Dear John,
This week marked exactly one year since Texas’s six-week abortion ban S.B. 8, with its notorious bounty hunter enforcement mechanism, went into effect. Today abortion is currently banned in nearly all cases in Texas, thanks to a 1925 law declared to be in effect by the state’s attorney general Ken Paxton in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, overturning Roe. And just the last month, a new law went into effect increasing the penalty for anyone who performs an abortion to life in prison and fines no less than $100,000.
In the past year, we’ve seen horrific stories coming out of Texas, as well as in other states that have implemented similarly restrictive bans. We’ve seen women prohibited from accessing medically necessary abortion procedures for unviable pregnancies, putting their lives in danger. We’ve seen women charged with murder for self-inducing abortions. We’ve seen victims of rape and incest—some as young as ten years old—prevented from accessing abortion procedures in their home state, forced to travel to states where abortion remains legal.
(For a full list of abortion bans in effect, and resources for those in need of abortion, head to msmagazine.com).
But we’ve also seen an incredible backlash to the Court’s decision and to Republican efforts across the country to severely restrict or ban abortion. Americans overwhelmingly support abortion rights — a recent poll from the Washington Post indicates that 75 percent believe abortion decision should be left up to the individual, rather than decided by lawmakers. And in last month’s midterm primary, Kansas voters showed up to the polls in droves to vote ‘no’ on a proposed amendment that would have allowed for legislation that outlawed abortion.
The Kansas vote signals what we already knew: abortion issues will be a major motivating factor in the upcoming midterm elections. In a speech delivered from Philadelphia’s Independence Hall Wednesday night, President Joe Biden noted just how crucial the election will be for securing our rights: “MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards, backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love,” he said. “They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fanned the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.”
As we head into the long Labor Day weekend which traditionally kicks off the election season, we are especially celebrating the women whose labor often goes under-acknowledged and under-compensated — teachers, women working in retail and food service who won’t get the day off, child care workers, caregivers of all kinds, volunteers at food banks and women whose jobs are inside their homes. They do the unpaid work that sustains life and props up our economy.
Have a wonderful and safe holiday!
