Fighting the Good Fight in the Post-Roe Era

Here’s a perfect example of how sisterhood is powerful: Five women in the South Carolina State Senate, three Republicans, one Independent and one Democrat, have blocked the passage of a near-total ban on abortion in South Carolina. They’ve accomplished this feat three times in eight months.

It’s one of the few examples of pro-choice legislators successfully fighting back against the GOP-controlled states that have rushed to enact draconian abortion laws. To date, 14 states ban abortion altogether, and 10 of the 14 states ban it with no exceptions for rape, incest, the health of the mother, or an unviable fetus. Another five states have abortion bans with gestational limits, often at 6 weeks, a time when few women even know they’re pregnant.

The lawmakers behind these edicts, nearly all conservative white men, ignore the clear majority (61%) of Americans who want abortion to remain legal and safe; ignore the consequences abortion bans have on women and families, especially the poor, and ignore what will happen to communities when unwanted children are born and need housing, clothing, medical care and education.

The same conservatives who bellow at the idea of big government are asking — demanding, actually — that the government intervenes in decisions involving bodily autonomy. From a practical viewpoint, they are disrupting medical care and straining already strapped social services. They are putting the rights of an embryo or fetus above the rights of citizens. These lawmakers expect some children to bear and raise babies, rape victims to care for a child borne of violence, families to care for children they can’t afford, and believe it’s OK to risk the lives of women for whom pregnancy turns into a medical emergency.

It is compassionless brinkmanship, and it results in needless suffering.

That’s why it’s absolutely essential for the Equal Rights Amendment to be ratified when it’s on the ballot for New Yorkers in November, 2024. The ERA would protect against any government actions that restrict a person’s bodily autonomy or their access to reproductive health care. The amendment would, for the first time, explicitly include language that defines discrimination based on a person’s pregnancy or pregnancy outcome as sex discrimination — an essential clarification given some state’s new laws criminalizing the termination of a pregnancy.

Will the reproductive rights issue be enough to get younger (under 40) voters to the polls? I certainly hope so. The polls are encouraging, especially when it comes to an energized GenZ. The rest of us, who have been fighting for women’s rights for decades, will be there to offer our support.