Stephan: In all the abortion media coverage I am seeing very little of it adddresses what is really going to happen in those red value states where white christofascist men are making themselves feel better about keeping women in a subordinate status by passing draconian anti-choice laws. And note that these same White men who feel so strongly about limiting a woman's right of choice about her own body, also routinely cut all programs that foster wellbeing in children. Even more shameful there is a whole cohort of White women who are accomplices in these anti-life policies.
I also chose this report because it gives us some data on the appalling state of healthcare in rural America, and the consequences that are going to flow from these stupid ill-conceived misogynist policies. To be specific: "79 of Georgia’s 159 counties do not have a single obstetrician-gynecologist practicing" in the county.
Think about that for a moment. You are a woman. You develop a vaginal infection. Or you suddenly have something go awry with your periods. Or you become pregnant, only it is an ectopic pregnancy. Or you are in your seventh month, when your water breaks, and you go into labor prematurely. Where do you go, whom do you see? You might have to drive 100 miles or more to see an OB/GYN physician. There are countries in Africa with better healthcare facilities.
And with Trump's immigration policies there are fewer and fewer doctors and nurses immigrating, and immigrant medical staff are essential to have any healthcare in America's rural areas; native-born physicians and nurses don't like to practice there. The pay is lower, the social activities are meager, and the educational opportunities for their children are far smaller.
To further complicate things, as this report describes, many physicians are leaving these already underserved areas, and these states. Personally, if I were a young women thinking of starting a family I wouldn't live in a Red value state, and I predict many women are going to reach that conclusion. This anti-choice drive by the christofascists is going to have a whole range of unintended consequences but one meta-consequence: Red states are increasingly going to become inferior places to live compared with Blue value states.
An activist, Tamara Stevens, leaves the Georgia capitol after an event opposing new abortion restrictions.
Credit: John Amis/AFP/Getty
On the floor of the Alabama state senate this week, a robotic voice read nine pages of legalese that would define a new reality for women in the state: abortion would be a crime, starting from the moment a woman knows she is pregnant. Doctors who perform the procedure could face up to 99 years in prison.
Then senators’ names were called one by one, and they cast their votes. There were 25 yes votes, enough for the bill to pass easily. Every single one was cast by a white man.
Those most hurt by the ban, by contrast, will be women of color and poor women, advocates say.
“For those with the means, it doesn’t matter that Alabama bans it. They’re going to find another state, find another country,” said the state senator Linda Coleman-Madison, one of four black Democrats who spent hours denouncing the bill before it passed overwhelmingly. Pictures of Coleman-Madison, her head in […]
