South Dakota Lawmakers Stomp on Women’s Rights
Prior to Roe V Wade, abortions were either limited to the “life of the mother” standard, or no allowed at all. The Supreme Courts ruling meant that individual states could not force a women to have a child, because it did not have the right to interfere with her right to determine the issue for herself. The court did not use the rhetoric or public displays of support by either side of the issue to make its decision. Instead the justices used the Constitution of the United States as the basis for their ruling. To my knowledge, the Constitution has not changed.
What the Supreme Court did in its decision was to free women, rich and poor, from back alley abortions that threatened the life of the woman. It saved them from potential black mail. And it saved rape and incest victims from having to carry to term and raise a child whose conception was not of their choice and a horrific event in their lives. North Dakota’s legislature would ban abortion in cases of rape and incest, and potentially allow rapist to have a part in the child’s life with full parental rights. This would force women to deal with the rapist repeatedly. For the women it would be like being raped over and over again.
If the Constitution hasn’t change, what has? An ultra conservative, religiously inspired zealots who wish to force their moral values on the rest of us now drives the politics of this nation politics. Slowly, and not so subtly they have been chipping away at the freedoms that we all assumed were unassailable. The governor of South Dakota stated publicly he was a staunch Christian and “Right to Lifer” and would sign the bill. Does that mean he has the right to stomp on not only women’s rights but on a Supreme Court decision based on the Constitution of the United States? No, no, a thousand times no, this country is based on the separation of church and state. That means that the state cannot interfere in the church, and that the church is to be kept out of state affairs. The only way the church can effect the affairs of state is by voting as an individual.
Perhaps, it’s time for all the women in the United States to put aside their petty differences and unite to protect their sisters from the whims and dogmas of men who want to again trap us into the hell of being considered chattel. Lincoln freed the slaves, isn’t it time that we women freed ourselves from second class citizen status and took the lead. We are the majority, now is the time to act like it. Get out and vote for candidates who espouse our point of view. Vote for qualified women-there are plenty of them out there. Let’s prove for once and for all that this is not a man’s world, it’s an equal world. Where women can expect to be protected under the law the same way men are.
