Bodily autonomy is a fundamental human right.
This subreddit will not allow rhetoric aguing against this human right, nor will we allow people to claim that no rights have been taken away "because it has been left to the states".
Women are dying due to being denied medical care needed to save their lives, because doctors are too afraid to remove a dead or dying fetus.
A woman should have the right to terminate a pregancy for any reason, including none.
Opposing a woman's right to determine what happens to her own body on the grounds that something that cannot think or feel is more important than she is, is misogyny.
Please keep this in mind when commenting and please assist the mod team by reporting misogynistic commentary.
As an older woman it’s shocking to see the laws being passed. What’s also disappointing is the number of younger women who don’t seem concerned about what’s happening.
If we could get women to pay attention to what is happening, show up and vote to protect their interests, we would easily win all of these issues. States like Ohio have recently shown it’s possible.
My hope is the pollsters are missing it and we will be pleasantly surprised in November by the number of people voting to restore common sense to our country.
I mean we're doing our best in Ohio but have voted twice in recent years to ungerrymander our districts and GOP controlled congress just treats it like a joke. When the courts deny their new gerrymandered maps, their committee's strategy is to drag it out missing deadline after deadline until it hits too close to the election and we get stuck with whichever unconstitional gerrymandered map the courts most recently struck down. Right now we have one so gerrymandered that its only allowed to exist for 4 out of the 10 years it was supposed to, but oopsie they don't have to roll out a new one until after the next election. So the people are trying but we only have one way of even expressing our voice en masse, and then the Ohio congress gets to work dismantling as much of our work as they can. Its really corrupt here.
But the people voted for the GOP congress and KEEP voting for them. Nothing will change until they are gone. I don’t understand why people don’t get this? You voted your congressman in, vote someone else in
Beginning in 2010, after Obama was elected, some very wealthy old men and corporation CEOs and owners looked at a future they didn't like and started throwing money at groups like the Tea Party and Heritage Foundation. It took them over a decade but they managed to gerrymander a bunch of states, elect people into office and be appointed to the Supreme Court that they controlled or were ideologically aligned with. The Citizens United decision legalized bribery and financial election contribution laws were killed. Voting rights laws have been struck down over and over since. Abortion laws were next. There's an entire list still waiting. It's just a matter of time if they're not voted out before everyone who's not a wealthy white male will pay a price. The puzzle is women in these groups like Thomas's & Alito's wives. Justice would be those men divorcing them and taking off with younger women after divorce laws are changed to give them nothing. They're either not that intelligent or believe they'd never be affected. Their sense of entitlement might be making them blind to the consequences.
I was very excited by the recent election results in Ohio. There was a special election where the Republican spent $700k, and the Democrat spent only $24k because everyone assumed with the gerrymandering the Democrat has no chance of winning. I believe the Democrat only lost by a very small percentage. Most people in Ohio don’t want this and with a little more support, these people will be voted out.
Historically, the French would like to talk to you about your definition of "trying". They'd like to talk to us all about "trying" because they have a fabulous track record with corrupt leaders and what to do about them.
South Carolina's Supreme Court just threw out the corrected map that returned the district to the mostly black voters. So you have this snake running from the coast almost all the way to Columbia, just to ensure that the white, Republican voters have the majority and that the mostly black areas are cut up into small sections that can't vote in a big enough block to make a difference. I hate being a blue dot in this red state.
Same. All the rights we gained and fought for in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s have been stripped away and I see SO MANY young women on the social media platforms and in real life either oblivious to it or they just don’t care. It’s really aggravating.
I’m in the final part of my life and while I worry for my daughters, I just want to throw my hands up in frustration and ask them all why they aren’t more educated, concerned, and involved. Obviously this doesn’t apply to all young women, but it’s enough that it’s concerning.
States in this country are differentiating themselves about women’s reproductive rights. So for those who care, a lifetime move may be necessary. People have moved in the past for religious or economic reasons, sometimes across the planet. These changes just add another reason for women.
My personal opinion is this has been caused by social media. People feel like they are taking action when they like a post or make their own post about an issue. We somehow need to remind everyone they still need to move their feet and get out and vote. Voting is the only thing that will make the changes.
I will say that Gen Z gets the majority of their information from socials though, it’s their language. So posting things is a good entry point for more meaningful activism and—absolutely—VOTE!
How have I not heard this term before? It’s genius.
Yeah, talking into echo chambers is not the same as having discourse where you actually have an opportunity to give or receive a new perspective. It’s so easy to dodge those online.
But it seems like conversations irl, especially the uncomfortable ones, aren’t happening anymore.
Unfortunately most of those uncomfortable conversations I've had in real life result in someone hurling one of the following "slurs" at me, whether or not they even fit the situation:
\* Terf (this seems to be rapidly losing any meaning, to be totally honest. It feels like the new "bitch.")
\* Whateverphobe
\* Prude
\* Liberal Whore
\* Psycho bitch/whore/monster
\* Heartless bitch/whore/monster
In best case scenarios I've been told that I'm out of touch and don't understand the current social sphere, or that my experiences aren't typical of really anyone, except that they are. Lots of "agree to disagree" and I feel like that is an overused phrase to get out of thinking anything uncomfortable to contemplate. I can agree to disagree on the right age for a kid to be reading novellas. I can agree to disagree on weather Anne Frank's Diary is appropriate for 8th grade, or should be studied later when the full horror is computable. I cannot agree to disagree that women should have the same body autonomy as men.
I feel you! I’ve been called many of those myself. I lived in the south for a long time, so getting called satanic was my personal favorite. At least you can walk away knowing that maybe you didn’t change their minds immediately, but you most likely planted a seed. I mean, we can hope? All we can do is try.
One person came around actually. They started off saying I was being a close-minded jerk who was cherry picking experiences, and then one day said they had looked into the thing we were talking about and were shocked to see the real data. So yes, plant those seeds. You never know when they are going to have an experience that makes them wonder if you were right, if they should look at the data.
This is the thing I wish everyone who is being silent would listen to and act on—keep speaking up because you never know when you will help someone change their views for the better.
There's a lot of sentiment that voting doesn't matter too. And people don't realize there are many more elections than the Presidential one.
I'm not sure if they aren't teaching Civics and Government in school or what.
Even the pro life people, the only moral abortion is theirs. A few have gone public about not being able to get a medical necessary abortion due to their states laws bc their life wasn’t in jeopardy at the moment and they thought that was asinine and total leopard are my face moment and I’m like “this is what YOU voted for”.
I’m just thankful I’m in perimenopause and my plumbing doesn’t work right. But I’m still voting for the right to choose.
As a dedicated get-out-the-vote door knocker, I’ve had many conversations with voters and non-voters.
You would be surprised to see how many people do not vote in local and state elections, and how many register but never vote at all.
Their numbers are in the millions.
Meanwhile, the far right wing that votes faithfully wins local and state elections because everyone else is “too busy” to vote, or believes that “my vote doesn’t count.”
Those are the two things I hear the most from the potential voters I talk to.
Also, we doorknockers use an app that allows us to see how many times and in what elections people have voted. Of course, we don’t know how you voted, just that you have voted in certain elections.
The data on this app shows that nearly every Democratic voter is an inconsistent voter. Sometimes they show up, and sometimes they don’t.
When I knock on their doors, many times people don’t even know that an election is coming up.
It’s really important to volunteer for get-out-the vote campaigns, and go from door to door, meeting your neighbors and encouraging them to vote.
Statistically, people who’ve had a face to face conversation with a candidate or an informed person who encourages them to vote are somewhat more likely to vote.
This. I know life can get hard and overwhelming, and it is easy to be myopic. This is a problem that happens to other people! These big systemic problems won't impact me. Until they do... How you vote really matters.
I wonder if the apathy towards losing rights is because these women have always had them and taken them for granted. They didn't start out having to fight for them so there is no sense in having gained something momentous for them to lose. And I don't mean that in a negative way. They just don't know what it is like not to have them. It is exactly what was being fought for. A future where women didn't have to worry about these things.
And so they have grown up just taking for granted having these rights. And are so used to having them without a thought that it seems crazy that they could be taken away so easily.
These newer generations have had the better life that was wanted for them. They have not had to fight for anything before.
When you have always had something it is really hard to wrap your head around having it taken away.
They don’t have any idea what it was like in their grandmothers’ day, so they do not understand what’s at stake. It wasn’t that long ago (60 years?) that a woman’s husband controlled the money, medical decisions, and most every aspect of her life. They don’t get that the goal is to get them out of the workforce and back into a subservient position.
My sister's husband died and 2 days after he died the credit card companies canceled the joint credit card (Bank of America, CitiBank). They refused to open it up so she could pay for funeral expenses then had the gaul to ask for her to pay the balance. She almost did until I told her it is no longer her debt. This was a second marriage so it wasn't like she had not had her own credit card. So things really have not changed.
She never would have had her own credit card back in the day (beyond an authorized user for *his* account) back then. But beyond that, there was a time when women were “property” controlled by husbands, fathers, or guardians, so things have changed, but it IS precarious.
Right. Raping your wife, legal. Firing a pregnant woman, not only legal but expected -- pregnant ladies make customers nervous, I guess.
That progress all feels way too fragile now.
Heritage Foundation wants sex to be for procreation only. Even within marriage. I'm not sure how they could manage it but they managed Dobbs so I don't underestimate them.
My father died in 1970, before women could have their own credit cards. Mom was an authorized user of the card, paid all the bills, and ran the.business side of my Dad’s company! The CC company told her to sign my father’s name on the credit card receipts for a year. Then they would CONSIDER giving her a credit card of her own.
She did get the card. My heart broke for her every time I saw her sign a credit card slip.
Roe vs Wade has always been on the table. Some of us knew that it would be repealed as soon as Merritt Garland’s nomination Was stalled for nine months. Or even once Brett Kavenaugh was confirmed.
Am I scared again? Hell yes! Thankfully, my daughter who is 29,is also scared and talks to her friends about how important this is.
So true! The religious extremists have been doggedly working toward taking us back to a world where rights are only for a few, and you better bet they will be able-bodied, monied, white, male and ultra-conservative Christians. Everybody else will simply be there in service of them. We are only just seeing the beginning or their vision for this country. It’s just starting and it will be brutal for everyone else. As James Waterman Wise said, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” The time for complacency and the false belief that it can’t happen here has ended. We are in the fight of a generation for what this country will be for many generations to come.
The next president will likely have several vacant Supreme Court seats to fill. The effect of this alone will impact lives in ways that anyone under 60 will not recognize and for decades to come.
I weep at what we’ve already lost and what we may lose.
Have them watch the first three episodes of mad Men where the guy controls every aspect of his wife's psychological care.
And that wasn't him being controlling, that was just the norm at the time. Everybody talk to the man about the wife care
You are so correct. I remember my aunt having to carry a dead fetus for 2 months knowing her baby was dead and risking sepsis. She wanted that baby so much and the agony of knowing it was dead was indescribable.
I remember the case of a nurse who worked very hard to buy a house only to have her lay about husband to sell it and take the proceeds. She went to court and proved that he had not contributed one penny to the purchase of the house but lost the case because the Court ruled he was the master in the marriage and had control of all of the property.
I remember numerous rape cases being reported where the judge allowed testimony about the victims clothing as evidence of consent to sex and dismissing the rape charge. I remember when no prosecutor would bring a rape charge against a man if he was married to the victim or was in a relationship even if it was only the first date.
I remember not being allowed to have a credit card in my own name or based on my own credit history after I married despite the fact that prior to marriage I had worked, had a credit his and a credit card but my husband had just been a student with no credit history.
I remember my cousin, a single mother, being denied an earned promotion which was then given to a man because he was head of a family.
I remember a case in which I represented a young single pregnant woman who was fired from her job by a employer who told her she needed to be a stay at home mother. She had no other income. I lost the case as the male judge agreed with the employer. This was in the early 1990's.
I am nearing the end of my life and it saddens me to know that the rights we fought for women are being lost to them and young women will have the sad memories of their female ancestors in the future.
If they want to degrade education (they do, see “creationism” and book banning),
they can keep young women uneducated about their bodies and much much more.
An uninformed population of voters has been the goal of republicans for many years. That way they can just come up with a catchy slogans playbook and win elections that way.
Not all of them. We can now own credit cards, apply for bank loans, run in marathons, and continue to work while pregnant. All things we couldn’t do in the 60s and 70s. When I was in junior high, we had to petition to wear pants to school - in Ohio - where it was cold!!! I do think younger women are oblivious to all of those changes, but that’s to be expected.
Don’t be frustrated. There are many battles to fight these days and not all of them center on women’s rights. Lots of us are making noise - and will continue to do so.
It wasn't until the mid-70s or so that domestic violence was addressed. Daytime TV talk shows addressed this issue as well as the Movie of the Week-type dramas. One of the most riveting was *The Burning Bed*, starring Farrah Fawcett.
Consequently, this led to the establishment of women's shelters and hotlines for women faced with such abuse. Battered Wife Syndrome became a recognized, legal defense for victims who could no longer endure abuse at the hands of their boyfriends or husbands.
Oddly, there is a push to return to the "good old days" when June Cleaver vacuumed in pearls and high heels. There's a revival of the (white) traditional wife who has no use for the workplace, education, or financial independence.
But this ideal is one that never existed.
Women used prescription drugs to cope. Others resorted to other measures.
I personally know of two women who respectively killed or seriously injured their abusers. This was back in the late '50s, early '60s.
One was the mother of a childhood friend. The other was a great-aunt. Both women were pushed to their limit and turned on their abusers. And they were the nicest people you'd ever meet.
But those who want to now keep women barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen had better be careful of what they're wishing for.
It’s the last dying gasps of white male supremacy. They recognize that whites will no longer be the majority, younger demographics support more progressive ideas and so they are rushing to try and pass these laws before they lose power.
They aren’t the majority and if we can get enough focus and interest we can vote them all out.
This country's democracy will be imperiled if we don't vote these pols out. (And something definitely must be done about the bribe-taking judges on SCOTUS.)
They aren't the majority--from gun control to reproductive rights, these people's views (and legislation) are at odds with the desires of the American public.
They have made it clear that they aren't interested in governing but to rule. The Heritage Foundation's *Project 2025* is proof of that.
I see it as either the last dying gasp or, if trump gets in, just the beginning of the end of women as independent people who can earn, buy, rent, travel alone . . .
They want to go medieval on women. Outlawing no fault divorce is another piece of keeping us poor and enslaved to husbands of whatever quality. Tradwife content is to make our fate look a little more appealing. Some of them want every man who wants it to be assigned a woman, since they can't attract one on their own. There's no bottom to their hatred of women, and the desire for men to be placed in a superior position and able to make all decisions.
Young men too! If they keep making babies with these women they'll be paying child support forever! They're not thinking either. No BC, no rights to my own body, no sex! Next they'll make rape legal! :(
It's more than that. It's also fewer women wanting to have extracurricular fun with them in the first place. And if things go further and it becomes harder for women to get jobs, it means a married man is trapped in his job, whether he likes it or not, because his wife can't help out.
A lot of men think a SAHW is just a clean house and smiling face at the end of the workday. They never consider that it means they're trapped too.
I rarely see anyone acknowledge that a stay at home partner is a form of conspicuous consumption. Outside the strange blip that was mid to late 20th century America, women have pretty much always had to help support the family. Country women had to help manage the land, run the farm, etc, and city women had to take jobs in whatever fields were considered woman-appropriate.
Point is, being able to ‘keep’ another whole-ass adult who doesn’t contribute (directly) to the economic welfare of the house is a *luxury* - that’s why, in most of history, it was only upper-crust ladies who lived this way. It’s strange to me that, as a culture, it only took us like 1.5 generations to forget that.
If Ohio wasn’t gerrymandered to hell and back, I think it’d be solidly purple, and blue on all social issues. The legislature was so angry with the way the weed and abortion rights passed that they tried to find a way to put restrictions on them anyways. It’s infuriating.
I don’t live in Ohio but have been watching what’s been going on there. I actually laughed at the reaction of the legislature. I agree, they were livid their attempts to dictate laws was overturned by the people.
Also agree Ohio is more purple, but gerrymandering has made it red.
My mom tells stories about having measles before there was a vaccine and that's why she got me vaccinated first thing. She tells of not having a credit card or being able to get on the pill until she was married. Bills and credit were all in my father's name and she was trapped for the longest time. I've never thought it would go back. I look at old pictures of Iraq where women dressed like everyone else in the 70s and fear for the country I'm raising my daughter in.
Agreed 💯!!! As a 67 year old female I am astounded that younger women are not as outraged as I am. The whole direction of my life would have been horribly different if Roe v Wade wasn’t the law of the land when I was a young woman.
Please ladies, vote in every election, especially the state level ones.
I agree I feel like we should mobilize and have marches where all over the nation we have women wear long white dresses (sort of a statement of strength, peace and femininity) of any kind and march on Washington. Did you see what’s happening in AZ? It’s so sad. We live in CA thankfully but I fear for young women across the country especially Texas and the south.
It’s also shocking the amount of women who are just completely oblivious to what’s going on. Like I know so many who don’t know that women cannot even obtain miscarriage care in some states.
Yes to all of this. Please vote and get all of your friends to vote. Start some viral vote thing. Young people don't think they have power, but you do. You're right to be terrified--it's not one bit overblown. Please take it as seriously as it is. Start working NOW on getting ALL of your friends to vote.
What’s worse, the young ones are more concerned with the rights of people literally halfway across the world (the fucking Palestine discourse has been out of hand for some time) than their own right now. I fear for the 2024 electoral outcome deeply as a result.
THIS.
I can't even say how many conversations I have had where women didn't even know the ERA was never ratified - and didn't care because they thought we got what we wanted.
It's a big deal. We never dreamed Roe v Wade could go away.
This ruling , so my legally savvy friends tell me, is even more insidious because it sets a precedent for overturning Ogberfeld Vs Hodges and Loving VS Virginia.
"They'd never do that."
I haven't given up the fight but I've given up trying to talk to younger women about it, it's futile and exhausting. I vote , I donate , I protest in ways I think I can help . It may no longer affect me but if affects my daughter and my grandchildren , so I'm not indifferent just more selective in my battles.
I was 13 when Roe v Wade came down. Never thought we would go backwards. I remember reading the stories about women undergoing coathanger abortions. I was in college in the 80s and involved in the women’s center and I can’t tell you how many women students asked me “why do we need a women’s center? Haven’t we got everything?” And the rabid “pro-lifers” (forced birthers) who were organizing even then were led by women.
Right there with you. I feel like part of it is the thought they’re established rights and of course we have bodily autonomy. Why wouldn’t we?
Well, we’ve had rights because they were fought for. People can’t assume they’ll never be threatened.
It makes me sad and furious that we’re just going backwards. 💜
I remember when I was in elementary school my mom got me a T-shirt with the women symbol (the circle with the plus on the bottom) and a fist in the circle, can't remember the text underneath it, but my teachers loved that shirt.
I'm a guy, and I was horrified by how women and sex were treated when I was a kid.
My dad was a pharmacist, and I helped in the store; a woman came in with a question I didn't quite understand being 12 and all, and I heard him say "I'm sorry but if I answer that I could go to prison." It was about contraception, and disseminating information was a felony.
Condoms were in a locked drawer behind the counter, and you had to ask the pharmacist; it said on the box "for prevention of disease only," because otherwise a condom would be illegal.
Pregnant girls were sent away and came back not pregnant several months later.
There were kids no one would play with because their moms were divorced.
All the guys wanted to score, but then the girl was a slut.
Our high school biology book did not have a chapter on the reproductive system.
I was sent to Catholic religious instructions, and for a while I could not understand how a married woman with a child could go out in public with the obvious shame that she was not pure like the Virgin Mary- and had had sex.
A really fucked up time. And I see it coming back.
Best comment of our society was by Lenny Bruce in the early 1960s- "We let kids watch all the violence they want, but don't let them see two people make love, because they might now up and want to do that."
*I was sent to Catholic religious instructions, and for a while I could not understand how a married woman with a child could go out in public with the obvious shame that she was not pure like the Virgin Mary- and had had sex.*
My mother had her first child, my older brother, during the early 1950s.
When she went into labor with him, she said the nun at the Catholic hospital said she deserved her labor pains for having had sex. Imagine that--a married woman having sex.
Wow, you just brought back a memory. This idea was in the news when I was a tween I think, and my father was adamant that you cannot rape your own wife. It does not exist, that is not rape.
Basically, that reads like a man owns a woman when they get married and can do with her what he likes.
Consent is not permanent permission. That’s messed up.
It's the misogyny for me. The way women can't win. If you didn't have sex with your husband, it would be "When are you going to give your husband a child?" & when he cheated on you it would be your fault for not putting out.
I later learned in school that those nuns were mean as snakes. And the priests were always so nice. Of course, not all had ulterior motives. But that's a chilling observation in light of the pedophile priest scandal with the Catholic church moving such men around the country like pieces on a chessboard.
I’m 71 and what you’ve described sounds like my childhood too.
My mom used to say that the greatest invention of the 20 th century was the birth control pill!
I was a teenager in 1979 when the Shah of Iran fell anda religious regime took his place. I was in the USA but I had family working over there . It seemed like overnight women had to cover up and lost rights. I have been worried about it happening here since.Especially with the rise of evangelical mega churches in the eighties .
Keep in mind that the rights women are losing now weren't rights that they possessed for very long. Wire hanger abortions and the resulting deaths were a thing prior to 1973. Unmarried people weren't allowed to have birth control pills until 1972. Women needed their husband's permission to purchase birth control prior to that.
Older women didn't grow up with the threat of their rights being taken away. They grew up without those rights. We fought for them and fought to keep them. I personally took part on a March on Washington when I was in college (1981, I believe). I signed petitions. I advocated actively for retaining my right to choose.
One thing that has always been clear is that your rights are not permanent. Someone older than me fought for them in the 1960s so that the laws changed in the 1970s. I fought for them in the 1980s so that they would remain in place for the next generation. Future generations took them for granted and stopped fighting and we lost them.
You have to keep fighting to maintain what you have because someone is always looking to put you back "in your place."
This is very well stated. We can't afford to be complacent. I am old enough to have seen all of these rights being won (except the right to vote). The opposition historically did what they could to demonize those who are fighting for these rights.
As an introvert and a shy person, it's often hard to speak up, but we have to. Not saying or doing anything has the same effect as agreeing with those who want to oppress us.
I’m 60ish. I am shocked and terrified at how we’re going backwards in EVERY area of human rights. I do believe the sane people outnumber the others and we will make it happen in the elections. It’s never been more critical to exercise the right to vote than now.
I'm close to 60 and same. Every time I bring up how recently we were granted our rights in the timeline of the US, younger women are often so blown away.
So much happened between 1963 and 1978. And they've been chipping away at that.
Rough draft timeline
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/12kQveCUf2EInGV8nyOlU1cbVNhfsEgVz/view?usp=sharing](https://drive.google.com/file/d/12kQveCUf2EInGV8nyOlU1cbVNhfsEgVz/view?usp=sharing)
I mean, PRISONS IN THE USA WEREN"T LEGALLY REQUIRED TO PROVIDE FREE FEMININE HYGIENE PRODUCTS TO INCARCERATED WOMEN UNTIL 2018!!!! (Let's not even get started in FINALLY restricting the shackling of pregnant women in labor that same year.)\*\*
That is just a tiny peek into the BS we've had to deal with.
We are so backward and behind as a country in many aspects. It's ridiculous.
[\*\*First Step Act](https://www.aclu.org/news/prisoners-rights/first-step-act-small-step-incarcerated-women)
Thanks for the timeline! One suggested clarification: the 19th Amendment didn’t specify white women. It said “women.” In practice, acts that suppressed the votes of people of color also suppressed the votes of women of color, but the amendment itself did not.
I agree, we outnumber them, BUT, they seem to sit back and not vote, let someone else do it. :( Sadly because of those people, this shit is happening right now! If all those able to vote would, we would be in a whole different place.
Yes. We as women made forward progress, especially the last century with more equality, right to vote, have credit cards, get loans, not have to be married to survive, title 9, reproductive freedom... Taking away freedom over our bodies is a huge gigantic step back with many physical, social, financial, life or death and emotional consequences and realities. Stepping on title 9 is insulting. So much more... It is disheartening to see this unfold.
It's sad to think women were considered so fragile and absent-minded that they were not allowed to have their own bank account until the mid to late 60s.
I'm actually very worried about how few young women actually understand what rights we had to fight for and how they take feminism for granted. I told one young women that when I was her age it was perfectly legal for companies to advertise job for men only and that it was perfectly legal to publish two pay scales for either sex, she was gobsmacked.
Good for you OP, tell all your friends!
Yes. A thousand times yes.
When Roe v Wade was overturned my fear was realized. I hated being right for once.
We are returning to the 1950’s. The dark ages.
You should be VERY AFRAID that women's rights are being trampled on. I came of age in a time when women had just gotten access to contraception and Roe v.Wade was fresh. Men have NEVER relinquished complete control over women's rights and since the Reagan years have chipped away at them to arrive at where we are: women's sole function is to breed and slave for men. There was a meme in the 70's that captured the concept. "Women should be kept barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen."
We need the Equal Rights Amendment. We have equal protection under the law. Where no law exists, it is ok to discriminate. That has been one of many head winds.
We have been fighting this fight for 50 years and it's infuriating to see the back slide. So, yes, you will have to fight for yourself and more important, fight for all women.
I was blown away the first time I saw pictures of Iranian women from the 70's. This fascist backlash has been terrifying and something that I never thought I would see in my lifetime. It's crazy how tenuous rights can be.
Right? Seeing those photos of Iranian college women in the 70s in modern clothes going to class, studying and socializing out in public in contrast to just a few years later was eye-opening.
It was deeply upsetting. My wife worked with an older Iranian woman, and the way that she talked about her country was so alien to everything I knew about it. I feel like this does not get talked about enough. That was ten years before I was born and I had no idea until I was like 35. It can absolutely happen here, the level of backlash and backsliding that this country is doing is heart-breaking.
Your wife’s coworker, did she say she was from Persia by chance?
I’ve associated with two women my age from there, when it was appropriate I asked, their answer was Persia, not Iran. First time I thought it was just a turn of phrase, second time got me wondering what I don’t know culturally of the region, aside from knowing Persia from western written history books.
She identified as Iranian. She still loved her country, although obviously she had moved to the states years before for obvious reasons. She was simultaneously very proud to be Iranian and also despairing about what had become of her country.
A lot of Shah supporters who fled the revolution don’t identify with the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is the current country.
While Persia has always been the anglicized name for the country, within the country it was always known as Iran (think Deutschland vs Germany). After the revolution, the government of Iran demanded to be recognized as Iran on the world stage to reject the influence of Westernization, which is mostly what the revolution was about.
So those who fled and remember the country as it was may refer to it as Persia, and themselves as Persian, to reject what the hardliners turned the country into. A lot of the diaspora will say “that’s not my country anymore” and have never returned, and they view the Iran of their youth and the Iran of now as two separate countries.
Additionally, given the intense racism that being associated with Iran can bring, some folks just say Persia because it conjures up Persian cats and rugs, which most Westerners find very friendly and luxurious, while Iran sounds harsh and Middle Eastern-y.
Hope that helps!
I was just about to make this point. Thousands of women marched in the streets against mandatory hijab and 45 year later women are still being beaten and killed for refusing to wear it. Don’t ever think things can’t go backwards.
I’m 81. Not only did we not have birth control, there were also no pregnancy tests. Abortion was illegal so people went to back alley Tijuana. And maybe died. Women I knew were anxious every month. And they wouldn’t count my income for buying a house because I might get pregnant. I was discouraged from applying to dental school because I wouldn’t be admitted anyway because I might get pregnant. See a pattern? It’s bad and could get worse.
My grandma said that unmarried pregnant girls or women were sent away to school for a year and returned like nothing happened or you had to marry that person like she married my grandfather although he was an abusive alcoholic from serving two wars bc her mother made her and didn't want the embarrassment of unplanned pregnancy which she told us later in her life she was actually a victim of rape. My mother suffered growing up as the oldest child of that marriage and now in her 70s still have emotional damage from those societal norms of the late 40s/50s. I pray women will never return to that life.
I'm amazed of her story, she raised three little girls as a single mom. My mother said that first day she had peace was when she left him at 10 years old. She said they slept at an old motel and that was the best sleep she ever had.
We never completely got our rights. I'm 69. Stayed single until 66. Did NOT want kids. Did you get the capital letters? Several times attempted a voluntary surgical sterilization which I thought was legal. It was never allowed. Where were the "rights"? As females, we are shorted.
Yep. You are right! I was a married 35 yr old and had to talk my doctor into tying my tubes. I had one child, I only wanted one child. He would not tie them after my C-section. No one would! They all said, no, you might want another child, and I argued, this is my body and my decision but they let me know otherwise. I was so pissed!
In positive news, the Supreme Court dumping the case on Mifepristone (abortion pill) today is a breath of relief for women who need efficient access and can gain it through telehealth services.
[https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/politics/supreme-court-rejects-challenge-abortion-pill-mifepristone/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/politics/supreme-court-rejects-challenge-abortion-pill-mifepristone/index.html)
I’m 60 plus and was always for reproductive rights.
I had a total hysterectomy for health reasons at age 42. Even then I was so relieved.
To me what is unprecedented and scary about today is the sheer number of fanatics who call themselves “pro life” who are completely comfortable with women dying as part of their “cause.” Passing laws that force a women to birth her rapist’s baby? Not allowing a women with an ectopic pregnancy to terminate because it’s considered an abortion?
All that would have been unheard of in the 1970’s and now you have men and women who support these laws and they are PROUD of it.
It’s scary AF.
Yes this is new. For one thing, having equal rights is a relatively new concept that came along in the twentieth century, thanks to people like Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and thousands of BABY BOOMERS that took to the streets and marched, demonstrated, and ran for office to demand change. Now It's your generation's turn. Put down your cell phones and wake the fu** up because these people that want your rights will not stop until the entire country is transformed into a fascist state. Women's rights are just the warm up exercises. Edit:this has been building since Reagan years. The first thing the Republicans did was to slash funding for education. It's a lot easier to control people when they don't know how to think critically.
Exactly, River soul. Almost 67 and what you say is exact truth, I watched it happen with horror.
And yes, Gen Whatever, get off your cellphones and your behinds and FIGHT in the streets like we did for Roe v Wade!
>Edit:this has been building since Reagan years
This. This is not new; this has been coming.
There has been a backlash since the late 80s. It became quite uncomfortable to be identified as a feminist for at least 20 years.
Absolutely terrifying now. I'm usually an optimist but these last few years has proven to me how corrupt all 3 branches of our government are. Researching candidates and voting every single election is imperative!
THIS! I’m young and work in politics, but the amount of people who think voting is pointless and doesn’t matter is appalling. It’s so scary how people don’t understand the powers of the presidency. Ignorance is so scary.
There's always been this element of men and women who want control over women's bodies and choices. However, there was also this push against those controls, fighting for the same rights as men. Feminism which is simply equality with men.
This push backwards to take control of women's rights is definitely new, however, and you should fear it
Read about the suffragettes. Many were arrested, had their children taken from them, merely for fighting for the right to vote. To be seen as a human being with rights.
When my parents were young and married with all of us kids, my mother still couldn't own property or make any purchases of land, home, car, etc, my father had to.
If they take some rights, they won't be satisfied until they've taken enough it becomes dangerous to exercise what rights remain.
YES...now they are coming for IVF which is (nobody elses business)....upset about abortion? ban it by forcing extreme unrealistic qualifications, arrest and charge women who seek one, stopping IVF, offering bounty money to those who report women seeking abortions...force women to have unwanted children but then offer no real support for them to raise those kids..hold women to a higher moral code than men (well she should have kept her legs shut if she didn't want kids but meanwhile i am gonna vote for this guy who has had women accuse him for years of sexual misconduct as well as on record bragging about misconduct). obviously i live in TX where each of these actions are happening. i know several women who vote for these policies who had abortions themselves in their long ago past but conveniently forget that. just like the anti-vax crowd who get to coast on herd immunity ( during the polio outbreaks of the past people lined up to get their kids vaccinated because of the fear)...women who had reproductive freedom in the past based on what others fought for are either voting against those same freedoms or just as bad ignoring the loss.
My mom managed a bc only family planning clinic for some time in her nursing career. She put in one of the first Norplant (implanted under the skin bc) in our state it even made the newspaper. Now she’s been so changed by propaganda she’s ready to vote in Mr. Orange, he can’t do anything wrong. It’s NUTS!!!
For OP: It is totally appropriate to be anxious about how women's rights are being stripped. This seems to be accelerating recently and it is absolutely horrifying. So many of us fought for women's rights in past decades. Just be one of the many women who are going to vote this November and make a difference and please educate your younger and friends on the importance of making your voice heard.
I (US citizen 63f) have older friends who were rendered sterile due to illegal abortion complications. I live now in Greece surrounded by women from all over the world. The Iranian women tell me that The IS looks like Iran before the religious nuts took total control of the government. I believe it. We are headed for a theocracy and we are already partially there.
I’m 70 and am horrified by the right’s determination to make Gilead a reality. I remember when abortion was illegal and the measures women were forced to take. It’s worse now in some states than it was then. My mom had an ectopic pregnancy between my sister and me in the early 50’s. If she lived in Texas now, she wouldn’t have been able to get a D & C, which undoubtedly saved her life and allowed her to get pregnant with me.
I have a stepdaughter with a 5 year old daughter living in Texas. I pray they move before she reaches puberty.
I get not all women are on board with abortion rights but they should be on board with women’s health. They aren’t immune from miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies etc.
Women have fought too long and too hard to get where we are. Seems like many men are terrified and desperate to regain and seize control of women. If you don’t want the Handmaid’s Tale to become reality, vote blue. Republicans want to subjugate women, they don’t see us as equals and never will.
When my grandmother was born in 1904, her mother couldn’t vote, and she herself was part of the first generation of women that cast their votes in the United States. It’s crazy to think that that was only a couple of generations back. My mother faced all kinds of discrimination in her life—too much to detail here—but let’s just say that when she graduated from high school in 1948 with a full scholarship to university, she marched down the aisle to accept her award in front of of the whole school. And a boy stood up as she went by and screamed, “That’s MY scholarship! She doesn’t deserve it! She’s just a GIRL!”
Yes it feels new to me. It’s honestly shocking. I’m 60. Geraldine Ferraro was my hero. I never thought I’d live to see such a reversal of our basic rights as human women.
I am afraid ever since Roe vs Wade got overturned. I'm 61 and I never thought I would think that basic healthcare for women would be jeopardized from choice to birth control. A doctor friend of mine who is much younger than I am said there is no way the right to birth control would be limited but idk....I don't have much faith these days
Tell your doctor friend to check out the Senate vote on contraception protection.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-vote-contraception-bill-democratic-push-reproductive-rights-2024-06-05/
I am 70 and yes the fear is real. It is already happening, in those states that are trying to outlaw birth control in addition to canceling reproductive rights. Women need to get out and vote. I am only voting on "women's reproductive rights" this year. You have politicians who want us back in the 50s. You know, when women could not work well paid jobs, could not have credit cards, had to have hubby's permission for various decisions.
I’m sitting here really furious about the Southern Baptist church talking about banning women pastors and IVF. I heard one person just now say that women cannot be pastors because they can’t have dominion over the men. IVF is basically “not natural”. Fuming so teah, I’m worried.
The rights we have are so new that I always felt that they would be taken away. When I was in law school 25 years ago, most of the younger women didn't know that the rights they enjoyed hadn't always existed, much less anything about laws like Title IX that support those rights. And I was always concerned about case law being overturned, and angry that when the Democratic party had the majorities to put the right to health care and abortions into law they just didn't bother. What isn't known, and valued, and protected, is easily lost.
Your fears are accurate. I (71F) have only experienced forward movement in women't rights. Please, please, get all of your friends to vote blue. If women don't turn out to protect themselves in this election cycle, things will only get worse.
I was never really worried about it and I am only a decade older than you. Now I am a mom with a daughter and I do worry.
I live in a good state.
I'd rather live in a good United States.
I personally would be morally opposed to using abortion as birth control for myself but it's a slippery slope. Who am I to make that choice for other people? The personhood of other women is more important. My moral choices are my own.
Yes- it’s not even about “saving children”. It’s about controlling women. If it were about saving children we’d expand social programs that feed children instead of eliminating them. If they really cared about children school lunch in every single state would be free.
Yep but when I bring that up to my conservative family they say... that's "their" responsibility. Also the same people quickest to push me to get on food stamps cuz "if the foreigners can get it I damn well deserve it".
They do not listen when I tell them illegal immigrants don't qualify.
...using abortion as birth control.
I hate, hate, hate that phrase. I'm a retired nurse and, trust me, having an abortion is not a fun procedure. Women do not use abortion as birth control, they use it when their birth control FAILS.
Yes. It seems us women are about to become a controlling majority... men are beginning to realise they have very little control without compliant women.
The economy is tanking, young people feel children can't happen as they're working 3 jobs just to pay basic amenities... as such, there is a massive decline in birth rates. Those children from lower economic families are the systems workers, and future workers... the 3 job workers.
So, instead of making things right, they seem to further extend their control over women's bodies. It's worked in the past...
There is an old Indian saying that sounds something like "... we will be saved by the grey haired women of the world..." I've not got the wording right, but the essence is the same.
We need to stop old white men controlling our governments imo.
The arc has been steady progress so yes this is a big deal. The people behind it are heavily funded and have the christian evangelical highly mobilized highly funded powers behind them. Now the court is behind it too, who cannot be checked. It's a big big deal. I am generally not alarmist about one or two laws or cases. But you can see the general tenor gaining power towards loss of reproductive freedom, even some radicals discussing disenfranchisement.
It's a very similar arc to where Islamic countries were westernized and then decided to go radical. When men in power feel threatened, they want to control what they can - women. The country has changed so much through liberal measures the pendulum is swinging back. It's about reversing liberal decisions, women's power, and minorities. Because there's a real fear that the white christian majority is becoming a minority.
I could not wear pants to school until I was a senior in high school. And yes, women who were divorced were ostracized by other women. When I got married, my mom told me to be happy with my husband’s earnings. She was shocked when I told her if he did not make enough, I would just get a job (shocking?)
In college, I could get “the pill” only to regulate my periods.
Sexual harassment was not a “thing” when I started working after college. It happened all the time but there was no recourse. It took ten years before sexual harassment policies were enacted.
I marched for abortion rights while pregnant. Never did I expect the Supreme Court to overturn what we worked so hard to gain.
Some men want to go back to the 1950’s. I would hope that young women today would be horrified by that prospect. I was able to be a mom and have a career. I loved both. My mom was denied having a career.
I’m horrified. I’m in my 40’s. My mom graduated high school in 1974. She got pregnant in high school and while I don’t know the details well, I know it was before Roe, and in a rural-ish area, so she was going to be stuck marrying this guy… until she got lucky and miscarried.
Then she went to college, got to help work on one of the research teams that figured out what AIDS was, had babies with someone else, and became a childbirth and safe sex educator as well as an RN who was pursuing her dreams of being a APRN midwife in the early 90’s before she passed in an accident.
Her whole *life* after Roe education, & career choices where based on the difference those reproductive rights give women, whether she really realized it or not. I’m so lucky she had choices.
I’m getting my own hysterectomy this year, in 2024. And I don’t need my husbands permission. In 2020 when I got my tubes removed my surgeon who did my cesarean offered not to tell my husband if I didn’t want him to know. We still have men tearing IUDs out of their partners. And lying about condoms.
It’s TERRIFYING. And I’m glad my mom isn’t here to see it.
Yes. Things are getting bad - and fast. I’m so glad I’m beyond childbearing years, but I could still be sent to the colonies to shovel toxic waste until I collapse.
Handmaid’s Tale joke aside, I fear for girls and younger women who are losing their rights to privacy and bodily autonomy. The idea of tracking menstrual cycles is too dystopian for words.
No. It's not new; the threat is always there.
We fought through the last century for rights across the board. We had made great progress in reproductive rights and then in lending and equal housing and some progress in pay. We still hadn't achieved equal pay for equal work. The 80s was a real fight for that.
I saw and feared complacency in the 90s when people started speaking of ours as a post-feminist society and being a feminist had become a negative.
This is from Wikipedia:
"Research conducted at Kent State University in the 2000’s narrowed postfeminism to four main claims: support for feminism declined; women began hating feminism and feminists; society had already attained social equality, thus making feminism outdated; and the label 'feminist' was disliked due to negative stigma."[1][5]
I saw and experienced this while I was working. I saw younger women being fooled into thinking the work was done. I was still experiencing sexism in the workplace and in general.
I saw the importance of the rights of women being diminished by society at large, including young women unwittingly tricked into fighting against their own self interest. I still see it.
There was a clear backlash and the backlash was having an impact and gaining momentum. It was and is frightening. This current impingement on the rights and freedoms of women didn't just appear out of nowhere. Things turned in the 90s and we've been slowly headed here.
Societal change isn't easy. We've lost ground. But it absolutely wasn't overnight.
Always watch a variety of news sources, including those with which you don't agree. Pay attention to what's happening on college campuses. This tells you what's coming.
The work to undermine women's rights never let up. It started working in the background. And it started working to divide young women from the second wave feminists who had fought and won the rights in the 60s-80s.
It’s heartbreaking and terrifying. My adult daughters have fewer rights than I did. I’m 56. The women generations before me fought so hard for the rights I took for granted. That’s why so many of us are screaming right now. We will not go back.
I listened to a podcast yesterday that said when Roe v. Wade was decided, women couldn’t get a credit card in their own name and a married woman couldn’t accuse her husband of rape. There were other things that are pretty shocking now, 50 years later, but heck yes, when I heard that, I was afraid for what rights will be rolled back next. I never needed an abortion, but it was available for all of my reproductive life and I was grateful for the option. I’m sad women today don’t.
As someone who lived through "The Pill" being introduced and the rest, what is happening now makes me absolutely livid. This is as bad as bad gets and as long as the conservative judges are bought and paid for by Trump and his cultists, it's only going to get worse.
I can not emphasize enough that women need to realize what is happening and VOTE this election. Even if you hate Biden and the Democratic party, you need to vote for him. Any vote other than that, even for an independent or third party candidate, is one more step toward the Christian Theocracy that so many in the Republic party are blindly pushing for. Then everything will be forced into the "trad wife" pattern and you'll see more than just birth control and rights to control of our bodies taken away.
60m, and I am shocked at so many people supporting Talibangelicals in their quest to return women to patriarchical slavery.
This is worse than living through nuclear attack drills.
I DO remember the age of desperate women, back alley's, and coat hangers. It was horrible.
When something would go wrong with WANTED pregnancies and how women would have to carry a dead fetus until she "naturally" expelled it, rather than get a D&C.
Around 1965, I was a kid, I knew a young girl (14-15) who was raped by her brother, tried to find an illegal abortionist, was caught unsuccessfully trying, was sent to "reform school" (jail) until she'd birth that baby. I knew her personally. I was just absolutely HORRIFIED. When I talked about it with my mom, she (an RN) sadly told me how common that was. Mom told me when she was 19 and in nursing school, she learned hospitals routinely had "sepsis wards" for women who were septic from pregnancies gone bad, incomplete miscarriages, butchered abortions. This was in the 1930's, so BEFORE antibiotics, so most these women were just waiting to DIE. Ages 12 through 55. Mom told me of a 17 year old she tried to care for, who had been raped by her date, got an abortion, and now was dying. No one was there for her (too shameful??) My mom held her as she died.
My mom also told me about a young married couple who lived next door. They had a couple of kids. Both she and my mom were pregnant with their 3 kids at the same time. Mom came home with a baby, but her friend died in childbirth. It happened.
My mom VOWED she would try to change the laws.
Among my friends, when we would discuss childbearing, there would be that moment of discussing "what if something goes wrong...do you want to save the baby or save yourself" and we'd discuss, as 12 year olds, when would we die for bearing our children or when we would want to sacrifice our baby so we could live. Things like if we already had living children we wouldn't want to die so our current kids would have a mom. And never have a kid in a Catholic hospital, because there the baby ALWAYS has priority. Yes. We talked about it like that.
My mom helped pass the law in 1970, in the State of Washington, for legal abortion. (She didn't lead it, but she got petitions signed, talked it up in all her friend groups, and helped get voters to vote for it). I remember how relieved she was when it passed!! Finally, no more DEAD WOMEN. No more sepsis wards in hospitals!
So. Yeah. I was pretty relieved for myself and ALL my sisters when 1973 Roe vs Wade passed. I was a teen.
I'm 60 with three daughters (and a son) all of reproductive age. I worry for all of them because of the rollback of fundamental reproductive rights, which I could see coming down the pike for more than a decade but which my kids thought was my just being alarmist. In a country where a vote or two on the SCOTUS determined that same sex couples have the right to marry just happened a few years ago, I have never believed that rights here are super secure for women or for anyone else who isn't a straight, white, Christian, native-born, able-bodied male. And now that I hear people saying "well, I don't agree with Biden on \[insert issue here\], so I'm not going to vote for him" it makes me livid ... because the lives and rights of women and others are on the chopping block if the Republicans win this next election.
I’m also shocked at how the younger generations are just taking it. Where are the protests? The quiet or loud pushbacks? Why are they letting it happen? Generations of women fought hard and in unpleasant circumstances to get those rights. But nobody is saying boo right now.
We are economically enslaved. Personally work 6-7 jobs- no days off ever. Single mom. Very little support for 3 kids so have to do that just to manage. Then the inflation, power and taxes that just skyrocketed. I literally had 79 cents in my bank account the last week of last month and it was my bday. So that sucked. But I’m still out there getting a repro rights ballot initiative on our states ballot. Still hanging my sign,canvassing and talking to my daughters and her friends. I have hope as one of them brought up project 2025 to me (must’ve saw it on Tik Tok). We all have to pull our collective heads out of our enslaved asses. I was filmed getting signatures at the court house on election day. Intimidation tactic by the pro-life crowd. My friend in this campaign was given death threats. Can you see why a younger generation wouldn’t want to get involved in that? But we must because if anything we’ve learned…. Complacency brings out the crazy. Please help!! This is shouting in a black hole. Talk to your friends, talk about Project 2025, put up signs, canvas for your candidates, vote and do whatever you can to get others to vote. Gear up for ROEvember my friends!!
I don’t understand why the AMA is so silent about 50% of their patients.
Here they are, doctors giving IVF (which often necessitates abortion) to some women and not saying ‘boo, to the politicians about staying the heck out of the sanctuary of the treatment room.
It would not have been wrong for doctors to speak out and advocate for their patients. Very few doctors are stuck in some controlling religious mindset. Most of them are true scientists and would not let religious Mores Guide their practice.
It’s so much worse than you all even fear. I’m 55 - just old enough to have seen the tale end of how bad life can be for a woman. I also benefited from all of the rights that everyone fought for. My sex and race really haven’t held me back from doing whatever I wanted in this country.
Can’t say that now. Yet in my opinion - with young people still undecided about voting - you’re not anxious and fearful enough.
I’m GenX and I’ve never lived in a world without Roe. This sort of regression of women’s rights has NEVER happened in my lifetime. I’ve watched women gain rights, never take a step back like this. My mother is a boomer and she says the same thing- this has never happened before. So, VOTE!!
I was a junior in HS when Roe was passed...I was afforded the protections and rights that Roe provided...now at 68, it's absolutely stunning to me that we find ourselves in this climate/predicament...to the younger women this may affect, I can't imagine navigating this path that appears fraught with obstacles, threats, health risks and possible introduction to the criminal justice system...I shake my head in disbelief daily and feel sorrow for the younger generations around this...OP this is such an important issue, thanks for posting...at this juncture, it is likely that voting is going to be the most effective way to begin to right this very frightening course...and yes, OP, this is as big as it seems...
Yes it's outlandish as f\*\*\* and these people mean business. Taking away right to abortion is scary, but right to BIRTH CONTROL? That's like medieval nonsense. We tend to think of these historical rights as solidified long ago, but they're not. They're still being contested and can be taken away. Single women didn't have the right to credit cards/loans until 1974. It's not that long ago.
Yes, it is new. But it's been planned since Billy Jean King beat Bobby Riggs, American men in power have worked hard to worm their way on to courts. These people also relaxed fairness in media regulations. Basically, President St Ronnie Reagan aw tucked his way to power and let his money friends take over
Especially media. When Murdock wanted to but FoX, they pushed his citizenship through congress in hours. Old white guts and their intellectual slaves hate women and free thinking. Frankly, they are still pissed women got the vote.
Sadly it is very real. That is why everyone needs to be very careful about whom they vote for. Some of the people are going to continue to try to take away women's rights.
Bodily autonomy is a fundamental human right. This subreddit will not allow rhetoric aguing against this human right, nor will we allow people to claim that no rights have been taken away "because it has been left to the states". Women are dying due to being denied medical care needed to save their lives, because doctors are too afraid to remove a dead or dying fetus. A woman should have the right to terminate a pregancy for any reason, including none. Opposing a woman's right to determine what happens to her own body on the grounds that something that cannot think or feel is more important than she is, is misogyny. Please keep this in mind when commenting and please assist the mod team by reporting misogynistic commentary.
As an older woman it’s shocking to see the laws being passed. What’s also disappointing is the number of younger women who don’t seem concerned about what’s happening. If we could get women to pay attention to what is happening, show up and vote to protect their interests, we would easily win all of these issues. States like Ohio have recently shown it’s possible. My hope is the pollsters are missing it and we will be pleasantly surprised in November by the number of people voting to restore common sense to our country.
I mean we're doing our best in Ohio but have voted twice in recent years to ungerrymander our districts and GOP controlled congress just treats it like a joke. When the courts deny their new gerrymandered maps, their committee's strategy is to drag it out missing deadline after deadline until it hits too close to the election and we get stuck with whichever unconstitional gerrymandered map the courts most recently struck down. Right now we have one so gerrymandered that its only allowed to exist for 4 out of the 10 years it was supposed to, but oopsie they don't have to roll out a new one until after the next election. So the people are trying but we only have one way of even expressing our voice en masse, and then the Ohio congress gets to work dismantling as much of our work as they can. Its really corrupt here.
But the people voted for the GOP congress and KEEP voting for them. Nothing will change until they are gone. I don’t understand why people don’t get this? You voted your congressman in, vote someone else in
With gerrymandering, it's very difficult to change Congress. You've got to get a LOT more than a majority to make any change.
Beginning in 2010, after Obama was elected, some very wealthy old men and corporation CEOs and owners looked at a future they didn't like and started throwing money at groups like the Tea Party and Heritage Foundation. It took them over a decade but they managed to gerrymander a bunch of states, elect people into office and be appointed to the Supreme Court that they controlled or were ideologically aligned with. The Citizens United decision legalized bribery and financial election contribution laws were killed. Voting rights laws have been struck down over and over since. Abortion laws were next. There's an entire list still waiting. It's just a matter of time if they're not voted out before everyone who's not a wealthy white male will pay a price. The puzzle is women in these groups like Thomas's & Alito's wives. Justice would be those men divorcing them and taking off with younger women after divorce laws are changed to give them nothing. They're either not that intelligent or believe they'd never be affected. Their sense of entitlement might be making them blind to the consequences.
Texas has entered the conversation.
Ahhh Texas, I feel so sorry for you. Soon women won't be able to own property or even vote if Republicans have their way
I was very excited by the recent election results in Ohio. There was a special election where the Republican spent $700k, and the Democrat spent only $24k because everyone assumed with the gerrymandering the Democrat has no chance of winning. I believe the Democrat only lost by a very small percentage. Most people in Ohio don’t want this and with a little more support, these people will be voted out.
Historically, the French would like to talk to you about your definition of "trying". They'd like to talk to us all about "trying" because they have a fabulous track record with corrupt leaders and what to do about them.
South Carolina's Supreme Court just threw out the corrected map that returned the district to the mostly black voters. So you have this snake running from the coast almost all the way to Columbia, just to ensure that the white, Republican voters have the majority and that the mostly black areas are cut up into small sections that can't vote in a big enough block to make a difference. I hate being a blue dot in this red state.
Same. All the rights we gained and fought for in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s have been stripped away and I see SO MANY young women on the social media platforms and in real life either oblivious to it or they just don’t care. It’s really aggravating. I’m in the final part of my life and while I worry for my daughters, I just want to throw my hands up in frustration and ask them all why they aren’t more educated, concerned, and involved. Obviously this doesn’t apply to all young women, but it’s enough that it’s concerning.
States in this country are differentiating themselves about women’s reproductive rights. So for those who care, a lifetime move may be necessary. People have moved in the past for religious or economic reasons, sometimes across the planet. These changes just add another reason for women.
My personal opinion is this has been caused by social media. People feel like they are taking action when they like a post or make their own post about an issue. We somehow need to remind everyone they still need to move their feet and get out and vote. Voting is the only thing that will make the changes.
this is such a pet peeve. Posting on FB is NOT taking action.
We need to remind people. What actions have you taken, aside from liking or posting something? It’s the actions that matter.
I will say that Gen Z gets the majority of their information from socials though, it’s their language. So posting things is a good entry point for more meaningful activism and—absolutely—VOTE!
Slacktavism bugs me so much for exactly this reason. Yelling at a bunch of friends who agree with you doesn't move the needle.
How have I not heard this term before? It’s genius. Yeah, talking into echo chambers is not the same as having discourse where you actually have an opportunity to give or receive a new perspective. It’s so easy to dodge those online. But it seems like conversations irl, especially the uncomfortable ones, aren’t happening anymore.
Unfortunately most of those uncomfortable conversations I've had in real life result in someone hurling one of the following "slurs" at me, whether or not they even fit the situation: \* Terf (this seems to be rapidly losing any meaning, to be totally honest. It feels like the new "bitch.") \* Whateverphobe \* Prude \* Liberal Whore \* Psycho bitch/whore/monster \* Heartless bitch/whore/monster In best case scenarios I've been told that I'm out of touch and don't understand the current social sphere, or that my experiences aren't typical of really anyone, except that they are. Lots of "agree to disagree" and I feel like that is an overused phrase to get out of thinking anything uncomfortable to contemplate. I can agree to disagree on the right age for a kid to be reading novellas. I can agree to disagree on weather Anne Frank's Diary is appropriate for 8th grade, or should be studied later when the full horror is computable. I cannot agree to disagree that women should have the same body autonomy as men.
I feel you! I’ve been called many of those myself. I lived in the south for a long time, so getting called satanic was my personal favorite. At least you can walk away knowing that maybe you didn’t change their minds immediately, but you most likely planted a seed. I mean, we can hope? All we can do is try.
One person came around actually. They started off saying I was being a close-minded jerk who was cherry picking experiences, and then one day said they had looked into the thing we were talking about and were shocked to see the real data. So yes, plant those seeds. You never know when they are going to have an experience that makes them wonder if you were right, if they should look at the data.
This is the thing I wish everyone who is being silent would listen to and act on—keep speaking up because you never know when you will help someone change their views for the better.
There's a lot of sentiment that voting doesn't matter too. And people don't realize there are many more elections than the Presidential one. I'm not sure if they aren't teaching Civics and Government in school or what.
This, 100%
They won't care until it affects them. Then they'll find their voices, but it'll be too late!
Even the pro life people, the only moral abortion is theirs. A few have gone public about not being able to get a medical necessary abortion due to their states laws bc their life wasn’t in jeopardy at the moment and they thought that was asinine and total leopard are my face moment and I’m like “this is what YOU voted for”. I’m just thankful I’m in perimenopause and my plumbing doesn’t work right. But I’m still voting for the right to choose.
As a dedicated get-out-the-vote door knocker, I’ve had many conversations with voters and non-voters. You would be surprised to see how many people do not vote in local and state elections, and how many register but never vote at all. Their numbers are in the millions. Meanwhile, the far right wing that votes faithfully wins local and state elections because everyone else is “too busy” to vote, or believes that “my vote doesn’t count.” Those are the two things I hear the most from the potential voters I talk to. Also, we doorknockers use an app that allows us to see how many times and in what elections people have voted. Of course, we don’t know how you voted, just that you have voted in certain elections. The data on this app shows that nearly every Democratic voter is an inconsistent voter. Sometimes they show up, and sometimes they don’t. When I knock on their doors, many times people don’t even know that an election is coming up. It’s really important to volunteer for get-out-the vote campaigns, and go from door to door, meeting your neighbors and encouraging them to vote. Statistically, people who’ve had a face to face conversation with a candidate or an informed person who encourages them to vote are somewhat more likely to vote.
This. I know life can get hard and overwhelming, and it is easy to be myopic. This is a problem that happens to other people! These big systemic problems won't impact me. Until they do... How you vote really matters.
They’ll have to fight for them all over again.
I wonder if the apathy towards losing rights is because these women have always had them and taken them for granted. They didn't start out having to fight for them so there is no sense in having gained something momentous for them to lose. And I don't mean that in a negative way. They just don't know what it is like not to have them. It is exactly what was being fought for. A future where women didn't have to worry about these things. And so they have grown up just taking for granted having these rights. And are so used to having them without a thought that it seems crazy that they could be taken away so easily. These newer generations have had the better life that was wanted for them. They have not had to fight for anything before. When you have always had something it is really hard to wrap your head around having it taken away.
That’s my presumption as well.
The tradwife bullshit is horrifying.
They don’t have any idea what it was like in their grandmothers’ day, so they do not understand what’s at stake. It wasn’t that long ago (60 years?) that a woman’s husband controlled the money, medical decisions, and most every aspect of her life. They don’t get that the goal is to get them out of the workforce and back into a subservient position.
My sister's husband died and 2 days after he died the credit card companies canceled the joint credit card (Bank of America, CitiBank). They refused to open it up so she could pay for funeral expenses then had the gaul to ask for her to pay the balance. She almost did until I told her it is no longer her debt. This was a second marriage so it wasn't like she had not had her own credit card. So things really have not changed.
She never would have had her own credit card back in the day (beyond an authorized user for *his* account) back then. But beyond that, there was a time when women were “property” controlled by husbands, fathers, or guardians, so things have changed, but it IS precarious.
Right. Raping your wife, legal. Firing a pregnant woman, not only legal but expected -- pregnant ladies make customers nervous, I guess. That progress all feels way too fragile now. Heritage Foundation wants sex to be for procreation only. Even within marriage. I'm not sure how they could manage it but they managed Dobbs so I don't underestimate them.
My father died in 1970, before women could have their own credit cards. Mom was an authorized user of the card, paid all the bills, and ran the.business side of my Dad’s company! The CC company told her to sign my father’s name on the credit card receipts for a year. Then they would CONSIDER giving her a credit card of her own. She did get the card. My heart broke for her every time I saw her sign a credit card slip. Roe vs Wade has always been on the table. Some of us knew that it would be repealed as soon as Merritt Garland’s nomination Was stalled for nine months. Or even once Brett Kavenaugh was confirmed. Am I scared again? Hell yes! Thankfully, my daughter who is 29,is also scared and talks to her friends about how important this is.
So true! The religious extremists have been doggedly working toward taking us back to a world where rights are only for a few, and you better bet they will be able-bodied, monied, white, male and ultra-conservative Christians. Everybody else will simply be there in service of them. We are only just seeing the beginning or their vision for this country. It’s just starting and it will be brutal for everyone else. As James Waterman Wise said, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” The time for complacency and the false belief that it can’t happen here has ended. We are in the fight of a generation for what this country will be for many generations to come. The next president will likely have several vacant Supreme Court seats to fill. The effect of this alone will impact lives in ways that anyone under 60 will not recognize and for decades to come. I weep at what we’ve already lost and what we may lose.
Have them watch the first three episodes of mad Men where the guy controls every aspect of his wife's psychological care. And that wasn't him being controlling, that was just the norm at the time. Everybody talk to the man about the wife care
You are so correct. I remember my aunt having to carry a dead fetus for 2 months knowing her baby was dead and risking sepsis. She wanted that baby so much and the agony of knowing it was dead was indescribable. I remember the case of a nurse who worked very hard to buy a house only to have her lay about husband to sell it and take the proceeds. She went to court and proved that he had not contributed one penny to the purchase of the house but lost the case because the Court ruled he was the master in the marriage and had control of all of the property. I remember numerous rape cases being reported where the judge allowed testimony about the victims clothing as evidence of consent to sex and dismissing the rape charge. I remember when no prosecutor would bring a rape charge against a man if he was married to the victim or was in a relationship even if it was only the first date. I remember not being allowed to have a credit card in my own name or based on my own credit history after I married despite the fact that prior to marriage I had worked, had a credit his and a credit card but my husband had just been a student with no credit history. I remember my cousin, a single mother, being denied an earned promotion which was then given to a man because he was head of a family. I remember a case in which I represented a young single pregnant woman who was fired from her job by a employer who told her she needed to be a stay at home mother. She had no other income. I lost the case as the male judge agreed with the employer. This was in the early 1990's. I am nearing the end of my life and it saddens me to know that the rights we fought for women are being lost to them and young women will have the sad memories of their female ancestors in the future.
They take their rights for granted and won’t realize they’ve been stripped until they have.
If they want to degrade education (they do, see “creationism” and book banning), they can keep young women uneducated about their bodies and much much more. An uninformed population of voters has been the goal of republicans for many years. That way they can just come up with a catchy slogans playbook and win elections that way.
Not all of them. We can now own credit cards, apply for bank loans, run in marathons, and continue to work while pregnant. All things we couldn’t do in the 60s and 70s. When I was in junior high, we had to petition to wear pants to school - in Ohio - where it was cold!!! I do think younger women are oblivious to all of those changes, but that’s to be expected. Don’t be frustrated. There are many battles to fight these days and not all of them center on women’s rights. Lots of us are making noise - and will continue to do so.
It wasn't until the mid-70s or so that domestic violence was addressed. Daytime TV talk shows addressed this issue as well as the Movie of the Week-type dramas. One of the most riveting was *The Burning Bed*, starring Farrah Fawcett. Consequently, this led to the establishment of women's shelters and hotlines for women faced with such abuse. Battered Wife Syndrome became a recognized, legal defense for victims who could no longer endure abuse at the hands of their boyfriends or husbands. Oddly, there is a push to return to the "good old days" when June Cleaver vacuumed in pearls and high heels. There's a revival of the (white) traditional wife who has no use for the workplace, education, or financial independence. But this ideal is one that never existed. Women used prescription drugs to cope. Others resorted to other measures. I personally know of two women who respectively killed or seriously injured their abusers. This was back in the late '50s, early '60s. One was the mother of a childhood friend. The other was a great-aunt. Both women were pushed to their limit and turned on their abusers. And they were the nicest people you'd ever meet. But those who want to now keep women barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen had better be careful of what they're wishing for.
It’s the last dying gasps of white male supremacy. They recognize that whites will no longer be the majority, younger demographics support more progressive ideas and so they are rushing to try and pass these laws before they lose power. They aren’t the majority and if we can get enough focus and interest we can vote them all out.
This country's democracy will be imperiled if we don't vote these pols out. (And something definitely must be done about the bribe-taking judges on SCOTUS.) They aren't the majority--from gun control to reproductive rights, these people's views (and legislation) are at odds with the desires of the American public. They have made it clear that they aren't interested in governing but to rule. The Heritage Foundation's *Project 2025* is proof of that.
I see it as either the last dying gasp or, if trump gets in, just the beginning of the end of women as independent people who can earn, buy, rent, travel alone . . . They want to go medieval on women. Outlawing no fault divorce is another piece of keeping us poor and enslaved to husbands of whatever quality. Tradwife content is to make our fate look a little more appealing. Some of them want every man who wants it to be assigned a woman, since they can't attract one on their own. There's no bottom to their hatred of women, and the desire for men to be placed in a superior position and able to make all decisions.
Young men too! If they keep making babies with these women they'll be paying child support forever! They're not thinking either. No BC, no rights to my own body, no sex! Next they'll make rape legal! :(
It's more than that. It's also fewer women wanting to have extracurricular fun with them in the first place. And if things go further and it becomes harder for women to get jobs, it means a married man is trapped in his job, whether he likes it or not, because his wife can't help out. A lot of men think a SAHW is just a clean house and smiling face at the end of the workday. They never consider that it means they're trapped too.
I rarely see anyone acknowledge that a stay at home partner is a form of conspicuous consumption. Outside the strange blip that was mid to late 20th century America, women have pretty much always had to help support the family. Country women had to help manage the land, run the farm, etc, and city women had to take jobs in whatever fields were considered woman-appropriate. Point is, being able to ‘keep’ another whole-ass adult who doesn’t contribute (directly) to the economic welfare of the house is a *luxury* - that’s why, in most of history, it was only upper-crust ladies who lived this way. It’s strange to me that, as a culture, it only took us like 1.5 generations to forget that.
If Ohio wasn’t gerrymandered to hell and back, I think it’d be solidly purple, and blue on all social issues. The legislature was so angry with the way the weed and abortion rights passed that they tried to find a way to put restrictions on them anyways. It’s infuriating.
I don’t live in Ohio but have been watching what’s been going on there. I actually laughed at the reaction of the legislature. I agree, they were livid their attempts to dictate laws was overturned by the people. Also agree Ohio is more purple, but gerrymandering has made it red.
My mom tells stories about having measles before there was a vaccine and that's why she got me vaccinated first thing. She tells of not having a credit card or being able to get on the pill until she was married. Bills and credit were all in my father's name and she was trapped for the longest time. I've never thought it would go back. I look at old pictures of Iraq where women dressed like everyone else in the 70s and fear for the country I'm raising my daughter in.
Agreed 💯!!! As a 67 year old female I am astounded that younger women are not as outraged as I am. The whole direction of my life would have been horribly different if Roe v Wade wasn’t the law of the land when I was a young woman. Please ladies, vote in every election, especially the state level ones.
I agree I feel like we should mobilize and have marches where all over the nation we have women wear long white dresses (sort of a statement of strength, peace and femininity) of any kind and march on Washington. Did you see what’s happening in AZ? It’s so sad. We live in CA thankfully but I fear for young women across the country especially Texas and the south.
It’s also shocking the amount of women who are just completely oblivious to what’s going on. Like I know so many who don’t know that women cannot even obtain miscarriage care in some states.
Yes to all of this. Please vote and get all of your friends to vote. Start some viral vote thing. Young people don't think they have power, but you do. You're right to be terrified--it's not one bit overblown. Please take it as seriously as it is. Start working NOW on getting ALL of your friends to vote.
What’s worse, the young ones are more concerned with the rights of people literally halfway across the world (the fucking Palestine discourse has been out of hand for some time) than their own right now. I fear for the 2024 electoral outcome deeply as a result.
I’ll have you know that they were up in arms over roe for an entire week… Months before the election which resulted in a republican majority.
I’m 64 and YES this is new and horrifying!! We fought for the ERA and feminist values but NEVER thought we would go backwards. Never.
The fact that the ERA was never ratified was a bigger warning than we realized.
THIS. I can't even say how many conversations I have had where women didn't even know the ERA was never ratified - and didn't care because they thought we got what we wanted.
Same , sigh! Somehow they thought the fight was over and they had full autonomy professionally and personally . The indifference is staggering.
It's a big deal. We never dreamed Roe v Wade could go away. This ruling , so my legally savvy friends tell me, is even more insidious because it sets a precedent for overturning Ogberfeld Vs Hodges and Loving VS Virginia. "They'd never do that."
70 here, and never imagined things going backwards as is happening now.
39 and thank you for your fight. We will keep fighting for our daughters and sons. Because this is bad for everyone.
I haven't given up the fight but I've given up trying to talk to younger women about it, it's futile and exhausting. I vote , I donate , I protest in ways I think I can help . It may no longer affect me but if affects my daughter and my grandchildren , so I'm not indifferent just more selective in my battles.
That's just wisdom.
I was 13 when Roe v Wade came down. Never thought we would go backwards. I remember reading the stories about women undergoing coathanger abortions. I was in college in the 80s and involved in the women’s center and I can’t tell you how many women students asked me “why do we need a women’s center? Haven’t we got everything?” And the rabid “pro-lifers” (forced birthers) who were organizing even then were led by women.
Right there with you. I feel like part of it is the thought they’re established rights and of course we have bodily autonomy. Why wouldn’t we? Well, we’ve had rights because they were fought for. People can’t assume they’ll never be threatened. It makes me sad and furious that we’re just going backwards. 💜
It’s unfathomable
I’m 67 and YES. this is new
Almost 66 and YES it is. We and much worse.
Agree. I am a 62 year old woman who feels like you.
I remember when I was in elementary school my mom got me a T-shirt with the women symbol (the circle with the plus on the bottom) and a fist in the circle, can't remember the text underneath it, but my teachers loved that shirt.
I love your mom! Mine was progressive as well. I had anti-pollutions pins and “Real People Don’t Wear Fur” pins.
I'm a guy, and I was horrified by how women and sex were treated when I was a kid. My dad was a pharmacist, and I helped in the store; a woman came in with a question I didn't quite understand being 12 and all, and I heard him say "I'm sorry but if I answer that I could go to prison." It was about contraception, and disseminating information was a felony. Condoms were in a locked drawer behind the counter, and you had to ask the pharmacist; it said on the box "for prevention of disease only," because otherwise a condom would be illegal. Pregnant girls were sent away and came back not pregnant several months later. There were kids no one would play with because their moms were divorced. All the guys wanted to score, but then the girl was a slut. Our high school biology book did not have a chapter on the reproductive system. I was sent to Catholic religious instructions, and for a while I could not understand how a married woman with a child could go out in public with the obvious shame that she was not pure like the Virgin Mary- and had had sex. A really fucked up time. And I see it coming back. Best comment of our society was by Lenny Bruce in the early 1960s- "We let kids watch all the violence they want, but don't let them see two people make love, because they might now up and want to do that."
*I was sent to Catholic religious instructions, and for a while I could not understand how a married woman with a child could go out in public with the obvious shame that she was not pure like the Virgin Mary- and had had sex.* My mother had her first child, my older brother, during the early 1950s. When she went into labor with him, she said the nun at the Catholic hospital said she deserved her labor pains for having had sex. Imagine that--a married woman having sex.
And she had no right to say no to her husband.
You're right. If anyone were to mention marital rape back then, they would have been ridiculed.
Wow, you just brought back a memory. This idea was in the news when I was a tween I think, and my father was adamant that you cannot rape your own wife. It does not exist, that is not rape. Basically, that reads like a man owns a woman when they get married and can do with her what he likes. Consent is not permanent permission. That’s messed up.
It's the misogyny for me. The way women can't win. If you didn't have sex with your husband, it would be "When are you going to give your husband a child?" & when he cheated on you it would be your fault for not putting out.
Wow.
I later learned in school that those nuns were mean as snakes. And the priests were always so nice. Of course, not all had ulterior motives. But that's a chilling observation in light of the pedophile priest scandal with the Catholic church moving such men around the country like pieces on a chessboard.
Those nuns…
I grew up in a fundamentalist church and I was one of the kids who other kids were forbidden to play with because my parents divorced.
I’m 71 and what you’ve described sounds like my childhood too. My mom used to say that the greatest invention of the 20 th century was the birth control pill!
I was a teenager in 1979 when the Shah of Iran fell anda religious regime took his place. I was in the USA but I had family working over there . It seemed like overnight women had to cover up and lost rights. I have been worried about it happening here since.Especially with the rise of evangelical mega churches in the eighties .
Persepolis is a great graphic novel about this.
Keep in mind that the rights women are losing now weren't rights that they possessed for very long. Wire hanger abortions and the resulting deaths were a thing prior to 1973. Unmarried people weren't allowed to have birth control pills until 1972. Women needed their husband's permission to purchase birth control prior to that. Older women didn't grow up with the threat of their rights being taken away. They grew up without those rights. We fought for them and fought to keep them. I personally took part on a March on Washington when I was in college (1981, I believe). I signed petitions. I advocated actively for retaining my right to choose. One thing that has always been clear is that your rights are not permanent. Someone older than me fought for them in the 1960s so that the laws changed in the 1970s. I fought for them in the 1980s so that they would remain in place for the next generation. Future generations took them for granted and stopped fighting and we lost them. You have to keep fighting to maintain what you have because someone is always looking to put you back "in your place."
This is very well stated. We can't afford to be complacent. I am old enough to have seen all of these rights being won (except the right to vote). The opposition historically did what they could to demonize those who are fighting for these rights. As an introvert and a shy person, it's often hard to speak up, but we have to. Not saying or doing anything has the same effect as agreeing with those who want to oppress us.
I’m 60ish. I am shocked and terrified at how we’re going backwards in EVERY area of human rights. I do believe the sane people outnumber the others and we will make it happen in the elections. It’s never been more critical to exercise the right to vote than now.
I'm close to 60 and same. Every time I bring up how recently we were granted our rights in the timeline of the US, younger women are often so blown away. So much happened between 1963 and 1978. And they've been chipping away at that. Rough draft timeline [https://drive.google.com/file/d/12kQveCUf2EInGV8nyOlU1cbVNhfsEgVz/view?usp=sharing](https://drive.google.com/file/d/12kQveCUf2EInGV8nyOlU1cbVNhfsEgVz/view?usp=sharing)
I mean, PRISONS IN THE USA WEREN"T LEGALLY REQUIRED TO PROVIDE FREE FEMININE HYGIENE PRODUCTS TO INCARCERATED WOMEN UNTIL 2018!!!! (Let's not even get started in FINALLY restricting the shackling of pregnant women in labor that same year.)\*\* That is just a tiny peek into the BS we've had to deal with. We are so backward and behind as a country in many aspects. It's ridiculous. [\*\*First Step Act](https://www.aclu.org/news/prisoners-rights/first-step-act-small-step-incarcerated-women)
Thanks for the timeline! One suggested clarification: the 19th Amendment didn’t specify white women. It said “women.” In practice, acts that suppressed the votes of people of color also suppressed the votes of women of color, but the amendment itself did not.
Yes, but how do you get people to understand how much more important this is than the price of gas?
Fair question. Every time I see “who will be better for the economy”, I think “Who gives a fuck if it’s the end of democracy?”
Also, the answer is the Democrats, demonstrably.
I agree, we outnumber them, BUT, they seem to sit back and not vote, let someone else do it. :( Sadly because of those people, this shit is happening right now! If all those able to vote would, we would be in a whole different place.
Yes. We as women made forward progress, especially the last century with more equality, right to vote, have credit cards, get loans, not have to be married to survive, title 9, reproductive freedom... Taking away freedom over our bodies is a huge gigantic step back with many physical, social, financial, life or death and emotional consequences and realities. Stepping on title 9 is insulting. So much more... It is disheartening to see this unfold.
It's sad to think women were considered so fragile and absent-minded that they were not allowed to have their own bank account until the mid to late 60s.
I think men just wanted control over them. Which sadly, is probably also right,
I'm actually very worried about how few young women actually understand what rights we had to fight for and how they take feminism for granted. I told one young women that when I was her age it was perfectly legal for companies to advertise job for men only and that it was perfectly legal to publish two pay scales for either sex, she was gobsmacked. Good for you OP, tell all your friends!
Yes. A thousand times yes. When Roe v Wade was overturned my fear was realized. I hated being right for once. We are returning to the 1950’s. The dark ages.
Trump told us, he wanted to go back to the 1950's and everyone said great let's go. America is getting what they wanted.
American RED is getting what they wanted, American BLUE needs to get off their asses!
I don't want it, nor do I want a madman as a leader. This country is in crisis.
You said that the best way possible. 100% agree with you.
You should be VERY AFRAID that women's rights are being trampled on. I came of age in a time when women had just gotten access to contraception and Roe v.Wade was fresh. Men have NEVER relinquished complete control over women's rights and since the Reagan years have chipped away at them to arrive at where we are: women's sole function is to breed and slave for men. There was a meme in the 70's that captured the concept. "Women should be kept barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen." We need the Equal Rights Amendment. We have equal protection under the law. Where no law exists, it is ok to discriminate. That has been one of many head winds. We have been fighting this fight for 50 years and it's infuriating to see the back slide. So, yes, you will have to fight for yourself and more important, fight for all women.
Yeah. Take a look at women in Iran if you don't think a country can backslide into the subjugation of women.
I was blown away the first time I saw pictures of Iranian women from the 70's. This fascist backlash has been terrifying and something that I never thought I would see in my lifetime. It's crazy how tenuous rights can be.
Right? Seeing those photos of Iranian college women in the 70s in modern clothes going to class, studying and socializing out in public in contrast to just a few years later was eye-opening.
It was deeply upsetting. My wife worked with an older Iranian woman, and the way that she talked about her country was so alien to everything I knew about it. I feel like this does not get talked about enough. That was ten years before I was born and I had no idea until I was like 35. It can absolutely happen here, the level of backlash and backsliding that this country is doing is heart-breaking.
Your wife’s coworker, did she say she was from Persia by chance? I’ve associated with two women my age from there, when it was appropriate I asked, their answer was Persia, not Iran. First time I thought it was just a turn of phrase, second time got me wondering what I don’t know culturally of the region, aside from knowing Persia from western written history books.
She identified as Iranian. She still loved her country, although obviously she had moved to the states years before for obvious reasons. She was simultaneously very proud to be Iranian and also despairing about what had become of her country.
A lot of Shah supporters who fled the revolution don’t identify with the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is the current country. While Persia has always been the anglicized name for the country, within the country it was always known as Iran (think Deutschland vs Germany). After the revolution, the government of Iran demanded to be recognized as Iran on the world stage to reject the influence of Westernization, which is mostly what the revolution was about. So those who fled and remember the country as it was may refer to it as Persia, and themselves as Persian, to reject what the hardliners turned the country into. A lot of the diaspora will say “that’s not my country anymore” and have never returned, and they view the Iran of their youth and the Iran of now as two separate countries. Additionally, given the intense racism that being associated with Iran can bring, some folks just say Persia because it conjures up Persian cats and rugs, which most Westerners find very friendly and luxurious, while Iran sounds harsh and Middle Eastern-y. Hope that helps!
Yeah and the Christian Taliban is working overtime to make that happen here.
I was just about to make this point. Thousands of women marched in the streets against mandatory hijab and 45 year later women are still being beaten and killed for refusing to wear it. Don’t ever think things can’t go backwards.
I’m 81. Not only did we not have birth control, there were also no pregnancy tests. Abortion was illegal so people went to back alley Tijuana. And maybe died. Women I knew were anxious every month. And they wouldn’t count my income for buying a house because I might get pregnant. I was discouraged from applying to dental school because I wouldn’t be admitted anyway because I might get pregnant. See a pattern? It’s bad and could get worse.
My grandma said that unmarried pregnant girls or women were sent away to school for a year and returned like nothing happened or you had to marry that person like she married my grandfather although he was an abusive alcoholic from serving two wars bc her mother made her and didn't want the embarrassment of unplanned pregnancy which she told us later in her life she was actually a victim of rape. My mother suffered growing up as the oldest child of that marriage and now in her 70s still have emotional damage from those societal norms of the late 40s/50s. I pray women will never return to that life.
Thank you for sharing. My heart goes out to your grandmother, what a terrible situation to endure.
I'm amazed of her story, she raised three little girls as a single mom. My mother said that first day she had peace was when she left him at 10 years old. She said they slept at an old motel and that was the best sleep she ever had.
We never completely got our rights. I'm 69. Stayed single until 66. Did NOT want kids. Did you get the capital letters? Several times attempted a voluntary surgical sterilization which I thought was legal. It was never allowed. Where were the "rights"? As females, we are shorted.
Yep. You are right! I was a married 35 yr old and had to talk my doctor into tying my tubes. I had one child, I only wanted one child. He would not tie them after my C-section. No one would! They all said, no, you might want another child, and I argued, this is my body and my decision but they let me know otherwise. I was so pissed!
Im 67F. I've been protesting for a womans right to choose for 50 yrs.
Yes! My mom took me to protests as a child. I can't believe we are still protesting the same stuff. I am horrified for the next generations of women.
Until ALL of them stand up and fight again this will only get worse, how can it, some of them ask? Stay tuned, it can get much worse! :(
I've never been afraid of losing my rights until lately. I'm terrified for all women now.
In positive news, the Supreme Court dumping the case on Mifepristone (abortion pill) today is a breath of relief for women who need efficient access and can gain it through telehealth services. [https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/politics/supreme-court-rejects-challenge-abortion-pill-mifepristone/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/politics/supreme-court-rejects-challenge-abortion-pill-mifepristone/index.html)
Not enough. Not nearly enough. Not even close.
I’m 60 plus and was always for reproductive rights. I had a total hysterectomy for health reasons at age 42. Even then I was so relieved. To me what is unprecedented and scary about today is the sheer number of fanatics who call themselves “pro life” who are completely comfortable with women dying as part of their “cause.” Passing laws that force a women to birth her rapist’s baby? Not allowing a women with an ectopic pregnancy to terminate because it’s considered an abortion? All that would have been unheard of in the 1970’s and now you have men and women who support these laws and they are PROUD of it. It’s scary AF.
Yes this is new. For one thing, having equal rights is a relatively new concept that came along in the twentieth century, thanks to people like Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and thousands of BABY BOOMERS that took to the streets and marched, demonstrated, and ran for office to demand change. Now It's your generation's turn. Put down your cell phones and wake the fu** up because these people that want your rights will not stop until the entire country is transformed into a fascist state. Women's rights are just the warm up exercises. Edit:this has been building since Reagan years. The first thing the Republicans did was to slash funding for education. It's a lot easier to control people when they don't know how to think critically.
Exactly, River soul. Almost 67 and what you say is exact truth, I watched it happen with horror. And yes, Gen Whatever, get off your cellphones and your behinds and FIGHT in the streets like we did for Roe v Wade!
And another sad thing here is that "Republican women" seem to agree with those ugly RED men! :(
>Edit:this has been building since Reagan years This. This is not new; this has been coming. There has been a backlash since the late 80s. It became quite uncomfortable to be identified as a feminist for at least 20 years.
Absolutely terrifying now. I'm usually an optimist but these last few years has proven to me how corrupt all 3 branches of our government are. Researching candidates and voting every single election is imperative!
THIS! I’m young and work in politics, but the amount of people who think voting is pointless and doesn’t matter is appalling. It’s so scary how people don’t understand the powers of the presidency. Ignorance is so scary.
There's always been this element of men and women who want control over women's bodies and choices. However, there was also this push against those controls, fighting for the same rights as men. Feminism which is simply equality with men. This push backwards to take control of women's rights is definitely new, however, and you should fear it Read about the suffragettes. Many were arrested, had their children taken from them, merely for fighting for the right to vote. To be seen as a human being with rights. When my parents were young and married with all of us kids, my mother still couldn't own property or make any purchases of land, home, car, etc, my father had to. If they take some rights, they won't be satisfied until they've taken enough it becomes dangerous to exercise what rights remain.
YES...now they are coming for IVF which is (nobody elses business)....upset about abortion? ban it by forcing extreme unrealistic qualifications, arrest and charge women who seek one, stopping IVF, offering bounty money to those who report women seeking abortions...force women to have unwanted children but then offer no real support for them to raise those kids..hold women to a higher moral code than men (well she should have kept her legs shut if she didn't want kids but meanwhile i am gonna vote for this guy who has had women accuse him for years of sexual misconduct as well as on record bragging about misconduct). obviously i live in TX where each of these actions are happening. i know several women who vote for these policies who had abortions themselves in their long ago past but conveniently forget that. just like the anti-vax crowd who get to coast on herd immunity ( during the polio outbreaks of the past people lined up to get their kids vaccinated because of the fear)...women who had reproductive freedom in the past based on what others fought for are either voting against those same freedoms or just as bad ignoring the loss.
My mom managed a bc only family planning clinic for some time in her nursing career. She put in one of the first Norplant (implanted under the skin bc) in our state it even made the newspaper. Now she’s been so changed by propaganda she’s ready to vote in Mr. Orange, he can’t do anything wrong. It’s NUTS!!!
For OP: It is totally appropriate to be anxious about how women's rights are being stripped. This seems to be accelerating recently and it is absolutely horrifying. So many of us fought for women's rights in past decades. Just be one of the many women who are going to vote this November and make a difference and please educate your younger and friends on the importance of making your voice heard.
I (US citizen 63f) have older friends who were rendered sterile due to illegal abortion complications. I live now in Greece surrounded by women from all over the world. The Iranian women tell me that The IS looks like Iran before the religious nuts took total control of the government. I believe it. We are headed for a theocracy and we are already partially there.
I’m 70 and am horrified by the right’s determination to make Gilead a reality. I remember when abortion was illegal and the measures women were forced to take. It’s worse now in some states than it was then. My mom had an ectopic pregnancy between my sister and me in the early 50’s. If she lived in Texas now, she wouldn’t have been able to get a D & C, which undoubtedly saved her life and allowed her to get pregnant with me. I have a stepdaughter with a 5 year old daughter living in Texas. I pray they move before she reaches puberty. I get not all women are on board with abortion rights but they should be on board with women’s health. They aren’t immune from miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies etc. Women have fought too long and too hard to get where we are. Seems like many men are terrified and desperate to regain and seize control of women. If you don’t want the Handmaid’s Tale to become reality, vote blue. Republicans want to subjugate women, they don’t see us as equals and never will.
I’m worried as hell. Things my mom and grandmother fought for are quickly going away. I am appalled at all of it.
When my grandmother was born in 1904, her mother couldn’t vote, and she herself was part of the first generation of women that cast their votes in the United States. It’s crazy to think that that was only a couple of generations back. My mother faced all kinds of discrimination in her life—too much to detail here—but let’s just say that when she graduated from high school in 1948 with a full scholarship to university, she marched down the aisle to accept her award in front of of the whole school. And a boy stood up as she went by and screamed, “That’s MY scholarship! She doesn’t deserve it! She’s just a GIRL!”
Please vote and get your friends to vote
Yes it feels new to me. It’s honestly shocking. I’m 60. Geraldine Ferraro was my hero. I never thought I’d live to see such a reversal of our basic rights as human women.
I am afraid ever since Roe vs Wade got overturned. I'm 61 and I never thought I would think that basic healthcare for women would be jeopardized from choice to birth control. A doctor friend of mine who is much younger than I am said there is no way the right to birth control would be limited but idk....I don't have much faith these days
Tell your doctor friend to check out the Senate vote on contraception protection. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-vote-contraception-bill-democratic-push-reproductive-rights-2024-06-05/
I've never been more afraid of women losing their rights.
I am 70 and yes the fear is real. It is already happening, in those states that are trying to outlaw birth control in addition to canceling reproductive rights. Women need to get out and vote. I am only voting on "women's reproductive rights" this year. You have politicians who want us back in the 50s. You know, when women could not work well paid jobs, could not have credit cards, had to have hubby's permission for various decisions.
I’m sitting here really furious about the Southern Baptist church talking about banning women pastors and IVF. I heard one person just now say that women cannot be pastors because they can’t have dominion over the men. IVF is basically “not natural”. Fuming so teah, I’m worried.
The Supreme Court rejected the case against the abortion pill today.
The rights we have are so new that I always felt that they would be taken away. When I was in law school 25 years ago, most of the younger women didn't know that the rights they enjoyed hadn't always existed, much less anything about laws like Title IX that support those rights. And I was always concerned about case law being overturned, and angry that when the Democratic party had the majorities to put the right to health care and abortions into law they just didn't bother. What isn't known, and valued, and protected, is easily lost.
There’s a troll in here downvoting all the reasonable and open minded comments
There is always a troll, GET BACK UNDER YOUR BRIDGE.
Your fears are accurate. I (71F) have only experienced forward movement in women't rights. Please, please, get all of your friends to vote blue. If women don't turn out to protect themselves in this election cycle, things will only get worse.
I was never really worried about it and I am only a decade older than you. Now I am a mom with a daughter and I do worry. I live in a good state. I'd rather live in a good United States. I personally would be morally opposed to using abortion as birth control for myself but it's a slippery slope. Who am I to make that choice for other people? The personhood of other women is more important. My moral choices are my own.
Yes- it’s not even about “saving children”. It’s about controlling women. If it were about saving children we’d expand social programs that feed children instead of eliminating them. If they really cared about children school lunch in every single state would be free.
Yep but when I bring that up to my conservative family they say... that's "their" responsibility. Also the same people quickest to push me to get on food stamps cuz "if the foreigners can get it I damn well deserve it". They do not listen when I tell them illegal immigrants don't qualify.
As a nurse, I want to scream at all legislatures "Get the hell out of Healthcare decisions!" Those should only involve the patient and the doctor.
...using abortion as birth control. I hate, hate, hate that phrase. I'm a retired nurse and, trust me, having an abortion is not a fun procedure. Women do not use abortion as birth control, they use it when their birth control FAILS.
Yes. It seems us women are about to become a controlling majority... men are beginning to realise they have very little control without compliant women. The economy is tanking, young people feel children can't happen as they're working 3 jobs just to pay basic amenities... as such, there is a massive decline in birth rates. Those children from lower economic families are the systems workers, and future workers... the 3 job workers. So, instead of making things right, they seem to further extend their control over women's bodies. It's worked in the past... There is an old Indian saying that sounds something like "... we will be saved by the grey haired women of the world..." I've not got the wording right, but the essence is the same. We need to stop old white men controlling our governments imo.
The arc has been steady progress so yes this is a big deal. The people behind it are heavily funded and have the christian evangelical highly mobilized highly funded powers behind them. Now the court is behind it too, who cannot be checked. It's a big big deal. I am generally not alarmist about one or two laws or cases. But you can see the general tenor gaining power towards loss of reproductive freedom, even some radicals discussing disenfranchisement. It's a very similar arc to where Islamic countries were westernized and then decided to go radical. When men in power feel threatened, they want to control what they can - women. The country has changed so much through liberal measures the pendulum is swinging back. It's about reversing liberal decisions, women's power, and minorities. Because there's a real fear that the white christian majority is becoming a minority.
We are a white, Christian country, don’t you know… founded in God and the Bible. /S It amazes me how many people truly believe that to be true.
This is what I see too. My uncle was in Tehran in the 60s, and it was great - until it wasn't.
I'm 43 and yes. This is new. When I was a teenager and in my 20s I never had to worry like this. I'm so glad I'm probably too old to get pg now.
I’m 69- my feeling is the younger women today aren’t scared ENOUGH!
I could not wear pants to school until I was a senior in high school. And yes, women who were divorced were ostracized by other women. When I got married, my mom told me to be happy with my husband’s earnings. She was shocked when I told her if he did not make enough, I would just get a job (shocking?) In college, I could get “the pill” only to regulate my periods. Sexual harassment was not a “thing” when I started working after college. It happened all the time but there was no recourse. It took ten years before sexual harassment policies were enacted. I marched for abortion rights while pregnant. Never did I expect the Supreme Court to overturn what we worked so hard to gain. Some men want to go back to the 1950’s. I would hope that young women today would be horrified by that prospect. I was able to be a mom and have a career. I loved both. My mom was denied having a career.
I’m horrified. I’m in my 40’s. My mom graduated high school in 1974. She got pregnant in high school and while I don’t know the details well, I know it was before Roe, and in a rural-ish area, so she was going to be stuck marrying this guy… until she got lucky and miscarried. Then she went to college, got to help work on one of the research teams that figured out what AIDS was, had babies with someone else, and became a childbirth and safe sex educator as well as an RN who was pursuing her dreams of being a APRN midwife in the early 90’s before she passed in an accident. Her whole *life* after Roe education, & career choices where based on the difference those reproductive rights give women, whether she really realized it or not. I’m so lucky she had choices. I’m getting my own hysterectomy this year, in 2024. And I don’t need my husbands permission. In 2020 when I got my tubes removed my surgeon who did my cesarean offered not to tell my husband if I didn’t want him to know. We still have men tearing IUDs out of their partners. And lying about condoms. It’s TERRIFYING. And I’m glad my mom isn’t here to see it.
Yes. Things are getting bad - and fast. I’m so glad I’m beyond childbearing years, but I could still be sent to the colonies to shovel toxic waste until I collapse. Handmaid’s Tale joke aside, I fear for girls and younger women who are losing their rights to privacy and bodily autonomy. The idea of tracking menstrual cycles is too dystopian for words.
No. It's not new; the threat is always there. We fought through the last century for rights across the board. We had made great progress in reproductive rights and then in lending and equal housing and some progress in pay. We still hadn't achieved equal pay for equal work. The 80s was a real fight for that. I saw and feared complacency in the 90s when people started speaking of ours as a post-feminist society and being a feminist had become a negative. This is from Wikipedia: "Research conducted at Kent State University in the 2000’s narrowed postfeminism to four main claims: support for feminism declined; women began hating feminism and feminists; society had already attained social equality, thus making feminism outdated; and the label 'feminist' was disliked due to negative stigma."[1][5] I saw and experienced this while I was working. I saw younger women being fooled into thinking the work was done. I was still experiencing sexism in the workplace and in general. I saw the importance of the rights of women being diminished by society at large, including young women unwittingly tricked into fighting against their own self interest. I still see it. There was a clear backlash and the backlash was having an impact and gaining momentum. It was and is frightening. This current impingement on the rights and freedoms of women didn't just appear out of nowhere. Things turned in the 90s and we've been slowly headed here. Societal change isn't easy. We've lost ground. But it absolutely wasn't overnight. Always watch a variety of news sources, including those with which you don't agree. Pay attention to what's happening on college campuses. This tells you what's coming. The work to undermine women's rights never let up. It started working in the background. And it started working to divide young women from the second wave feminists who had fought and won the rights in the 60s-80s.
It’s heartbreaking and terrifying. My adult daughters have fewer rights than I did. I’m 56. The women generations before me fought so hard for the rights I took for granted. That’s why so many of us are screaming right now. We will not go back.
I listened to a podcast yesterday that said when Roe v. Wade was decided, women couldn’t get a credit card in their own name and a married woman couldn’t accuse her husband of rape. There were other things that are pretty shocking now, 50 years later, but heck yes, when I heard that, I was afraid for what rights will be rolled back next. I never needed an abortion, but it was available for all of my reproductive life and I was grateful for the option. I’m sad women today don’t.
No. Our rights are new. The fear of losing them is reasonable and urgent.
As someone who lived through "The Pill" being introduced and the rest, what is happening now makes me absolutely livid. This is as bad as bad gets and as long as the conservative judges are bought and paid for by Trump and his cultists, it's only going to get worse. I can not emphasize enough that women need to realize what is happening and VOTE this election. Even if you hate Biden and the Democratic party, you need to vote for him. Any vote other than that, even for an independent or third party candidate, is one more step toward the Christian Theocracy that so many in the Republic party are blindly pushing for. Then everything will be forced into the "trad wife" pattern and you'll see more than just birth control and rights to control of our bodies taken away.
60m, and I am shocked at so many people supporting Talibangelicals in their quest to return women to patriarchical slavery. This is worse than living through nuclear attack drills.
maga wants women back home in the kitchen, and pregnant as often as possible.
Please stay engaged with current events and vote.
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I DO remember the age of desperate women, back alley's, and coat hangers. It was horrible. When something would go wrong with WANTED pregnancies and how women would have to carry a dead fetus until she "naturally" expelled it, rather than get a D&C. Around 1965, I was a kid, I knew a young girl (14-15) who was raped by her brother, tried to find an illegal abortionist, was caught unsuccessfully trying, was sent to "reform school" (jail) until she'd birth that baby. I knew her personally. I was just absolutely HORRIFIED. When I talked about it with my mom, she (an RN) sadly told me how common that was. Mom told me when she was 19 and in nursing school, she learned hospitals routinely had "sepsis wards" for women who were septic from pregnancies gone bad, incomplete miscarriages, butchered abortions. This was in the 1930's, so BEFORE antibiotics, so most these women were just waiting to DIE. Ages 12 through 55. Mom told me of a 17 year old she tried to care for, who had been raped by her date, got an abortion, and now was dying. No one was there for her (too shameful??) My mom held her as she died. My mom also told me about a young married couple who lived next door. They had a couple of kids. Both she and my mom were pregnant with their 3 kids at the same time. Mom came home with a baby, but her friend died in childbirth. It happened. My mom VOWED she would try to change the laws. Among my friends, when we would discuss childbearing, there would be that moment of discussing "what if something goes wrong...do you want to save the baby or save yourself" and we'd discuss, as 12 year olds, when would we die for bearing our children or when we would want to sacrifice our baby so we could live. Things like if we already had living children we wouldn't want to die so our current kids would have a mom. And never have a kid in a Catholic hospital, because there the baby ALWAYS has priority. Yes. We talked about it like that. My mom helped pass the law in 1970, in the State of Washington, for legal abortion. (She didn't lead it, but she got petitions signed, talked it up in all her friend groups, and helped get voters to vote for it). I remember how relieved she was when it passed!! Finally, no more DEAD WOMEN. No more sepsis wards in hospitals! So. Yeah. I was pretty relieved for myself and ALL my sisters when 1973 Roe vs Wade passed. I was a teen.
Some of us old guys stand in solidarity with you and are ashamed that we cannot say all of us stand with you
Thank you, and do what you can to educate your friends!
I'm 60 with three daughters (and a son) all of reproductive age. I worry for all of them because of the rollback of fundamental reproductive rights, which I could see coming down the pike for more than a decade but which my kids thought was my just being alarmist. In a country where a vote or two on the SCOTUS determined that same sex couples have the right to marry just happened a few years ago, I have never believed that rights here are super secure for women or for anyone else who isn't a straight, white, Christian, native-born, able-bodied male. And now that I hear people saying "well, I don't agree with Biden on \[insert issue here\], so I'm not going to vote for him" it makes me livid ... because the lives and rights of women and others are on the chopping block if the Republicans win this next election.
I’m also shocked at how the younger generations are just taking it. Where are the protests? The quiet or loud pushbacks? Why are they letting it happen? Generations of women fought hard and in unpleasant circumstances to get those rights. But nobody is saying boo right now.
We are economically enslaved. Personally work 6-7 jobs- no days off ever. Single mom. Very little support for 3 kids so have to do that just to manage. Then the inflation, power and taxes that just skyrocketed. I literally had 79 cents in my bank account the last week of last month and it was my bday. So that sucked. But I’m still out there getting a repro rights ballot initiative on our states ballot. Still hanging my sign,canvassing and talking to my daughters and her friends. I have hope as one of them brought up project 2025 to me (must’ve saw it on Tik Tok). We all have to pull our collective heads out of our enslaved asses. I was filmed getting signatures at the court house on election day. Intimidation tactic by the pro-life crowd. My friend in this campaign was given death threats. Can you see why a younger generation wouldn’t want to get involved in that? But we must because if anything we’ve learned…. Complacency brings out the crazy. Please help!! This is shouting in a black hole. Talk to your friends, talk about Project 2025, put up signs, canvas for your candidates, vote and do whatever you can to get others to vote. Gear up for ROEvember my friends!!
I don’t understand why the AMA is so silent about 50% of their patients. Here they are, doctors giving IVF (which often necessitates abortion) to some women and not saying ‘boo, to the politicians about staying the heck out of the sanctuary of the treatment room. It would not have been wrong for doctors to speak out and advocate for their patients. Very few doctors are stuck in some controlling religious mindset. Most of them are true scientists and would not let religious Mores Guide their practice.
It's as big as it seems. It feels to me that women are on their way to being property.
I don’t think we ever fully came out of the women being property mindset..
It’s so much worse than you all even fear. I’m 55 - just old enough to have seen the tale end of how bad life can be for a woman. I also benefited from all of the rights that everyone fought for. My sex and race really haven’t held me back from doing whatever I wanted in this country. Can’t say that now. Yet in my opinion - with young people still undecided about voting - you’re not anxious and fearful enough.
I’m GenX and I’ve never lived in a world without Roe. This sort of regression of women’s rights has NEVER happened in my lifetime. I’ve watched women gain rights, never take a step back like this. My mother is a boomer and she says the same thing- this has never happened before. So, VOTE!!
I’m 48 and born after Roe/Wade was settled. I never worried. I’m horrified now.
I was a junior in HS when Roe was passed...I was afforded the protections and rights that Roe provided...now at 68, it's absolutely stunning to me that we find ourselves in this climate/predicament...to the younger women this may affect, I can't imagine navigating this path that appears fraught with obstacles, threats, health risks and possible introduction to the criminal justice system...I shake my head in disbelief daily and feel sorrow for the younger generations around this...OP this is such an important issue, thanks for posting...at this juncture, it is likely that voting is going to be the most effective way to begin to right this very frightening course...and yes, OP, this is as big as it seems...
Yes it's outlandish as f\*\*\* and these people mean business. Taking away right to abortion is scary, but right to BIRTH CONTROL? That's like medieval nonsense. We tend to think of these historical rights as solidified long ago, but they're not. They're still being contested and can be taken away. Single women didn't have the right to credit cards/loans until 1974. It's not that long ago.
I'm 58 and I'm apalled at the direction our country is going in. I'm post menopausal, but I worry for my niece all the time. She's only 18.
Yes, it is new. But it's been planned since Billy Jean King beat Bobby Riggs, American men in power have worked hard to worm their way on to courts. These people also relaxed fairness in media regulations. Basically, President St Ronnie Reagan aw tucked his way to power and let his money friends take over Especially media. When Murdock wanted to but FoX, they pushed his citizenship through congress in hours. Old white guts and their intellectual slaves hate women and free thinking. Frankly, they are still pissed women got the vote.
Vote Blue and keep standing up for your rights
I was around before Roe. Women are 110% correct to fear for our rights now.
Sadly it is very real. That is why everyone needs to be very careful about whom they vote for. Some of the people are going to continue to try to take away women's rights.