Men Are Responsible for Unwanted Pregnancies and Must Be Involved in Women’s Rights

Regardless of how you feel about abortion, two facts are undeniable. First, how you feel is of no importance, you are not the person forced to deal with an unwanted pregnancy. Second, the Six Bad Actors who overturned a decision by a Supreme Court 49 years ago were not focused solely on the personal issue of abortion. Removing any responsibility for the man involved in the pregnancy, was a blatant attack on women’s rights in America. Other issues, concerned with equal rights in America, are guaranteed to follow.

Yesterday, President Biden signed an executive order offering some protections for a woman to control her reproductive health, but they are limited. Overturning Roe v Wade returned a woman’s vulnerability to the dark days of the mid-twentieth century.

Following statements by Justice Clarence Thomas other rights will soon be attacked by this biased and unqualified Court. It is clear that this Court is focused on the removal of a woman’s right to make any decisions affecting her personal physical and mental health.

It is likely that the next action by this fake Court will be eliminating certain forms of contraception. This, too, will be based on the demands of the Christian Religious Right lobby which opposes most devices and medications which prevent an unwanted pregnancy.

The next effort may be to halt the process of in-vitro fertilization. Yes, women who want to become pregnant could see their rights taken away as well. This appears to be an attack on every woman’s reproductive system. One action taken by the worst Court in our nation’s history will have ramifications for years, and will further divide our nation for decades.

Men must take notice and demand that the rights protected for women over the last 60 years must not be revoked. It is a fact, but unfathomable, that woman were forced to fight for the right to vote for 143 years. Black women had to wait until 1965, another 22 years, and this right is being challenged by red states in the form of voter suppression laws today.

One-half of our government and two-thirds of our Supreme Court considers women to be third-class citizens in the 21st century. First are men, second a fertilized ovum, and finally white women. Actions by right-wing politicians, including six on the Court, deny the rights of Black women to a far greater degree.

The Constitution was highly and even angrily debated at the Constitutional Convention between 1787 and 1789. The only amendment not facing extreme discussion and deliberation was the first. This is the amendment most under attack by those who would end the dream of our founding fathers.

This guarantee of personal rights, the right to vote, protest corruption, and the guarantee of a free press intended to expose that corruption is the very reason America exists. Although it has never come to fruition, women have been guaranteed full equality by the first amendment since 1789. Men have prevented women from receiving those rights and the Supreme Court just set the fight backward for one-half a century.

Finally, “the truth lives here,” and I beg you not to deny the fact that the Christian Religious Right controls one entire party, and that includes two-thirds of the Court. Therefore, not only will women and Black Americans remain in fear of losing their rights, the LGBTQ community will follow. In just months same-sex marriage will come under attack from this racist and bigoted Court.

Op-ed by James Turnage

Sources:

Daily KOS: In the post-Roe ‘new legal environment,’ IVF rights could also be at risk; by Laura Clawson
Daily KOS: The fall of Roe affects everyone, and this Missouri Democrat wants men to ‘Step the hell up!’ By Walter Einenkel

Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Carly Hagins’ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Stetson University’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License