Women’s Rights Is Only The Beginning

Posted on by under History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Today the Supreme Court, once a fair and non-partisan branch of our federal government, is hearing a case to decide whether to uphold the recent Mississippi law banning abortions.  The general consensus is that the Court will, either in this case or the next one, do significant damage to Roe v Wade, if not completely overturn the 1973 decision that gave women the right to control their own bodies.

Make no mistake … this is NOT simply about abortion, about the fate of a fetus that might or might not otherwise become a human.  No, people, this is about women’s rights, about where women stand in the grand scheme of this country.  Make no mistake – the United States is still very much a man’s world where men, regardless of how corrupt, how cruel, how ignorant they are, are revered over women, considered somehow ‘superior’ to women by the majority of people.  Don’t believe me?  Look at the U.S. Congress and tell me how many women you see there?  144 women hold seats in the U.S. Congress, just under 27%, while women comprise more than 50% of the total population of the country.  Also notable is the disparity between parties … 105 of those 144 women are Democrats, while the other 39 are Republicans.  And frankly, among the Republican women in Congress are the likes of Margie Greene and Lauren Boebert … radical conspiracy theorists who are not in any way representative of women in this nation.

What’s next in the fight for women’s rights?  Will they take our right to vote?  To own property?  To divorce our husbands?  Women in this nation have had to fight tooth-and-nail for every single right we have, and now, thanks to the bigotry of the former guy and his court appointees, we stand to lose, stand to be shoved back into the dark ages of the nation’s history.  If the bigots have their way, a young girl raped by her father or an uncle will be forced to give birth to a baby, her life forever changed, forever damaged.  Thousands of unwanted children will be born into households where they stand no chance of a normal life, where food is scarce, where parents are ill-prepared to cope with another mouth to feed.

Given the current structure of the Supreme Court, I no longer hold out any hope for justice, for equality, for human rights to win the day.  The Court today is merely an extension of the Republican Party, the minority party and the radical religious right.  Separation of church and state is destined to become a tenet of the past as the Court supports the bigotry that is ingrained in the evangelical doctrine.  Sadly, women’s rights are not the only ones on the chopping block, but also LGBT rights and voting rights stand to take a knife in the back under today’s Court.

There is only one possible means of overcoming the radical right majority currently in the Supreme Court and possibly salvaging the third branch of the federal government, and that is for President Biden to add seats to the Court.  This is not as simple nor as straightforward as some would have us believe, but it may well be the last best hope this nation has of salvaging its democratic principles.  Without the checks and balances on the power of any one branch of the federal government, we are destined to become a nation ruled by religious bigotry, by men more interested in their own power and wealth than the well-being of the citizens of the nation.  I don’t know about you, but that is not a nation I would be proud to call home.  Think about it.

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47 thoughts on “Women’s Rights Is Only The Beginning”

  1. Every group has had to fight tooth and nail for the rights they have, women are no exception, nothing is given, it has to be earned. Yeah, the percentage of women in Congress does not represent the percentage of women population. Well, members of congress are elected, the numbers mean that there are more men campaigning to become a member of Congress then women. Also, members of Congress represent a district, not chosen on the basis of the sex of the population. Voting rights and LGBT rights are not on the chopping block, even though voting rights need to be reformed. Emily Dickerson’s works were published after she died….

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Jill, thank you for this informative post! I have seen it stated, on a billboard, I think, that “Democrats love to kill babies.” Nothing could be further from the truth! No one, Democrat or Republican, wants to undergo an abortion. It is sometimes the better choice between two evils.

    Legal abortions are better than dangerous illegal ones. Legal abortions to save the life of the mother, in the case of incest, rape, or to prevent a child from being born with a fatal disease…I wish Republicans were as good at implementing social programs for the benefit of single mothers and families living in poverty as they are at trying to force women to bear children who are destined to a life of poverty or illness.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Pingback: Women’s Rights Is Only The Beginning – Nelsapy

  5. Hello Jill. I don’t know if you read Heather Cox Richardson but she wrote in her letter today. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-1-2021

    Roe v. Wade was part of the dramatic expansion of civil rights after World War II, in which Republican-led Supreme Courts used the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution to enable the federal government to overrule discriminatory state laws and protect individuals’ civil rights. It was on these grounds that the court protected Black and Brown rights, interracial marriage, access to birth control, religious freedom, gay rights, and so on.

    Those who objected to such expanded equality insisted the court was indulging in “judicial activism” by overruling the state laws that preserved the power of white men. They worked to stack the court with “originalists” who would defer to the states. Now, finally, thanks to Trump’s three Supreme Court picks, the era of using the federal government to protect equality appears to be under deadly threat, although the laws that protect civil rights are popular: 58% of Americans want Roe v. Wade to stay in place, for example, while only 32% want it overturned.

    Make no mistake: it is not just reproductive rights that are under siege. If the Supreme Court returns power to the states to legislate as they wish, any right currently protected by the federal government is at risk. Justice Sonya Sotomayor made the connection to the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom today when she was questioning a lawyer during the oral arguments: “The issue of when life begins… it’s still debated in religions. So when you say this is the only right that takes away a life, that’s a religious view, isn’t it?”

    There is more in the post she made, and it scares me that the equal protection clause of the constitution is about to be gutted. Best wishes. Glad to see you posting. Hugs

    Liked by 3 people

    • I do get her newsletter, but given my current level of … or rather lack of … energy, I don’t always read them. I’ll make a point of checking out this one, though. Thanks, Scottie … good to be back, though I’ve got quite a ways to go yet before I’m fully back. Hugs

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  6. Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
    This is NOT GOOD!! … What will they come after next? … Damn this court!! … “The general consensus is that the Court will, either in this case or the next one, do significant damage to Roe v Wade, if not completely overturn the 1973 decision that gave women the right to control their own bodies.”

    Liked by 3 people

  7. Tongue-in-cheek: the best antidote to not being able to divorce your husband is not having a husband in the first place. Have a male partner, no problem, at least you know he is there because he wants to be, not because he “has to be.”
    As for the Supreme Court, don’t add more justices, just scrap the present set-up (by force if necessary) and start all over again, with a stipulation that what happened under Trump can never happen again.
    The present Court can do so much damage, not just to women’s rights but to people of colour and poor people and so much more, including favoring people of wealth over all others, creating a police state, and dispensing capitalist welfare, that it can and probably will destroy the America foreseen by your founding fathers.
    Executive order was a favourite tool of the Orange President, use it as a weapon against him. Cancel republican culture with an Executive Order dismantling the Supreme Court. PLEASE!

    Liked by 1 person

  8. During the Supreme Court hearing on abortion rights yesterday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor urged her conservative colleagues to follow precedent not politics in deciding the case. At one point saying : “Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts? I don’t see how it is possible.” Later adding : “If people actually believe it’s all political, how will we survive” How will the court survive?” You provided an answer that is presently being debated, as it should be, and should also be implemented sooner rather than later! Amongst the many articles I have read about the Supreme Court hearing there was one that stood out. The “Salon” columnist Amanda Marcotte wrote in her “Standing Room Only” : “Wednesday’s oral arguments were full of contempt for women’s lives, contempt for women’s intelligence and contempt for women’s very humanity. To be sure, Center for Reproductive Rights lawyer Julie Rikelman and Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar repeatedly emphasized that women are complex human beings who have as much a right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness as anyone. But it is like talking to a brick wall of misogyny offered by the Republican appointees on the bench.” The Supreme Court’s conservative 6-3 majority, thanks to D.T. and M.M., will continue to wreak havoc for decades to come…unless something is done to alter it. Wonderful to find you amidst my inbox again today! WHAK!! Thank-you!

    Liked by 4 people

    • So true … and the three justices that Trump appointed, all religious fanatics in my book, who would deny the concept of separation of church and state, are young enough to spend 3-4 decades on the bench, completely changing the face of this nation forever more. Sigh. Glad you liked seeing me in your inbox today! WHAK!!!

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  9. I don’t quite agree.
    Rich women will fly someplace, another state or another country, to get their abortion.
    It’s the poor women who are stuck, who can’t travel.

    When you ban abortion, it is an attack on poverty more than on women.

    Liked by 3 people

    • I think it’s more women because the far right hate the poor and feel they are Lee he’s on society. They certainly do not want to set aside more tax dollars

      Liked by 2 people

      • I wasn’t finished😥hit button by mistake…and I meant leeches on society…

        More of their money, actually to feed their children they were unable to make a choice about having or not.

        Liked by 2 people

        • You may have heard already Mary, but here in Texas a law was passed on Sept. 1, 2021 by our Republican run State Congress where any ordinary (vigilante-styled) “deputized(?)” citizens can SUE a young woman (teenager?) who is attempting to or has had an abortion… then receive a $10,000 bounty for doing so should they win the law suit in court! And that same young girl has only less than 6-weeks before she is deemed a criminal, law-breaker, facing punishments by the state of Texas.* 🥺 Yep, I kid you not Mary!

          Yes, Texas has an exorbitant amount of (escaped) Psych-Asylum patients running our state government—AND people’s bedrooms down here! Insanity running amok Mary. 🤦‍♂️

          * – Source: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/10/texas-abortion-law-ban-enforcement/

          Liked by 2 people

          • I think the effect of the law in Texas will be the same.
            There’s another issue there, though, because it effectively places a ban on somebody discussing it, for fear of making people complicit. It’s perfectly feasible that somebody might have been persuaded tyo keep the baby, but as they are prevented from discussing it, they’ll just go ahead and have an abortion. Which is counter-productive.

            I’m speaking from experience here, by the way. Ireland banned abortion for years, and women came to the UK to have them. Provided, as I say, they could afford it.

            Liked by 2 people

  10. what right in this country does a woman not have that a man does? to drive a car, to start a business, to marry who she wants, to run for political office, to vote, to be an actress, to protest, to teach the young?
    Have you ever considered that the reason there aren’t as many women in congress is simply because a lot of them do not choose that kind of career for themselves? probably not, you’re so focused on the negative of everything that you can’t even discover the positive in anything. if this country is so horrible, I’d politely suggest that you find someone where else to reside, how about iraq wher women have many more rights than they do here.

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    • 😆 … 😴 Along the same lines as leaving a blog-post that obviously touches a knee-jerk reaction nerve with you? Why don’t YOU choose not to read what doesn’t agree with your stomach—it’s called Confirmation Bias. 😉

      Or be more mature and leave something productive? THERE’S a novel idea! 😉 🤭

      Liked by 3 people

    • I have suggested to “conservatives” (upon my coming out of deep-deep conservatism as I saw the hypocrisy and destruction) that they could move to someplace like Somalia if they don’t like regulation (conceptually). I know this is off topic, but what might be good for the goose is good for the gander. The freeedoms women have now are relatively new, and there’s a residual of people who make availing ourselves of them a swim against a current. I was contemplating, recently, that many women in my youth wore head coverings like that of Ilhan Omar. They weren’t Muslim. This was a western tradition. A trace of it was/is in the fact that women could keep hats on inside; men were not to do the same.

      Liked by 2 people

  11. Pingback: Reblog: Women’s Rights Is Only The Beginning – This, That, and The Other

  12. Pingback: Women’s Rights Is Only The Beginning | Filosofa’s Word | Ramblings of an Occupy Liberal

  13. Jill,

    If I may beg your indulgence here Ma’am, I wrote a blog-series back in 2017 about Agnotology, or the study of human ignorance and knowledge throughout history. I’ve also mentioned this (lengthy) comment on another female friend’s WP-blog. In my 4-part series, one particular scholar I utilized frequently was Dr. Nancy Tuana of Penn State University; a philosopher of science and of feminist science-studies and theory who specializes in issues of ethics and science, but more importantly for here: Dr. Tuana has several poignant scholarly publications about the epistemology of ignorance, especially regarding women’s treatment throughout human (male, patriarchal) history.

    In Part 2 of the series “Women’s Issues & Rights” I began with Emily Dickenson’s following poem (first stanza only, for brevity)…

    “Wild nights — Wild nights!
    Were I with thee
    Wild nights should be
    Our luxury!”

    Her publisher was horrified and distraught by her words and whether to publish those first four lines due to “social norms” of 1860’s patriarchal puritan America. A woman’s menstrual cycle—as you well know Nan—was commonly (ignorantly) diagnosed by male doctors as “hysteria.” Pfft! 🤦‍♂️

    Along the lines of women’s sexual bodily rights, Dr. Tuana closely examines seven subjects concerning women’s bodies and pleasures for a contemporary understanding: Epistemologies of Orgasms, Unveiling the Clitoris, Fingering Truth, The Issue of Pleasure, The Either/Or of Women’s Orgasms, Sisterhood Is Powerful, and finally Bodies and Pleasures. All outstanding reads by the way.

    Along with many other profound lessons learned, here is what I found by Dr. Tuana to be utterly ASTOUNDING Jill in the domain of Abortifacients! Read on…

    It is as easy as sipping a cup of “Pride of Barbados” herbal tea and washing herself with the same herb/flower in a morning bath. Doing this shortly after intercourse, according to secret ancient medicine in the Caribbean islands, prevents conception safely and comfortably. In fact, a woman could do this repeatedly two or three days after intercourse accomplishing more assured results. Why has this profound medical knowledge NOT been circulated around the world, especially in European civilizations? That is literally the million-dollar question.

    Why? Civilizations over too many centuries have been male dominated, particularly from the pulpit, dictating what women can and cannot do with their own bodies! This NATURAL remedy (abortifacient) known botanically as the “Pride of Barbados” was well-known among indigenous tribes since the start of the 1500’s during the Era called the Age of Discover & Exploration by the imperial powers of Spain, Portugal, France, and Great Britain. The U.S. would quickly emerge and follow suit.

    Maria Sibylla Merian, a 17th century German-born Naturalist and botany-entomologist illustrator, documented that both Amerindians and African slave-women used the abortifacient flower almost exclusively because they did not want their child born into the slave-trade for life.

    Jill, imagine what this world, its nations, and most importantly women around the world might actually be like had men of power and domination NOT stopped this knowledge from reaching those Empires (e.g. the USA) and causing such a MASSIVE ripple-effect of global ignorance. Condoms and birth-control pills might never had become the most common (not 100% certain) tools for undesired, unplanned births. Instead, it can be grown right in your own back garden! Hah!

    And yet, in the 21st-century something so very very simple for women to employ and we STILL can’t figure it out mostly because of ignorant, badly antiquated Abrahamic religions/churches and too many males in positions of political power whom they themselves have no such birthing organs, etc, to compare, much less understand!!! 😡

    Talk about a comprehensive cluster-f**k by male ignorance for at least SIX (6) CENTURIES! Sheesh.

    Liked by 2 people

      • Fortunately Marleen, radical Pro-lifers (American or abroad) haven’t learned about such a natural, “planned happiness” flower-herbal tea as the Pride of Barbados, thank goodness. Perhaps in time its safe, comfortable “remedy” will be globally recognized, perhaps utilized a lot more given the fact that MOST (hyper-testosteroned) hetero men can’t seem to purchase or operate condoms, let alone have much foresight and responsibility with their Willy! Geeezzz. 🙄 Mention “vasectomy” and the little boys runaway crying! 🤭

        Anyway, I’d imagine that if radical Pro-lifers did find out about this natural flower-tea Happiness Remedy they’d find a way to ban it from all gardens, make it illegal too just so they keep control and power over specific demographics and genders of society, right? Because that’s what some mythical Yahweh/God/Allah commanded thousands of years ago. 🤦‍♂️ Hah!

        Liked by 1 person

        • This is getting really personal, but… on the topic of obtaining and operating condoms, I got together with my ex-husband like ten years after I separated from him. First off, he seemed to have assumed that birth control was no longer necessary (for me/him) because he had been with somebody (else) for a couple days who was past menapause (who didn’t require birth control — or theoretical protection from disease apparently). I didn’t know that’s what he was thinking, because I hadn’t known he’d been with anyone else (or, if so, who would’ve been a candidate). Then, after he put on a condom, I told him he needed to get the right size. (We had used them while married, at times, so it’s hard to imagine why he didn’t have this thinking ability. He had bought something that came about halfway down the shaft.) Next time around, I thought he hadn’t listened. But he said he bought something different. So I asked him in what way he thought it was supposed to be different. His answer was that he didn’t know. (This is an intelligent person who went to a near-ivy-league/ivy-league college and later got a masters.) 🤦🏼‍♀️

          Liked by 2 people

          • Your “personal” story Marleen is a PRIME example of the sort of numbskull thinking that too many hetero men (don’t) go through—for obvious reasons! Thank you for sharing this, truly! ❤️ It illuminates where MOST of the problem has squarely lied for over six (6) centuries!!!

            Liked by 1 person

  15. The tyranny of the minority Jill. That’s what we’re up against. Excellent post, and so good seeing you back in the saddle! Hope you’re feeling well.

    Liked by 4 people

  19. Glad to see you back and fighting Jill.
    The clouds of an ominous winter of ignorance and misogynist white privilege have not dispersed with the casting out of a creature of ridicule from The Whitehouse, far from it. The forces of the suppression having seeped up from the base of the pollution are rife; the mob has the Republican party by the throat.
    There will come a time when posts on social media will not be sufficient to halt this march into persecution and degradation.

    Liked by 4 people

      • Sadly the time is approaching when you will either be with them or against them.
        There can no longer be any grounds for apathy or fashionable cynicism. Those who still hold to those views will be swept up and suffer as much as the true patriots.

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