Sacrificing Women

I see that the New York Times has rated Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court as just a bit more conservative than Antonin Scalia.  That is no surprise.  This has been Trump's promise to his republican Congress all along.  This, along with his promise to unthinkingly sign any bill passed by Congress, has been the reason that all the jackals, from Paul Ryan, who is salivating over destroying health care, to Mike Pence, who is looking forward to overseeing the governance of every woman's vagina for the next four years.

Speaking of women's vaginas, it seems to me that now is the time to keep a close watch on Democrats in Congress.  Because whenever members of our party, like Chuck Schumer, want to appear reasonable, they tend to compromise our rights.  Especially our right to govern what happens inside our bodies.  And the right to do so privately.  For some reason, the right to abortion can always be manipulated and minimized in the name of bi-partisanship.

We have watched frustrated and helpless as the anti-abortion movement has obsessed and torn apart our right to medical privacy, our right to the best medical practice, our right to govern the path of our bodies and our lives.  The fact that the same group of radicals goes ballistic when there is any chance that a law might infringe on the right to carry a weapon of death anywhere they damn please despite all the proof of gun deaths never seems to enter into this debate.

Since our amazing march on tyranny on January 21, I have heard a couple of abortion obsessed women argue their outrage at their groups being excluded from participating in our march.  They believed in all the rights and freedoms we all were marching for, it seems, except the right to govern our bodies.  They couldn't understand why they were not welcome.  Apparently, being accepting of the rights of others does not include the rights of other women.

As we are beginning the debate about Neil Gorsuch, there are three really important points that we need to state, restate, repeat, and shout.

The first, which I just posted on my Facebook wall, is that Trump's nominee deserves the same consideration that President Obama's nominee received from Congress.  That is, none.  This country went a year without an appointment, without even a debate in Congress.  That after Obama made sure to nominate as inoffensive a candidate as possible.  Now, the same republicans will be whining and squawking about how the Democrats are not giving Trump the right to have his chosen candidate join the Supremes.  Convenient memories or alternative facts?  What it amounts to is this:  Obama had the constitutional right to appoint and have a hearing and a vote on his nominee, Merritt Garland.  Mitch McConnell chose not to allow that to happen.  Therefore, the current president does not have the right to have his nominee be heard.  Anticipating a victory by Hillary, republicans were talking about maybe never having that ninth justice.  So Garland or nobody would be the most reasonable argument.

Second, absolutely no Democrat should be willing to vote for a candidate who opposes women's reproductive freedom.  Absolutely not.  And I would like to remind our elected officials of the millions of women who marched for our freedoms in Washington and across the country just weeks ago.  We haven't gotten quiet, we can't be pacified, we are demanding our rights.  While Democrats scratch their heads over their continued failure to win Congress, they should consider what Bernie's run demonstrated:  they need to stop compromising.  "Hell no" won us the absolute worst (and most despised) Congress in our history.  Maybe people are looking for Democrats to take a stand this time around.

And finally, and please let us not forget this:  Donald Trump is an illegitimate president.  He won by lying, by using Russian hackers, through our own FBI manipulating a false case against Hillary, with states' derailing of voting rights.  He has failed to prove he has no ties to Russia, he has laughed at the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, he has breached security protocols and threatens our freedom of the press and our religious freedom.  We have already lost lives overseas by virtue of a careless military operation.  He is using our country as a means to further power and riches.  Our members of Congress should be demanding impeachment hearings with the same kind of energy with which they pursued Hillary Clinton for bogus cause.  Whether to hear Neil Gorsuch?  How about whether to bring forward impeachment hearings?

I have been left since January 20 with my mouth hanging open, appalled, outraged, disbelieving.  But that should not be so.  We knew what Trump wanted.  We knew what the leaders in Congress wanted.  They have done what Trump always does.  This has been the art of the dirty deal.  And it has to stop.

Women are going to dictate the path of this presidency.  So Democrats need to understand we are watching this Supreme Court battle, and we will not be sacrificed this time.

Rep. Barbara Lee has just introduced in the US House of Representatives the EACH Woman Act, which would lift bans like the Hyde Amendment that restrict women's right to abortion.  We are marching.  We are speaking up.  Now is the time to fight, not for some rights to some types of abortion for some women, but for the right of all women to have access to this procedure.  Let your members of Congress, let your state representatives, let all elected officials know that they will not be allowed to trample on women's rights any more.  Beginning with NO to Neil Gorsuch and YES to the EACH Woman Act.