Jessica Valenti: Stop Debating Abortion

[Nevilledog]

https://jessica.substack.com/p/stop-debating-abortion

When Roe was set to be overturned, a friend used a word to describe her feelings that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: Humiliating.

It’s humiliating to have to try to convince people of your humanity, to watch as your personhood is debated on the evening news as if it’s simply a political issue and not your actual, literal body that they’re talking about.

Now that we’re nearly six months into a post-Roe America, that feeling has only gotten worse. In part because of the constant stream of horror stories—women nearly dying of sepsis, raped children being shuttled from state to state for care—but also because we’re somehow still debating.

And we shouldn’t be. We already know that America is a pro-choice nation—despite the mainstream media narrative that paints abortion as a polarizing issue, restrictions and bans are being enacted against the wishes of most voters. So why talk about abortion rights as something people need to be convinced of? Why play into the idea that there is anything up for debate other than the notion that a powerful minority of politicians shouldn’t get to steamroll over what their constituents really want?

There is no ‘debating’ a person who wants to force a 10 year-old into childbirth; there’s no discussion to be had with a legislator who wants to fine-tune just how close a woman needs to be to death before she qualifies for an abortion. This will never be time well-spent or energy well-used. Instead, it will be exactly what it feels like: An exercise in degradation.

*snip*

[Hekate]

1. Well said

[in2herbs]

2. It's clear that there will be no National Right to Abortion vote in the near future. If it

was going to happen it would happen during this lame duck session.

Recently a multi-faith based group filed a lawsuit claiming that Alito's Roe decision violated their religion as their religion allowed abortions. The court agreed. There are similar lawsuits pending in other states.

Rather than Congress trying to get the votes to pass a National Right to Abortion, why not pass a Religious Discrimination Act. The Act would allow anyone to exercise their right to an abortion on religious grounds without interference if the religion allows abortion.

[ShazzieB]

3. What about the reproductive rights of people who don't belong to an abortion-friendly religion...

...or ANY religion, for that matter?

I'm 100% in favor of the lawsuits you mention, but not of a law that protects the right to abortion only for those who happen to belong to certain religions.

The point of those lawsuits is that across-the-board abortion bans violate some people's religious rights...so across-the-board bans are wrong and should be done away with, period. They're not asking for special protection for the reproductive rights of only those who belong to certain religions.

If that's not what you meant, feel free to clarify.

[in2herbs]

7. It is a way to pierce the Alito decision. Belonging to a religion that allows abortion would not

require tithing or weekly attendance, none of that is mandatory now. I believe that even the Satanic Temple is one of the plaintiffs in these law suits.

At the outset I imagined that women who are not now "religious" would "get religious" if they found they could benefit from those religions that allowed abortions. In fact, I don't remember the scholar who wrote the article, but the scholar went farther back into the history of Alito's basis for overturning Roe and proved that abortion was allowed under Alito's theory.

The Catholics, especially, would be threatened by this increase by those claiming to have a religion other than Catholic as Catholic attendance is sinking and has been for decades. It just might force some changes from them because it will hit the Pope in his pocket.

I was thinking the Act would be a faster way to get a law that protects the right to an abortion on religious grounds and then work out from there to protecting every woman and child.

Can you imagine how the USSC 6 would pretzel themselves if one of these lawsuits ever does make it to the USSC? Do you think they'd have the ba**s to declare Catholic as the only religion? Doing so would outlaw other religions. The court has opened a pandora's box.

[Thunderbeast]

4. I am concerned about the framing of the argument.

Since Dobbs, the focus of the abortoon argument seems to have landed on the horrible consequences felt by rape victims, or the endangered mothers experiencing pregnancies gone wrong. It's as if the core argument of the ABSOLUTE RIGHT to control one's own body is an argument liberals are less willing to defend.

I fear that a final compromise will be about rape, incest, and survival of the mother rather than about dignity, privacy, and bodily autonomy.

We can not cede ground on the core argument. The horror stories should be told, but the core message must not suggest that if policy changes only address the most grievous consequences of Dobbs, we would have won any kind of lasting victory.

[gratuitous]

5. I try to remember to frame it as a person making their own decisions about their health

And for a person who can't make their own decision about what's best for them, that person is a second class citizen. The conclusion seems to piss off the right (and the far right) people, who strongly resist it.

[Sky Jewels]

6. Stop debating -- let's get revenge.

Let's turn the fucking Reagan Revolution on its head and make these GOP misogynists/religious freaks pay the price.

Let's keep organized and engaged, and not just before elections. Year round, every year. From the ground up.

Let's destroy these fuckers once and for all.

[Solly Mack]

8. K&R