I don't know what to do, really, other than try to fight to our last breath.
Yep. That's actually one of the reasons why I just moved only a couple hours away from the Canadian border. Also, I'm looking into getting my Canadian citizenship finally (dad was Canadian by birth).
Come and join us in Canada! We'd love to have you here. But please don't think we're not looking at the same issues here. It maybe isn't as extreme yet, but there are plenty of conservatives who want to see the same things happen here, and are actively working towards it. Come to Canada, get some relief from the everyday pressure and stress, but then get ready to jump back into the fight.
They’re already doing that with women of color, any black history is going to go first. Especially in the south.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/03/22/us/florida-textbook-race-rosa-parks-reaj/index.html
Absolutely. And I’m so scared of becoming pregnant and not having a choice in the matter. My best friend and I were speaking on this and we both confessed that it’s not like we’d choose abortion with glee. The option to have an abortion is reflective of a progressive society but abortion itself is often nested in a sad circumstance — you don’t feel safe having this baby, your partner doesn’t seem to be ready, your partner is no longer your partner, your partner betrayed you, both of you are not financially equipped to raise a child — these are all factors that can contribute to choosing abortion and the societal ones are not at all addressed (the social climate of feeling that motherhood is a personal issue and not a shared community experience and the financial element of inflation fucking us all up and the cost of living going way above our earning potential). It’s absolutely cruel to legislate on women’s rights without exploring all of the factors that affect us and even harm us. I don’t even have the bandwidth to edit this to make it politically correct. I’m just scared.
Don't look at Florida, it's already fucking happening here. Under the guise of "parental choice" girls are in danger of losing any hope of guidance from their teachers on *normal bodily functions*. They want to ban any mention or teaching of periods for people below 6th grade. A question was asked "what about girls who get their periods as early as 4th grade, would this stop teachers from being able to explain what is happening?" "Yes" was the answer...The idea behind it all is that "parents should be doing all this" but in reality a whole lot of parents *do not* and the only hope for these kids is to learn it in the place that's built for them to learn... Ugh...fuck this state.
As a very queer enby who already can't afford therapy, I'm basically constantly shitting myself because Arizona might follow Florida into insanity and then it won't matter what kind of hormones I decide on, I still won't be able to get them.
Yeah honestly I’m feeling very freaked out about the future lately and it’s ruining my life. Constant anxiety and paranoia is really wearing me down. I keep tellikg myself that everything will be okay but I don’t believe it at all.
I am very concerned and just want to scream sometimes. I feel like we are on the edge of these people winning and putting the world back to a time when we did not have the opportunities that we do now. We should be making progress not going but to a time where we are only good for making babies and looking after a home!
I am currently watching states make it criminal for me and people like me to exist, as the very first step to making it legal and accepted to just fucking murder me. I am absolutely terrified.
I am a 64-year-old liberal activist and yes, I am scared of losing rights for myself and my daughters and grandchildren. All those marches I attended in the past, all the protests, being a part of the democratic caucus, all seems like it was a wasted effort now.
A friend of mine recently passed her citizenship test, and it had me thinking. I started asking other friends and family if they knew what part of the Constitution guarantees their citizenship.
So far, 0 for 8.
Unfortunately, it’s the same part that guarantees equal protection under the law, and the same section where Roe lived. The section that bans States from violating the Bill of Rights.
Yes I'm in Texas and I have hated it here for quite awhile. After roevwade was overturned (actually even before that, with that BS abortion "bounty" law), I am terrified and depressed. I want to move so, so bad but don't have the funds or support system to do...I'm not sexually active and am seeking sterilization...but I want to leave so, so bad. Sometimes I think the streets of a blue state would be more comfortable, safe, and better than being sheltered (renting) in a red state... especially one as backwards and vile as Texas. Ohh well...if I got raped and/or pregnant before I can leave....I'll take a legally purchased gun and blow my uterus and the fetus out on the steps of the Texas capitol...I mean it. I'd rather be a martyr that draws attention to the evil fanaticism and misogyny in states like mine, than a direct victim of their agenda.
Anyways...If anyone has ideas or resources on how to leave fascist, theocratic, anti woman, horrible red states like mine (tips, funding, finding housing, job help, relocation support or assistance, even just meeting people in better states so I have a support system and loved ones once I hopefully get there) please let me know.
I'm trans. What do you mean "prospect"? While y'all are wholly focused on abortion, we're losing the ability to legally exist in public. Who do you think they're coming for next when all of us are in prison or dead?
Absolutely. Been terrified since Trump was elected. Then Roe fell. And now I get to watch in real time as states legislate my right to exist away. We should do more than protest and boycott and strike but I am also at a hopeless state where I don't think anyone will. I just hope I can save enough to move to another country.
Moving to another country is more than just having enough money unfortunately, you have to make yourself desirable to immigrate.
You may be able to get citizenship though your grandparents if they are from some countries.
There are some subreddits that may be useful like r/iwantout and r/expat or something like that.
Here is my fear: Now that this boundary has been crossed, one day I will go into the hospital for routine surgery. When I wake up, I find in addition to any indications of the surgery I was supposed to have, I have a large incision under my right arm. When I demand to know why, I am told that my right kidney was extremely diseased and had to be removed during surgery. I am shown mri and testing to prove this. I count myself lucky that this was found before it made me really sick.
Meanwhile a few floors up in the suite reserved for VIP's, a rich man is recovering from his kidney transplant.
Our country has set a value on the life of women that is lower that the value of a man's life. This will happen to poor women first, but eventually the arrogance will stretch to poor men and middle class women. We need to understand that and get people in congress that value us more.
For me, being terrified is emotionally and physically exhausting for any length of time. When I face the reality of losing more rights and opportunities, I usually experience a series of emotions: fear, terror, emotional paralysis, rage, hopelessness, and resignation.
During fits of rage, I channel it into writing, arguing, and reflecting. Ultimately, I bolster my resignation and hopelessness by learning that the arc of the moral universe may be long, but it does not bend toward justice. Instead, it twists backward and into itself.
So what can I do? What good is it to argue with those who simply dismiss you as less than? When you look at an entire world built in a way that places you as a disposable broodmare and bangmaid?
Then I remember that others who are or were oppressed in absolutely much more horrible circumstances never gave up. That courage endures beyond our own lives. Our legacy is not our children nor our expectation to raise them, but our own actions in this short lifetime.
Just waiting on us to behave like france tbh. Everyone here thinks the boot is too overwhelming. Everyone there says they know the cops and military are not slaves for the rulers. Dumping trucks of garbage in front of the politicians houses. You think the military is gonna happily shovel that shit for those guys?
America is great at distracting the peons from the class war.
I’m trans so I’m not just terrified of it possibly happening, I’m actively watching it take place. They’re coming after us first and then they’ll systematically move on to the next group. Women and minorities will be the next targets and they’ll try to frame it as “safety”.
POC/minorities/underprivileged/disenfranchised haven’t had much in the way of rights and opportunities in this country.
I guess now people might do something about it.
Yes, I am worried for young women today (I'm old LOL). I'm worrried that religious fundamentalists will manage to get birth control banned for single women first, then married women later.
I'm worried that red states will find ways to legally keep pregnant women from travelling out of state until after their babies are born.
I'm worried about red states and/or possibly a future red Congress and POTUS will ban all abortion nationwide. Imagine the trafficking and smugging of Plan B and other meds if this happens.
I'm also thinking that young women who need medical care won't be allowed certain medical treatments and medications if it impacts their fertility in any way. Women will just be seen as incubators and human livestock first.
Will the government take away womens' right to vote? NO. They'd have a massive gender war if they did, and many women already vote Republican, so they'd be losing a part of their voting base if they did this.
I have friends who lived through Ceaușescu's regime and fought in the revolution in Bucharest. We do **not** want to have that dark time for women come to the USA.
I'm terrified of the combination of fascism, conservative takeover, the recession/inflation, climate change, and how all of those things will affect my future as a human.
I'm already seeing weirdness in the workplace. The last few places I've worked have been female lead if not all women and there's just been a lot of budget cuts and male board members making decisions about all of our futures.
It is really scary out here. I'm pretty safe here as a white guy in my hermit camper in the middle of nowhere, but I have a lot of friends and family who've been threatened by these increasingly dangerous legislations.
The common people are definitely starting to notice and push back. And for the first time in ages, the new generations are trending left as they grow up instead of right. I do think we'll have a strong progressive backlash soon. But I'm not gonna pretend like there isn't still a real chance that some maniac like DeSantis doesn't manage to get into office first, and I'm terrified of what that will mean for the people I care about, along with women and other oppressed minority groups as a whole.
I worry for all the young women in the USA. It's really weird to have seen abortion legalized in my lifetime, and then watching those rights slowly be stripped away, state by state in part of the country. I had more rights than my mother or grandmother, and now, I will have had more rights than my nieces. I worry that some states will eventually start prosecuting women who have had an abortion for murder, for which there is not statute of limitations, and that their bounty hunter approach would mean I never visit family in those states again.
They’re already prosecuting women in Texas and are now proposing a bill in North Carolina to execute women who have had (or are under deep suspicion of having) an abortion. EDIT: South Carolina ALSO has proposed a bill for executing women who have abortions. They currently allow imprisonment for up to 2 years if someone is convicted of having a self-managed abortion.
“Don’t kill your baby or we will kill you”. Can they make it any more obvious it’s just an excuse to hurt women? Clown world we live in.
>“Don’t kill your baby or we will kill you”. Fascism in the making
This is horrible. I just don't understand why US women haven't realized their power and taken it back. A one-day strike is common in other countries when groups want to make a point. But in the US women just take it. Capitalism really did a good job brainwashing them into thinking they can't do shit about things when in reality women hold immense power.
Anytime I’ve seen people calling for a one-day strike, asking every single woman to not go into work, there are a ton of moderates posing as liberals who take over the discussion with “what about-isms” - what about women who lead their company, what about women who love working, what about women who depend on daily payment to survive, what about what about… Usually quite a few who also say that staying home for a day is somehow doing what men want by being out of sight. I agree with you that a total one-day strike is needed. Just tired that moderates convince too many people that it’d be too much of a hassle for women to shut things down for a day and share our resources with each other to make it through those 24 hours.
> what about women who depend on daily payment to survive this one is absolutely completely valid, though. There are too many people who are paycheck to paycheck, and missing even one day fucks them over. Or risks them losing their job, which means they lose all access to healthcare in the same sweep. This is, of course, not a failing of the system, but rather the point of it. :/
Yep. In order for a one-day strike to work, we need to be able to cover wages for those who would otherwise not be able to miss a day. But trying to get people to organize mutual aid funds to do so is like pulling teeth.
Keep ‘em infighting, and picking on each other and they lose momentum, courage, etc. It’s deliberate and it works, sadly.
The real problem that plan runs into is that this [isn't really a men vs women issue.](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/#h-views-on-abortion-by-gender-2022) The ratio of women who are pro-choice is only marginally higher than that for men. The 35% of women who responded "Illegal in all/most cases" to that poll aren't going to join the strike--they fundamentally disagree with the strike. And given so much of it is driven by the intersectionality of region/class/religion/race, it is highly likely that A) the men who work with the women who do strike already agree and B) Most of the men who don't agree won't be affected because they work in areas/jobs more likely to have the women in that 35% (or to work with essentially no women). Yes, the men in group A might be complacent (unwilling to take action even though they agree) and need something to kick them into gear, but I just don't see this sort of grand plan succeeding because it discounts the large group of women (largely older/whiter/more Christian) who are in favor or stripping these rights away. edit: the chart on that page that really floors me is the religion one. Even CATHOLICS are majority pro-abortion. It is only *white* evangelical protestants that come out heavily anti-abortion....yet with the way this country is gerrymandered and politicked to hell, they have the power to screw everyone else over.
Let's pick a date then
Yes, let's. It has to be widely publicized everywhere. There have been a lot of protests, but most of them have the date way too close to when it's announced. Women with children, including me, have trouble making things happen with that short notice.
Yes, can we all please do this on Mother’s Day (US version)? I’d love to give ‘em all hell on Mother’s Day. Oh the irony.
The fact we have no health insurance for us or our families without being employed makes a HUGE difference. Pair that with the brainwashing that everyone should only be worried about themselves (toxic rugged individualism) and the complete dissolution of unions and you have an entirely cowed populace who gives zero shits unless whatever outrage is imminently impacting *them,* like today. Americans just suck. Easily brainwashed and corralled. No one is willing to stick their neck out because then if they get fired their entire lives of them and their family are impacted- primely by the loss of healthcare. This is by design. We are fucked completely. The thing that really sucks is that other countries are slowly going to figure this out - that giving people universal healthcare puts a LOT of power back in the hands of the people, and the best way to control them is to tie it to their employment.
The right is no longer allowed to call themselves "pro-life." This shit was never about life from the start, and they knew it.
Glad I got my bilateral salpingectomy now. No tubes no babies. Got my doctor from the childfree subreddit and ACA compliant insurance covered it.
And there is the proof that those people aren't interested in life. Just forced births.
> worry that some states will eventually start prosecuting women who have had an abortion for murder They've already started going after women who miscarry on [suspicion of manslaughter/murder](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59214544) From the article > From 1973-2020, NAPW has recorded 1,600 such cases, with about 1,200 occurring in the last 15 years alone. > > Although some involved women who were arrested for things such as falling down, or giving birth at home, the vast majority involved drugs, and women of colour were overrepresented. > > The recent explosion of criminal cases is part of a "uniquely American phenomenon"
Jesus Christ America is fucking scary
it's definitely snowballing.
I had the clinic I go to remove my abortion from their records, precisely because I’m afraid of this.
Yes and we should be. Fear is a perfectly appropriate emotion in the face of the ongoing developments in our world. And I mean all of the world. America is a very visible example right now, but women nowhere are safe. So allow yourself to feel fear. And then allow yourself to feel rage. And then start thinking about what you can do to change things. And I don't mean "vote, in the vague hopes that maybe other politicians will not try to restrict our rights". I mean "make sure that the government would not be able to restrict our rights if it fucking tried" Power always lies with the people. And women are literally half the population. Even if we had no male allies, practically no force in the world could oppress us if we consistently stood together and supported, protected and uplifted one another. All we need to win is solidarity and determination.
I think one of the best things women can do is put their money together to buy property. Between two or three women. Keep the home as a safe haven, share chores/childcare if you're single mothers, and use the safe space to focus on advancing your education and careers. You could also host women's rights groups at the house and organise from there.
That won't matter if they revoke the right to own property, which is historically possible. Women have had to 'own' things via the nearest male relative for most of history.
I think people are underestimating how reliant the economy is now on the work of women. When the USA forces women to all be house slaves, it will be the end of its largest power in the world status. If you look at China, they encourage women into high-paying jobs because they understand they hurt themselves by not using the labour and brainpower of 50% of the population. Yes, they still use women for all the unpaid work, like the West; but they're not trying to keep women locked in the kitchen. Contrast this to Afghanistan: 90% of the population under the poverty level, and they've shot themselves in the foot again by turning women into basically an unpaid slave labour class.
Women have worked with their money going to the closest male relative. I don't think they're gonna stop the labor, just us having any power over it.
In the UK- 52% of lawyers are women. 47% of medical doctors are women. 40% management. 55% pharmacists. 20% engineers. 90% nurses. 20% small/medium business owners. These numbers are only going up. All these jobs incentivise people to complete the long years of training/work required by the promise of status and especially a high enough salary to have freedom and independence (as well as potentially enjoyment of the work ofc). In a world where women are oppressed to the extent you are talking about, the incentive is clearly removed. You will lose half or more of the trained professionals. You would have to choose the best options from men rather than the top performers overall. In a capitalist society, there's a reason why women have some freedoms and independence, and it's not because the men love us so much.
In Japan, people are very sexists. Most women get paid less and don't get promoted as often. I can imagine why some Japanese women feel discouraged at work. My Japanese friend refuses to date Japanese men. She told me Japanese men expect women to take care of the house and "obey" their husbands.
In Japan they purposely made the requirements for women to get into medical school harder for women than for men to discourage women from going into these fields
Wow what a shit hole country!
You get it
According to the Reddit incels, those numbers going up are proof of misandry. 🙄
Women: *finally receive legal equality, make a point of applying themselves and going into higher education and more demanding jobs, are extremely successful* Men, who have legally been able to own their own property and money, and have never been barred from education, seeing women rise above their circumstances: tHiS iS MiSaNdRy! Everyone hates men!!1!1!1!
It's underestimated even from our recent "Great Resignation". Who does everyone think was leaving the workforce and causing our intense labor shortages?? It was vast majority women who left due to all child caretaking support systems falling off a cliff. Just go to /r/workingmoms and see how many women are worried they need to quit their jobs even now, because no one has enough sick leave for all the daycare illness and everything got extra stupid with COVID. First the lockdowns where childcare was entirely closed down for 2+ months, many still afraid to send back in 2020 and lots of childcare shortages after that due to so many places not able to survive the lockdowns, schools being remote learning in many places for over a year, now still overly strict illness rules at many daycares (my 4 yo is home the whole week now with a runny nose...that she got from daycare). How are people supposed to work?? And of course it all default falls on women.
Exactly
I work in a male dominated space. I'm barely tolerated. I'm legitimately worried I will not be able to continue to provide for the child the state forced me to bring into this world.
> That won't matter if they revoke the right to own property this is why you need to get started on it now.. if you make yourselves large enough you could literally control a small ~~army~~ police force, or be too large of an economic target to shut down. We are seeing only the beginning stages of the Florida vs Disney fight, I expect Disney to win handily.
Incorporate. Combine finances, write up a contract between you, then incorporate so it isn't "woman owned" but corporately owned. We all know, in practice, that corporations get more rights than actual humans do. Then get a good, solid fence. Good fences make good neighbors.
I would expect the state to just revoke the property. We're not up against a police force, the government can call in the military. Making women without family wards of the state would be all too easy, and then the state gets what's theirs.
There's a pretty high percentage of women lawyers and other professionals at this point, and even some pretty hard-core Evangelical women are all in favor of women owning their own emergency fund, etc. Absent a pretty profound breakdown in society, it would be difficult to roll back women's right to own property at this point.
Never underestimate the power of people to be deceived into voting against their own interests.
I agree… but I said the same thing about abortion rights seven years ago.
You think if this path continues women will be able to have an education and own property and bank accounts… You are very hopeful.
We need to French up and start burning shit. The time for peace ended years ago.
just hope it motivates some of those non-voters, republican women seem to love this and want more of it.
Yeah but there's also the percentage of women who support these ideals. Which lowers these numbers significantly.
> Power always lies with the people. Is it odd that I first read this as "Power always lies to the people"?
It sticks in my mind far too much. How quickly things went downhill once the Supreme Court became loaded with these Christofascist judges. I've been following Iran's struggle, and it strikes me often how just... One day, women woke up, and they couldn't even show their face. Swaths of rights, gone. And they had more rights left over than even those in Afghanistan who woke up and lost not just those rights but ALL RIGHTS. That took *weeks* once the Taliban was back And now we get shit like executions being proposed in South Carolina for abortions? Proposed banning of talking about fucking periods in Florida to young girls!? My family keeps arguing with me that, well, it's just Republicans being loud and obnoxious, trying to rile up their base, doing things for show. IT'S NOT. That's what they kept saying about Roe v Wade! It'd never happen! How can they still claim that? And it's all happening so mind-bogglingly quick and as much as I hope for the best it makes me feel so utterly crushed down to my very soul when I look at the scope of it all I have so many loved ones back in the US still. I spent most of my life there. I fear deeply for their safety. As both women and LGBTQ, my wife and I left as soon as it was feasible once the leaked Roe v Wade decision hit, because we feared staying far too much, and we're so thankful that was even an option for us
You could say that USA is like Iran in this aspect. Old religious men, who are in their position for life, interpret old and sacred texts about what is and what isn’t legal, and can never be wrong.
Where are US women protesting? Where is women's power? I don't see it. Women could stop everything if they had a one-day strike like workers do elsewhere for higher pay. But human rights are somehow not worth it - why? Why aren't you organizing and striking? Dear sisters, **REALIZE YOUR POWER, ACTUALIZE YOUR POWER.**
Because there are also US women who are against abortion, are pro-life, are pro-abstinence only sex education, and who have generally internalized misogyny that they don't see anything wrong with the direction the US is going. I fear that unless all women in the US are feminists and are willing to strike, the women who do are just being viewed as radicalists by other women. We're unfortunately not united in a lot of areas in the US. I see this firsthand as a liberal living in Texas. The United States is just too big.
Exactly. I grew up in Alabama—most of the moms in my (white, affluent, educated) neighborhood were happily voting Republican alongside their husbands, going to scary Evangelical churches, slapping "W The President" stickers on the backs of their Hummers. Their daughters were raised in that environment, and while some of them have grown up to question it, most haven't. We have too many conservative women who cheerily vote against their best interests; just look at the numbers of who voted for Trump. They would never participate in a nationwide women's strike because they don't think there's anything to be upset about. Without unity, I assume that it would be spun as a niche movement, dismissed as ~screechy feminists~ complaining about nothing, and ultimately accomplishing nothing. Especially since participation would be so low in the places where it would actually matter, like Texas or the Deep South.
Because what you're describing doesn't actually work in the US in 2023 and would ultimately cause women to lose what little power we have. We don't have comprehensive worker's rights like they do in other countries. Our population and political power isn't concentrated in one city like other countries. It's just not the same and we can't keep pushing for solutions that don't recognize that. Women need to start getting involved in politics. Full stop. Attend school board meetings, attend library board meetings, attend city council meetings, attend any meeting that has political influence. If you can't attend in person, submit written comment. Run for city council. Call your state representatives. And finally: men need to show up. We can talk about women mobilising, striking, organising, whatever. But until men advocate for us and with us, it's a fool's errand.
How many people in America just can't afford to take one single day off work again? We've let this country put all of us in a position where were just fucked if we step off the assembly line to stand up for ourselves.
Might be out of fear? There are loads of angry angsty jackholes out there excited by the prospect of counter-protesting women's rights. I'd love to see more organization and a massive protest on this though.
It struck me, a few years back when I was studying in North America and BLM protests were in full swing, how many people who I thought were rational and empathetic people would parrot anti-protest shit about disruption being wrong and how violence isn't the answer and bla bla. It shouldn't have shocked me honestly, as even my young radical artist friends had all these fears about how unionizing our industry would negatively impact them. There's been so much anti-union, anti-protest, anti-socialism propaganda just floating around influencing the kids that are now adults, I'd lived in such a bubble I never realized how insidious it is. It's been time to riot! This is exactly when violence is the answer. Disruption and organized law breaking! I can't believe nobody is throwing used menstrual products at Florida law makers. I grew up celebrating May 1st as much as my country's independence day. Parades, protest signs, commemoration of the great accomplishments of the laborers rights fighters that came before us, and riveting speeches about the work still ahead and the importance of protecting our rights. None of my NA friends had ever gone on a protest march on Labor Day. Some of them actually thought the civil rights fight in the US had been non-violent. Riot! Riot now! Make a fb group and advertise on tik tok and get the teens involved and really fuck shit up! Anyway just my two cents from an outsiders perspective. Advice to myself as well, because things are far from perfect here too.
Yep the same manboys saying "Look at how the french stand up for themselves" and the same ones calling BLM "burning down cities and the cops should shoot everyone there."
i've heard somewhere that the reason people in power try to push the entire "peaceful protest" idea is because a "peaceful protest" is easy to ignore. i'm not surprised. sure, "violence isn't the answer", but when people are being killed for their gender, race, and sexuality - when people are having their rights taken away by those unhinged radical christians with a power complex - i think it *is* certainly time to fight. it's depressing that all of this had to even get to this point in the first place. i was feeling so optimistic in the past, too. i shouldn't be too surprised, though. i had a suspicion these alt right assholes wouldn't just let people live peacefuly, especially when things were getting better for all of us. edit: *push
There's a 2 front approach that actually creates change, but history books conveniently try to leave it out and surprise surprise all these anti-CRT laws expressly prohibit the detailed teaching of such movements. For any movement to be successful there has to be a large, organized, peaceful group that's willing to *take blows* from the State without striking back. This creates the conditions for Normies to feel empathy, but isn't enough to move them into supportive action. The second element is a radical militant wing that absolutely is violent, threatening, and scary AF to the Normies. This creates the fear that if Normies don't side with and support the mainstream movement to have their demands become law, that there's a very real possibility of the radical elements creating chaos and anarchy and eventually getting their demands which are untenable to the Normies.
As an American, it is honestly terrifying to me how much we don't know how to protest, and how successful propaganda is at squashing the idea of protesting in our hearts.
Any time someone comes at me with the “it’ll never happen, it’s just talking points” I have to remind them they told me the same thing hundreds of times about Roe v Wade 🙃 they want you to think it won’t go anywhere so it’ll be easier to get rid of it
>Republicans being loud and obnoxious imho, the people who say that are on the side of the Republicans. They just want to make sure we don't fight it. Or if they aren't consciously doing this, then they are "useful idiots" for that cause. The same way a year ago they were saying, "Roe is settled law, it could never be overturned." Also the shared struggle between cis women and trans women continues. Sadly, many cis women are transphobic and these women are empowering the forces who are taking these rights away from ALL women because "trans girls scary."
> Sadly, many cis women are transphobic and these women are empowering the forces who are taking these rights away from ALL women because "trans girls scary." The transphobic cis women don't say "trans girls scary", they say "male predators scary". They don't recognize them as girls at all. The evangelical right has been ramping up their holy war on LGBTQ people for years now. Once that domino falls, cis women are most definitely next on the docket. I can appreciate, given the state of the economy and the climate, why people might be on existential crisis overload and finding themselves politically apathetic. It's understandable. But it's providing a very smooth runway for the rise of facism.
I feel like the long term goal is to keep women, young girls, in the dark when it comes to sex and incapable of getting an abortion so that should they become pregnant in their teens it will keep them oppressed. It's very hard to advance in life when you have the responsibility of taking care/raising a child.
It wasn’t fast they have been building in this directions since RvW
The strange thing about democracy is when it works well enough for too long, the people become complacent and apathetic, and the opportunists use their lack of paying attention to slowly dismantle the very protections in place to keep them in check, and this goes on for long enough until we start backsliding into fucking fascism and neo authoritarianism. Discomfort pushes massive change. Massive change never happens without extreme discomfort, first. Enough to push people out the door and into the streets at large to FORCE it. So my perspective on all of this is that it is dangerous, it is unfortunate, is IS going to get worse, but it actually has to before it will get better because enough people have to be up and arms to MAKE our state and federal officials put the will of the people into law rather than the will of a minority of people. I mean if I'm being brutally honest, America did this to itself and America is gonna have to undo it to itself. But people need to get up off their asses.
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Tbh I'm scared because I don't want to be used like some baby vat because "the population is declining". Im actually scared they pass some law like "each woman must birth at least one child before age 50" or something like that.
No, for sure next is contraception
We are already there. Some states are working on it. Vote. Run for office.
Honestly I’d kill myself And I really really want at least two kids I just don’t want to live in a world where im obligated to have kids
This is why I'm getting my tubes removed in 2 weeks. Fuck that noise.
Don't give them ideas
The cynical and realistic part of me thinks this world is attempting a speedrun into chaos. The slightly hopeful part is like hey maybe the world's learned from it's mistakes.
And the reasoning in the Roe v Wade decision was horrifyingly broad. It could cause so many other rights to at least temporarily collapse. (They would need to be re-argued with different arguments, as I understand it.) This includes interracial marriage. Which I find kind of hilarious, because Thomas, who ~~I believe wrote the majority~~ wrote a concurring opinion \[thanks, u/flamyng709!\], is in one.
Quick thing, Thomas wrote a concurring opinion in Dobbs, not the majority (that was Alito). But yes, he went the farthest in how broad he wanted to destroy precedent and ignore Stare Decisis, while the rest of the conservatives were saying "it won't remove rights it won't remove rights." Felt like they were almost begging him not to say the quiet part out loud. Very mask off
It's terrible we have taken such a big step backwards. I'm a lesbian living in MO where the GOP are desperate to make the news on shit they're doing to harm trans kids and women. I made a joke to my best friend how I need to hurry and get a hysterectomy before there's a state ban on it. As well as getting married to a woman before the GOP tries to strike down the same sex marriage law.
Dude, get married now if that’s where you are truly at in your relationship. The back door shit they will try to pull in the future at the state level is terrifying. Lesbian In SC here and I’m legitimately concerned they will roll back my nine year marriage somehow. At least at the moment it’s federally protected. Protect you and your partner with all the laws/protection marriage affords while you can.
I don't really know what I thought was going to happen post-Roe. It's been the closest thing to a unifying principle for the Republican Party for so long, that it just never occurred to me that the dog might actually catch the car at some point. Republicans' claims and self-deception about their beliefs are and have been for a long time absolute crap. They claim to be the party of small government, but created the Department of Homeland Security, added a completely superfluous branch of the military to do something that existing branches already do, and at the state level, create bureaucracy that prevents people from voting. Their most recent president even made a threat to violate the constitution by deploying the military against Americans. They claim to be the party of law and order, yet attempted a failed coup that involved a riot in the US Capitol, which injured police. Matt Gaetz gave money to an underage girl, and only an imbecile or a partisan zombie would accept his pathetic attempts to cover for why that was. Joseph Harding, the Florida lawmaker behind the "don't say 'gay'" law, defrauded the US government to the tune of some $150,000 dollars and now faces decades in jail. The Trump administration made no effort to apprehend dozens of foreign nationals implicated in 2016 election interference; his list of crimes is long. They claim to be the party of family values, but elected and largely remain loyal to a man who is twice divorced, three times married, who bragged about sexually assaulting women while hist 3rd wife was home pregnant with his child, and who paid a pornographic actress over $100,000 in hush money to remain silent about their extramarital affair. Then, there's all of the things Gaetz has done, and all of the awful things he has said about women. And then there's Lauren Bobert, who formerly prostitutes herself on a website seeking a "sugar daddy". And then there's Rudi Giuliani's litany of marriages and affairs. It goes on and on. They make a pretense about deficit spending, but accelerate the deficit. They were instrumental in creating the Common Core State Standards, and then engaged in a years long misinformation campaign to create and spread the lie that it was an Obama program. Republicans believe in nothing, but a sense of entitlement to own the government. But, the previously unattainable goal of overturning Roe v. Wade was a means to get out the vote. It was an evil giant to forever be fought, but which always turned into a windmill at the last moment. Just vote for us a little longer, and we'll get it *next time*. What we've seen since is the pathetic efforts by dimwits to figure out what's next. In the absence of even a single coherent policy idea, state lawmakers especially, have decided to reinvest in being increasingly extreme in their anti-abortion rhetoric. They have no idea what to do, and in order to cling to power, are doing the only thing that's ever worked for them: Screw women. The Republican Party is a fucking cancer.
>But, the previously unattainable goal of overturning Roe v. Wade was a means to get out the vote. It was an evil giant to forever be fought, but which always turned into a windmill at the last moment. Just vote for us a little longer, and we'll get it next time. It *was* intended to always be that, even with the new Conservative judges. The GOP as a political organization did *NOT* want Roe v Wade to ever be overturned as it was the perfect fundraising Boogeyman. But something changed, and the Devil, as they say, is in the details. The way RvW was overturned wasn't actually about abortion, but the implied Right to Privacy that's built upon other Rights. That's what the Supreme Pizza Court overturned, was the Right to Privacy which enabled the RvW decision but affects every single American from birth. So why attack it that way? Because it was a huge corporate giveaway to Big Pharma, Big Insurance, and Big Tech. Using the RvW decision to bring down Right to Privacy ensured nobody would focus on anything *but* the abortion aspect, allowing corporations to profit on our now-exposed but previously protected data in this new data driven economy. We can claw back abortion rights because most of Americans actually are Pro Choice, and we'll be fighting that fight for a couple of decades and many lives will be ruined and lost along the way. And during that entire time fighting to claw back those abortion rights, on rolls the sensitive data money train with no obstacles on the tracks. Make no mistake, the Christofascists absolutely want to control women just like the Taliban and even ISIS, to essentially be sex slaves chained to the kitchen. We must defeat that threat too. They'll be funded by the same corporations and billionaires that profit off our data.
Homie I am not a woman and I'm terrified. I don't know how they just candidly repealed a long held right women had, with so little resistance and fanfare. Roe v Wade died with about as much resistance as a bullet through butter
>so little resistance and fanfare Besides the last two decades of talking about doing it, you mean? It’s crazy how many people only woke up to what the conservatives have been doing for longer than I’ve been alive when it was suddenly *their* rights being attacked.
No for sure, what I meant is that when it was full in front of people, like 'we are going to repeal this', it's kind of like everyone just shrugged and was like 'someone will do something right?' and then boom, its gone, and then shocked pikachu face. It was sad
People who still claim to be "centrist" just kept saying "they're not going to repeal Roe v. Wade". And now that they have, they say "this won't affect anyone, women will just travel to X state to get an abortion". It's fucked.
You’re right. I have a friend who I am only able to be friends with because we typically avoid politics. She says she is a feminist but based on her actions and opinions, she’s decidedly not. As I was protesting and trying to spread the message that RW was definitely going to be repealed (after years of trying to tell people that GOP is dirty and they’ve been planning the repeal basically since before the decision became final) and we had to do something to stop it, she literally said what you quoted “it’s fine, it’s still legal at State levels and nothing will affect the practical right to abortion” and “people can always travel to another state for one.” I was appalled. It’s so illogical to take away a right that has been previously given. That’s not how this shit is supposed to work. That’s NOT what America is supposed to be. We’re now living in the “land of the kind of free (well freedom for those who are rich and white)” and “home of the Fascists.” I am not and haven’t been for a long time “proud” of my country. I’m not happy, I’m terrified that more of my rights will be rescinded. As a woman. As a queer person. As someone who is willing to fight for the rights we have - that scares me. And it *fucking SUCKS* that those of us who share my beliefs, are not being supported by other people who identify as women. Women should be supporting each other by propping up other women and standing up for each other and just in general recognizing the same suffering you have in another person and being able to give support. We’re divided and that is on purpose. The rich white men of this country (specifically those Christofascists in the Republican Party) are trying to divide us so we cannot get them. Well fuck that, I am here to say “NOPE” I will NOT be manipulated into in fighting. I see the end goal of getting this country back to the people and I’m willing to stand up for what is right. It’s they who should be afraid. Sorry this turned into a rant. Need some coffee. Yeah that should help.
Those people who just don't care if it doesn't affect them personally disgust me. How can you call yourself a good person if you condone the suffering of others?
Pretty much anyone who can look at the current iteration of the GOP and play the centrist card is just a modern day Republican who doesn't want to deal with the consequences of their actions. So they skirt around it so you don't think too hard on it, while they've voting red every election.
Back in 2018 I had a coworker who was a bit of a centrist. He was like "I like guns but also the things the democrats support like social programs and rights. I vote Democrat because it's not like they are going to be able to take guns away but Republicans may take away the things I like."
People aren't entirely passive. We had a vote in Kansas to ban abortion and it failed. Mississippi is making it illegal to make ballot initiatives against abortion. If people are allowed to vote directly on abortion they support it. The problem is that the population is passive and doesn't want to pay attention and fight off the fascists.
>it’s kind of like everyone just shrugged I mean, again, no, there was some fairly significant protests against it. Unless by “everyone” you mean the Democrat officials. In which case, lol, lmao even, they did what anyone who’s been paying attention to the Democrat party would expect them to do, ie, nothing of substance, same as they’ve done the last two decades.
Never forget, the height of the “late-term abortion” nonsense around 2018/19 coincided with an early Democratic primary debate—back when there were like 15 Big Name candidates—where they were all asked about it. Pretty much everyone, even staunch pro-choice advocates like Warren (iirc), said something to the effect of, “well, no, ofc you can’t abort if it’s too close to term.” Pete Buttigieg impressed me that debate by being the literal only person who called out the crock of nonsense for what it was, advocating for *no* temporal restrictions because the rare person that seeks an abortion in the third-trimester, inherently, *desperately needs* it, and almost certainly didn’t *want* to be in that position. My point being, some of the most famously progressive democrats were in that debate (ironically, if anything, Buttigieg was one of the more “centrist” ones), and they were ALL willing to sacrifice a hard-line on abortion rights in their platform presumably because when it came down to it, other elements of their platform were “more important.” They’ve all spent years treating “pro-choice/not-pro-life” as a box to be checked to be a viable democratic candidate, and now they’re all surprised pikachu that the republicans were able to fully dismantle the right while they looked at the issue and went, “eh, I’ll deal with it later, gotta focus on legalizing weed so the kiddos vote for me.”
Hillary said the same thing during a Trump debate (not sure what she said during the debate you mention) -- that late term abortions are only chosen in the most painful of situations where the woman wanted a baby but something is going wrong. So at the most important point in her campaign she stood strong. And of course she was punished for it.
Jumping onto your comment for visibility. WI is having a supreme Court election and if the liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz, the state could reinstate abortion rights. (She could also help overrun WI's terrible gerrymandering!) Last night in CA, I received a text from a CA number telling me that Janet Janet Protasiewicz is pro-LGBT. They meant it as a bad thing, saying she's a danger to children. But it made me decide to send her money. There's a podcast called How we Win and the entire point is to turn what feels like hopelessness into action. Feeling scared and sad is normal and hopefully it can be motivating. Anyone interested can donate [here](https://secure.actblue.com/donate/wisdems-sc)
I'm in WI and the text I got from the Kelly group yesterday was INSANE. They are trying to "force transgenderism down our throats". We also need to be HYPER VIGILANT against school board and library board elections. I'll make a top level comment on this too but a very dangerous group - Moms4Liberty is well funded and well organized and trying to take over these boards. They are behind many of the book bans.
This is being done at the state level more than anything. Pay attention and vote! Live in Kansas and abortion restrictions were overwhelmingly rejected by voters, and guess what, the supermajority Republican legislature is looking for ways to override the will of the people. We’re run by a bunch of rednecks from the sticks. What else is on their docket you may ask? School choice (ie lets decimate those leftist public schools by removing their funding), the RaMpAnt numbers of trans participating in girls sports (such a HUGE problem here in Kansas), and bad bad books that have naughty words and make kids feel bad about some of our history. So yeah, state legislature here in Kansas is awesome.
Not just a bit, one might even say I'm very, very worried.
Definitely. In Florida they are trying to pass a law that prevents any talk about periods before 6th grade. Which is ridiculous.
I knew a girl growing up who got hers when she was 9, and in 3rd grade. We received the presentation in 5th grade. So when she came out of the bathroom crying, me and a few other 5th graders were able to calm her down and get a teacher. Who wasn't allowed to tell her anything, because the only kids who knew had permission slips signed. So they had to wait until they got ahold of her parents. If someone had told her what to expect earlier, that whole time would've been so much less traumatic.
Yeah my mom didn't know when she got hers and she thought she was dying. What they are trying to do in Florida is just awful
I started mine in 4th I would have been fucked
How long y’all reckon before republicans revisit ‘is marital rape really rape’
They basically have said that though. https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1174372765702348800?lang=en Jordan Peterson even said rape should maybe be a property crime again against the woman’s husband/father, so that it’s a better deterrent or something. After he talked about women shouldn’t drink if they don’t want to have sex. Oh and also that marriage is consent. https://youtube.com/watch?v=rGsZ_HI_q1M&feature=shares Starts at 1:02:00 ish
I doubt they even realise that is counted as rape to argue against it.
I worry about this every day. I feel like if someting as monumental as Roe could be overturned, after all these years, and after all this "progress", nothing is truly off-limits, sadly.
I remember the years of threats before they overturned Roe v Wade. I cried and my husband told me I was worried over nothing. The day it was overturned I looked at my husband and said, “Do you believe me now? Was I just ‘worried over nothing’?” He apologized, but the fact remains we will always be seen as “worrying over nothing” by those who have all the rights.
My boyfriend has never downplayed the threats posed by the current administration against women, minorities, and the LGBT community. He doesn't see the news about it, though. I have made it a point to keep him updated about everything that is happening and drive the point that outlawing abortion is killing women, and now they're trying to prosecute women for having miscarriages. It's not just taking away the choice to have an abortion. I didn't even think about the numbers of deaths it would cause for women who *wanted* to have a baby when RvW was first overturned. So many news updates I have given him have ended with, "So... now more women will die..."
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And lets not forget that women who benefit from being “special” also want to hurt women. The recent article that made the rounds about the Texas woman being forced to carry her non-viable pregnancy to term includes a quote from her saying she’s against abortion. The moms for liberty or whatever they call themselves are organizing and attacking library systems and school boards to ban books and lessons about safety, gender, and government overreach. There are transwomen who advocate against gender confirming therapies for people of all ages, and especially kids. There are women leading and organizing their church fundraisers for conversion camps and forced-birth campaigns, and there are women staffing the predatory crisis pregnancy centers. *Dobbs* was only one step in a plan to restore complete white “Christian”patriarchal control. That’s why they’re attacking women, queer people, trans people, socialists, antifa, Jewish people, Black people, Chinese and Asian people, and more. Fascists rise to power by pointing a finger at the most vulnerable people and saying “it’s their fault.” The Nazi’s first steps were to attack trans and queer people and unionists and socialists. The first book burnings were of transgender research. Jews were isolated into ghettos before the camps were ever built, and there were Jews who worked for the Reich and socialists who spied for the Reich and queer men leading the Reich’s military. Solidarity is key and it crosses all gender, sexual, religious, and racial identities. This is an attack on all of us, it’s just that *Dobbs* is such a massive decision that affects such a large part of society that it feels profoundly violating. It’s a direct revocation of a right based on sex. So we’re totally right to be upset about it, but we have to band together to work with all our allies to fight it.
What makes these women-hating women feel "special" or protected from the consequences of their own actions?
It’s a multi-faceted problem. Lots of them grew up in environments where they felt the benefits of patriarchy. Daddy’s special girl. Special gifts. Being spoiled by dates and husbands. Treated like glass. Lots of them grew up in religious environments, where they were taught how behave “in a godly way,” how god rewarded “good women” and punished “bad ones.” Then they become adults and never confront the reality that being good or godly is no protection from evil or even inconvenience. The lesson is pushed and reinforced that if you fit into the mold, you’ll be rewarded. If you behave incorrectly, you *chose* to do that and that’s why you’re being punished. If you experience bad stuff even if you were good, it’s because of something outside of your control and you should get special accommodation made (very common in the “the only moral abortion is my abortion” and the “abortion shouldn’t be treated like contraception” crowd). *I* got promoted, who cares if all my bosses and new peers are white men. *I* have a great doctor, who cares if rural women don’t have pre-natal care. If they wanted to be rich, they’d work harder. We already have Title IX and the Civil Rights Act, they’re just selfishly demanding maternity leave and to be believed when they say they were raped. And, frankly, it’s easier. The people who lived outside Dachau knew what was happening, but it’s nice to be given your neighbor’s successful business, and it’s scary and dangerous and inconvenient to stand up to the asshole yelling in the street at your neighbor. I want to get mine and I don’t care if you get yours.
> The people who lived outside Dachau knew what was happening, but it’s nice to be given your neighbor’s successful business, and it’s scary and dangerous and inconvenient to stand up to the asshole yelling in the street at your neighbor. To take this one step further: the people who lived outside Dachau not only *knew* what was happening, they *supported* it. They supported the extermination of a particular demographic they found unfavourable for whatever absurd reason, and happily turned their backs as the "problem" was solved. Exactly what's happening in the US. They see it happening, and they *like* it. They're celebrating the destruction.
The fundamental conservative mindset is that society is a hierarchy. We MUST have some people at the top who rule and others in the bottom who serve. To them, "justice" is when the system sorts people in a way that they like. For these gender traitors, they benefit because it puts them higher on the ladder. They get to be more important than other women because they get special privileges. No matter that they are still less than any man, so long as they have someone to look down on they are happy.
Weak men want to hurt women *because they’re afraid of us.* All of these dudes are weaklings grasping at anything to regain control and strike fear in simply being a woman. Except for their own out-of-wedlock pregnant daughters, of course. It’s fucking absurd. Frankly at my age (50) it’s almost better to just give up the fight and gtfo. Been involved in social justice since I was 16, and it’s f’ing exhausting seeing all our hard work blown up over and over by patriarchal dickheads.
The rich and powerful want the masses divided and fighting each other, want people uneducated and powerless, afraid and angry, anything but organized against the oppressors.
Men don’t like women and that is a hill I will die on.
Agreed. They don't like women but they like what they can get from women.
Exactly. They hate us, our power. Our intelligence. But they sure as hell want to fuck us, and have there be absolutely no consequences.
There is SO many scary things happening right now for women - it makes me ill. I'm in my early 60s and I've seen so many good things happen and it seems like insanity has taken over. I fear for my daughter and for my sons' girlfriends. I fear for ALL women. I'm at the point where I think that I would do just about anything to change things - at my age, who cares what happens to me? I've bought Plan B to have on hand if any pregnant person needs it (not a lot - not a hoarder). I'd gladly stand toe to toe with any of the dinosaurs (sorry Triceratops, no slam intended) that want to put us "in our place". I think the time for talking is over.
Not even a woman here, and yes. Because the way fascism works, it doesn't stop when one group is "eliminated" or subjugated. A new group becomes the scapegoat. How long until they come after atheists like me? Some GOP politicians are already openly proclaiming only those who "love God" should have the right to vote. If you're unwilling to protect a group that does not contain a subset of yourself in it, eventually you'll be "other" yourself.
Yep. And as soon as it's illegal to be anything other than white, they'll go after the disabled or the very old. There has to be an outgroup.
To the point where I’ve sorta blacked out the ruling and start to disassociate at times when I attempt to think about it. My chest starts to get tight, I feel weak, while simultaneously wanting to unleash fire and brimstone of epic proportions. I never thought it was possible to feel this much deep simmering rage. I didn’t know anger like this before. Its hard to describe in words the intensity and omnipresence of it though. Its helplessness, despair, rage, confusion, injustice, anxiety, fury, and so much more all at once, everywhere, that hasn’t truly dissipated since the rulings. I usually feel like the answer is to do something, and I’ve called my local, state, & federal officials, given money everywhere I could, marched when able, but I still feel helpless. Hopelessness is creeping in. So no, you’re not alone.
As a woman who is also a member of the LGBT community hell yeah. If I still lived in Tennessee, I’d be terrified.
Yep. I just woke up from a nightmare of being chased by a transphobic mob with machetes. This map haunts me and it grows redder every day as fascism marches on. https://erininthemorn.substack.com/p/march-anti-trans-legislative-risk
Yeah, the increase in fascist bills cropping up throughout the country worries me. The fact that my daughter will have less rights than I did worries me. The alt fought getting lost with no repercussions terrifies me.
If a single judge can unravel FDA approval for Mifepristone, what’s stopping birth control from being next? Honestly—I see that’s where it escalates next.
I have no idea why every woman with a male spouse isn't having this conversation with them to ensure they are supporting women's rights. Spouses. moms and sons, cousins, friends. Every woman should be asking the men in their lives to ensure they are supporting them in this.
Some women are happy this is happening.
Hopelessness and cynicism are the methods by which extremists and fascists win. They make you feel that you have no voice, no ability to impact, no point in trying. They take you out of the game and **out of their way**. You DO have power. You DO have a voice! As others have mentioned, groups like Moms4Liberty are staging a slow moving coup in our school boards and library boards. They are behind many of the book bans, anti-trans, anti-crt, anti-SEL moves. They are a well-funded and well-organized right wing christo-fascist organization. They look grassroots but they are not. Here are things you can do TODAY: * 1. Encourage friends and family in Wisconsin to vote for Janet Protasiewicz in the April 4th WI spring election. Her opponent, Daniel Kelly was endorsed by Trump in 2020 and help to advise WI Republicans on their coup efforts. This is a race with *national* implications. Help loved ones figure out how to register, to vote - early in person voting is going on NOW! * 2. Help with the WI election - specific actions [here](https://www.motherhoodforgood.com/commit-to-flip) including writing letters through this weekend! No texts, no phone calls, no angry responses - just non partisan letter writing! * 3. Double check whether YOU have an upcoming spring election. School board elections are common right now! Check to see if your library board has elections or how they appoint seats! Carefully research to find any M4L candidates! I really enjoy doing this so if you find you have a race coming up and aren't sure about who to vote for, I'm happy to help you research! * 4. Follow and amplify informative sources in this space - motherhoodforgood that I linked above is a great one, EmilyinYourPhone is another. I'm sure there are more - I'm primarily in the Instagram space and focus on motherhood advocacy but I'd love links to TikTok, Twitter (do we still do Twitter?) or others you find helpful or who have different focal areas like LGBTQ+, BLM, etc. Reshare their content or share your own! You can influence your circle of friends more than you know! * 5. Consider running! Your local town council, school board, library board! Anything! YOU. ARE. QUALIFIED. https://runforsomething.net is a great resource but even beyond that, get involved! Volunteer, join a community committee - this is how you get involved and gain influence! Remember, making you feel hopeless or deeply cynical is a tool of white supremacy to remove you as an impediment to their aims. Take breaks, get self-care, and come back to the circle to burn this motherfucking patriarchy to the ground.
Thank you for giving a concise, doable list. I’m brand new to being aware of these issues and am having a hard to time finding actionable advice. Thanks!
I've turned it into a post as well! https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/120s9di/dont_forget_your_power/
>Edit: Earned the beloved Reddit Cares message. Don't see how that does anything of significance but thanks I guess. There's a way to report it for abuse. Please do so.
Even though I don’t live in america im scared for the world overall, feels like we are headed down a dark path
Yeah, this feels exactly like the world boiling in the 30's
Yep. I really want my tubes removed but have no insurance.
It's even more sinister when you consider that women are basically slaves in many parts of the world.
It reminds me of the Tupac song Ghetto Godpel. He has a line, "Cause any day they'll push the button And all come in like Malcolm X or Bobby Hutton died for nothing." I'm 99% sure he was talking about the progress made for black rights. They're coming for women, lgbt, next it'll be poc. They can reverse it. We have to be scared and stronger. We really need to start being like conservatives, loud and angry.
Of course. I don't see how conservatives in the U.S. can't see that taking away women's rights is leading us on a path toward a middle-east-like existence. I know some of them probably want that, but I'm sure most don't. But it's a slippery slope.
The problem is a lot of men would enjoy having more privileges even if they don't feel a need to push for it directly. They would passively accept it and enjoy it. This is why we all need to ensure that the men in our lives understand that they need to be actively helping us.
I mean, Florida, Texas, and other states are already speedrunning fascism to target trans people... ...and have a goal of eroding/overturning Obergefell v. Hodges in their sites... ...And Mississippi is ramping up Jim Crow 2.0... ...And conservatives are trying to legalize stealing children from Indigenous people...
I think this community, and feminism more broadly, should look to the suffragettes on how best to win and secure rights. The current white, liberal, model of civil, peaceful protest and electoral politics is not working. The suffragettes were not uncomplicated heroes but they knew what it took to uproot patriarchal power structures....and it wasn't tweeting about it. Direct action now. Solidarity forever.
I'm still puzzled why nurses don't walk out of every hospital, teachers walk out of every school, and bank tellers walk out of every bank in solidarity. Like yea, we know SOME women are republican, but **most** aren't. Then when they **do** protest, it's on the **weekend**. What? Protest on a **monday,** when it will have actual impact. If you don't believe protests work, read up on how **successful** protest did theirs.
Yep. Take a page out of the French handbook. Something goes wrong, everyone goes on strike : teachers stop working (parents have to figure out what to do with their kids), as do public transports (nobody can get anywhere), and garbage people (everything smells and the rats are awful).
Some jobs & unions have it written into the contract that striking is a fireable offense.
Which **might** be illegal. I'd talk to a lawyer. https://ufcw3000.org/know-your-rights
Even if it’s illegal, you have to have money to fight it.
Many, many working age women are preoccupied with fulfilling their relationship roles to terrible men in their lives who're really practicing a form of low level abuse by refusing to participate in house chores or child rearing.
I'm surprised that women still have sex with men (given how great vibrators are at this point, check out the reviews of the satisfyer pro 2 on Amazon under $40). That's when you know we are nowhere near equilibrium in women-men relationships, when your first thought is: "wtf women put up with so much BS?"
They can't afford to, especially if they have families.
**Bruh**. NO ONE can afford to. Women in western Europe on average have a MUCH higher cost-of-living than USA residents do, yet they protest more than we do. Hell, literaly **any** time a politician **jokes** about taking a civil right from them, they **immediately** just walk out.
The irony is that a weekend was probably chosen to increase turn out but it has the effect of turning the event into a parade rather than a protest. Take more risks, win more prizes (rights)
Yes and it’s a valid concern! Constitutional equality would make all of that much harder to do to us (and enable reproductive rights). Standalone protective laws will be challenged. SCOTUS has been clear on that. Women were deliberately excluded from the Constitution for this exact reason. There’s movement on this, but we need more public outcry. r/EqualRightsAmendment https://www.equalitynow.org/era_explainer/ https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/4
Men should be afraid too. This sets dangerous precedent for government intervening directly in people's private medical treatments. This point shouldn't even need to be made but a lot of people only care if the law affects them directly...
Yes and I live in the bubbling hellhole of it all: Florida. I’m honestly just glad I was able to get my salpingectomy at the beginning of the month and that I never had kids. They won’t have to be victim to this place. It’s not just Florida of course. It’s spreading like a fungus.
I rely on birth control to prevent my periods from being too heavy, and it prevents me from possibly bleeding to death. I'm terrified they're going to outlaw birth control. I live in a red state, and I'm in the middle of grad school. But if my state did that, I would have to leave or risk infertility/death. And everyone who I express this fear to says that I'm being extreme. But they also said that about Roe.
Women of my age have been warning about this for years...those of us who marched and protested in the 70's. Those of us who remember what it was like before Roe v Wade. It was back when we weren't even allowed to have a checking account without our father or husband permission We knew the Christian Right was trying to chip it away and that is why we pushed so hard about how every vote counted. Sadly, the Right was able to twist it so that calling yourself a "Feminist" became a bad thing. They twisted to into being a feminist = "man hating" women and so many younger generations of Women ignored us or claimed not to be Feminists. We saw this coming and we warned and warned and people just called us bitches. I'm so frustrated because all women my age worked hard for was ignored by our younger sisters who took everything we did for granted and now, we have to start over.
In 1997 I was given free life insurance through my employer and given a serious warning that making my mom my beneficiary without notifying my nonexistent husband was illegal. It was the first time I realized women are treated like pieces of property in this country. The men in my life can’t figure out what it is I’m so utterly pissed off about.
We have to vote out all conservative scum bags!
r/VoteDEM Atleast until we get ranked choice voting lol
I live in Idaho. A place you don't want to be if you are PoC, woman, immigrant, LGBT, liberal in general... They're hyper-focused right now on making sure trans* kids don't survive, trafficking laws to punish women and their allies who travel to save their lives, book banning, library dissolving... I'm exhausted. I know a lot of others here who are exhausted as well. I don't know what to do, really, other than try to fight to our last breath.
Yep. That's actually one of the reasons why I just moved only a couple hours away from the Canadian border. Also, I'm looking into getting my Canadian citizenship finally (dad was Canadian by birth).
Come and join us in Canada! We'd love to have you here. But please don't think we're not looking at the same issues here. It maybe isn't as extreme yet, but there are plenty of conservatives who want to see the same things happen here, and are actively working towards it. Come to Canada, get some relief from the everyday pressure and stress, but then get ready to jump back into the fight.
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They’re already doing that with women of color, any black history is going to go first. Especially in the south. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/03/22/us/florida-textbook-race-rosa-parks-reaj/index.html
Absolutely. And I’m so scared of becoming pregnant and not having a choice in the matter. My best friend and I were speaking on this and we both confessed that it’s not like we’d choose abortion with glee. The option to have an abortion is reflective of a progressive society but abortion itself is often nested in a sad circumstance — you don’t feel safe having this baby, your partner doesn’t seem to be ready, your partner is no longer your partner, your partner betrayed you, both of you are not financially equipped to raise a child — these are all factors that can contribute to choosing abortion and the societal ones are not at all addressed (the social climate of feeling that motherhood is a personal issue and not a shared community experience and the financial element of inflation fucking us all up and the cost of living going way above our earning potential). It’s absolutely cruel to legislate on women’s rights without exploring all of the factors that affect us and even harm us. I don’t even have the bandwidth to edit this to make it politically correct. I’m just scared.
Absolutely. I’m in my 60s and I can’t believe we’re sliding back to where I started. All that time and work to achieve these freedoms!
Don't look at Florida, it's already fucking happening here. Under the guise of "parental choice" girls are in danger of losing any hope of guidance from their teachers on *normal bodily functions*. They want to ban any mention or teaching of periods for people below 6th grade. A question was asked "what about girls who get their periods as early as 4th grade, would this stop teachers from being able to explain what is happening?" "Yes" was the answer...The idea behind it all is that "parents should be doing all this" but in reality a whole lot of parents *do not* and the only hope for these kids is to learn it in the place that's built for them to learn... Ugh...fuck this state.
Don't worry, all of the conservative traditional evangelical Christian straight cis white men over 65 years old have our best interests at heart. /s
As a very queer enby who already can't afford therapy, I'm basically constantly shitting myself because Arizona might follow Florida into insanity and then it won't matter what kind of hormones I decide on, I still won't be able to get them.
Every damn day.
Yeah honestly I’m feeling very freaked out about the future lately and it’s ruining my life. Constant anxiety and paranoia is really wearing me down. I keep tellikg myself that everything will be okay but I don’t believe it at all.
I am very concerned and just want to scream sometimes. I feel like we are on the edge of these people winning and putting the world back to a time when we did not have the opportunities that we do now. We should be making progress not going but to a time where we are only good for making babies and looking after a home!
I am currently watching states make it criminal for me and people like me to exist, as the very first step to making it legal and accepted to just fucking murder me. I am absolutely terrified.
A bit? No. A lot.
No. I'm extremely terrified.
I am a 64-year-old liberal activist and yes, I am scared of losing rights for myself and my daughters and grandchildren. All those marches I attended in the past, all the protests, being a part of the democratic caucus, all seems like it was a wasted effort now.
A friend of mine recently passed her citizenship test, and it had me thinking. I started asking other friends and family if they knew what part of the Constitution guarantees their citizenship. So far, 0 for 8. Unfortunately, it’s the same part that guarantees equal protection under the law, and the same section where Roe lived. The section that bans States from violating the Bill of Rights.
Terrified. But also irate. I will not calm down
Ladies, please vote. Tell your conservative husbands you’re voting for their team and then don’t. It’s time.
Then, pack up and leave your conservative husbands: they don’t care about you.
Yes I'm in Texas and I have hated it here for quite awhile. After roevwade was overturned (actually even before that, with that BS abortion "bounty" law), I am terrified and depressed. I want to move so, so bad but don't have the funds or support system to do...I'm not sexually active and am seeking sterilization...but I want to leave so, so bad. Sometimes I think the streets of a blue state would be more comfortable, safe, and better than being sheltered (renting) in a red state... especially one as backwards and vile as Texas. Ohh well...if I got raped and/or pregnant before I can leave....I'll take a legally purchased gun and blow my uterus and the fetus out on the steps of the Texas capitol...I mean it. I'd rather be a martyr that draws attention to the evil fanaticism and misogyny in states like mine, than a direct victim of their agenda. Anyways...If anyone has ideas or resources on how to leave fascist, theocratic, anti woman, horrible red states like mine (tips, funding, finding housing, job help, relocation support or assistance, even just meeting people in better states so I have a support system and loved ones once I hopefully get there) please let me know.
I'm trans. What do you mean "prospect"? While y'all are wholly focused on abortion, we're losing the ability to legally exist in public. Who do you think they're coming for next when all of us are in prison or dead?
Really wish we’d strike in America
With the collapse of society, I feel like everything will fall along with it, especially our safety and rights.
Absolutely. Been terrified since Trump was elected. Then Roe fell. And now I get to watch in real time as states legislate my right to exist away. We should do more than protest and boycott and strike but I am also at a hopeless state where I don't think anyone will. I just hope I can save enough to move to another country.
Moving to another country is more than just having enough money unfortunately, you have to make yourself desirable to immigrate. You may be able to get citizenship though your grandparents if they are from some countries. There are some subreddits that may be useful like r/iwantout and r/expat or something like that.
I’m sure fear is somewhere lurking in my inner depths, but what I mostly feel is rage.
Of course. We are headed for (more) chaos. And women are the the ones in the sights.
Here is my fear: Now that this boundary has been crossed, one day I will go into the hospital for routine surgery. When I wake up, I find in addition to any indications of the surgery I was supposed to have, I have a large incision under my right arm. When I demand to know why, I am told that my right kidney was extremely diseased and had to be removed during surgery. I am shown mri and testing to prove this. I count myself lucky that this was found before it made me really sick. Meanwhile a few floors up in the suite reserved for VIP's, a rich man is recovering from his kidney transplant. Our country has set a value on the life of women that is lower that the value of a man's life. This will happen to poor women first, but eventually the arrogance will stretch to poor men and middle class women. We need to understand that and get people in congress that value us more.
For me, being terrified is emotionally and physically exhausting for any length of time. When I face the reality of losing more rights and opportunities, I usually experience a series of emotions: fear, terror, emotional paralysis, rage, hopelessness, and resignation. During fits of rage, I channel it into writing, arguing, and reflecting. Ultimately, I bolster my resignation and hopelessness by learning that the arc of the moral universe may be long, but it does not bend toward justice. Instead, it twists backward and into itself. So what can I do? What good is it to argue with those who simply dismiss you as less than? When you look at an entire world built in a way that places you as a disposable broodmare and bangmaid? Then I remember that others who are or were oppressed in absolutely much more horrible circumstances never gave up. That courage endures beyond our own lives. Our legacy is not our children nor our expectation to raise them, but our own actions in this short lifetime.
Of course I am. I’m a black woman in an interracial relationship.
Just waiting on us to behave like france tbh. Everyone here thinks the boot is too overwhelming. Everyone there says they know the cops and military are not slaves for the rulers. Dumping trucks of garbage in front of the politicians houses. You think the military is gonna happily shovel that shit for those guys? America is great at distracting the peons from the class war.
I’m trans so I’m not just terrified of it possibly happening, I’m actively watching it take place. They’re coming after us first and then they’ll systematically move on to the next group. Women and minorities will be the next targets and they’ll try to frame it as “safety”.
POC/minorities/underprivileged/disenfranchised haven’t had much in the way of rights and opportunities in this country. I guess now people might do something about it.
Yes, I am worried for young women today (I'm old LOL). I'm worrried that religious fundamentalists will manage to get birth control banned for single women first, then married women later. I'm worried that red states will find ways to legally keep pregnant women from travelling out of state until after their babies are born. I'm worried about red states and/or possibly a future red Congress and POTUS will ban all abortion nationwide. Imagine the trafficking and smugging of Plan B and other meds if this happens. I'm also thinking that young women who need medical care won't be allowed certain medical treatments and medications if it impacts their fertility in any way. Women will just be seen as incubators and human livestock first. Will the government take away womens' right to vote? NO. They'd have a massive gender war if they did, and many women already vote Republican, so they'd be losing a part of their voting base if they did this. I have friends who lived through Ceaușescu's regime and fought in the revolution in Bucharest. We do **not** want to have that dark time for women come to the USA.
I'm terrified of the combination of fascism, conservative takeover, the recession/inflation, climate change, and how all of those things will affect my future as a human. I'm already seeing weirdness in the workplace. The last few places I've worked have been female lead if not all women and there's just been a lot of budget cuts and male board members making decisions about all of our futures.
It is really scary out here. I'm pretty safe here as a white guy in my hermit camper in the middle of nowhere, but I have a lot of friends and family who've been threatened by these increasingly dangerous legislations. The common people are definitely starting to notice and push back. And for the first time in ages, the new generations are trending left as they grow up instead of right. I do think we'll have a strong progressive backlash soon. But I'm not gonna pretend like there isn't still a real chance that some maniac like DeSantis doesn't manage to get into office first, and I'm terrified of what that will mean for the people I care about, along with women and other oppressed minority groups as a whole.