The signals were there, so I was not surprised when Roe v. Wade was overturned and it looks like we are headed for some pretty dark times. As Justice Clarence Thomas made clear in his opinion, we may be looking at bans on contraception, and we know there will be those gunning for a federal ban on abortion.
We would all love to see Roe v. Wade codified. We would all love to see Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Amy Coney Barrett impeached and removed from the Supreme Court. We would even like to see the court expanded so that we don’t have to continue watching our basic human rights eroded by the court that was appointed during the Trump administration.
But we have to be realistic, and look at what we can actually do.
Why do I think these ideas are unicorns? We saw that 10 days after Roe v. Wade was overturned, New Yorkers were not concerned enough to come to the polls and vote in the gubernatorial primary. We know that Republicans are using the war in Ukraine and supply chain issues that have led to inflation as a criticism of the Biden administration. And we’re facing the midterms which traditionally always goes against the party that holds the White House. Talk of actions such as impeaching Supreme Court Justices or packing the courts are great ideas if we had an overwhelmingly democratic Senate and House of Representatives.
But we don’t. And it is highly unlikely that we will in the new term.
We have to look at protecting women’s rights to reproductive freedom on a more granular level and what we can realistically get done. Because right now, it’s the incremental change that will be the most damning to our opponents.
Take cybersecurity and privacy laws - a bipartisan issue in Washington. Can we take the opportunity to ensure that apps and technology that help women track their menstrual cycles are protected from turning over that information to states that are putting a bounty on women who may be seeking abortions? The same could be asked of rideshare apps and protecting information if a woman is going out of state to get the necessary reproductive care she needs.
These are the kinds of ideas I bring to the table. These are the kinds of ideas I know I can deliver on. And these are the kinds of ideas that men won’t have because they will never understand what it means to be a woman in this country.
Catherine
