More Attacks on Women’s Right to Choose

Mar 20, 2023

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning women’s right to choose to have an abortion led to many women mobilizing and organizing around last November’s elections. In the six states where abortion laws or constitutional amendments were on the ballot, including Michigan and California, people voted in favor of women’s right to choose. These votes were in alignment with poll after poll that show that the majority of the population favor at least some form of rights to an abortion.

But despite this clear indication of what the population wants, some Republican politicians and well-funded right-wing organizations ignore any pretense to democracy and continue their attack on abortion rights. Many of these attacks are now going on at the state level.

There are currently somewhere around 200 bills in different state legislatures that would restrict access to abortion. Wyoming just became the first state to ban the use of pills for abortion. Many other states are pushing similar bills to stop medication abortion, which is the method that a majority of women use to end an unwanted pregnancy.

In a federal court in Texas, anti-abortion groups are trying to overturn the FDA’s (Federal Drug Administration) approval of the use of mifepristone, which is the first of a 2-pill procedure for safely ending a pregnancy. Right-wing forces also are trying to stop the distribution of mifepristone by mail.

In some states the attacks against abortion rights are in the form of proposed laws aimed at doctors who perform abortions, or even prescribe medication for abortions. They want to throw doctors and/or nurses in jail. A proposed law in Wyoming could send a doctor to jail for five years for performing an abortion or prescribing medication. A legislative bill in Iowa would mean ten years in jail. In Nebraska, a doctor performing an abortion would lose their medical license.

Other proposed anti-abortion laws are aimed at anyone who would help a friend or relative obtain an abortion. In Idaho, a bill would make it a human trafficking crime to drive a young woman to an abortion clinic. Under a state law in Texas, three women are currently being sued because they texted their friend information about how to get abortion medication.

For those politicians and groups whose goal is to block women from their right to choose abortion, nothing else matters, no matter how outrageous it may be. Are these same right-wing forces trying to pass laws to provide women all the resources and money they need to raise a child they may not be able to afford? On this issue, these hypocrites are silent.

Clearly women can’t depend on the laws or those making the laws to protect women’s right to choose whether or not to continue a pregnancy. Even in states where the Democrats are in the majority, they sometimes put limits on women’s rights. Democrats play these games too.

Those who protested and mobilized last year in support of women’s right to choose showed the way forward. They showed that the only rights people have are those that people are ready and willing to fight for. It will be the same in the future.