{"id":2800,"date":"2024-05-13T09:23:12","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T09:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/?p=2800"},"modified":"2024-05-13T09:23:12","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T09:23:12","slug":"women-s-reproductive-rights-become-usa-election-battlegrounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/?p=2800","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Reproductive Rights Become USA Election Battlegrounds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Direct Link to Full 96-Page 2024 Report: <\/strong><\/p>\n

My body on the ballot\u2026 again.. And here we are once again. The rights\u2026 | by Lina AbiRafeh | Apr, 2024 | Medium<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Photo taken by the author at one of the many marches for the obvious right to decide about our bodies and our lives.<\/p>\n

By Lina AbiRafeh<\/a><\/p>\n

And here we are once again. The rights to our own bodies are on the line.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written about abortion access in the United States before\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>, and\u00a0here<\/a>. And just about everywhere. And maybe one day I\u2019ll write something positive. Unfortunately, today is not that day.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s rights are not a light switch, to be flicked on or off based on the whims of those (men) in power. But the light has been flicked off for women in Arizona. Their bodies have become battlegrounds.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s recap. The US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, and since then, women have been losing ground in too many states across the country. Arizona is the latest \u2014 and the greatest \u2014 loss.<\/p>\n

On April 9, 2024, the state\u2019s Supreme Court\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that women and healthcare providers must abide by an archaic 160 year-old near-total abortion ban that was put in place before Arizona officially became the 48th American state in 1912. With no exceptions for rape or incest, the current law states that abortion can only be performed when a pregnant woman\u2019s life is deemed \u201cat risk.\u201d This makes Arizona one of the strictest states regarding women\u2019s bodily autonomy.<\/p>\n

While Arizona\u2019s new\/old law will technically allow prosecutors to charge doctors and healthcare providers who perform abortions, Governor Katie Hobbs issued an executive order saying that her office will not prosecute such cases. However, medical professionals across the state are now\u00a0left in limbo<\/a>\u00a0with many worrying their medical licenses will get revoked anyway.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, many women are worried they may end up like\u00a0Lizelle Gonzalez<\/a>\u00a0of Texas. Shortly after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Gonzalez was arrested and charged with murder over performing a self-induced abortion. Eventually Gonzalez was exonerated, but she did spend two nights in jail. Abortion is already stressful and traumatic enough \u2014 no one should be jailed for exercising their right to bodily autonomy.<\/p>\n

Yet, it\u2019s not just Arizona and Texas. Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, conservative states have pushed to ban abortion as fast as humanly possible. Abortion is now banned,\u00a0to at least some degree<\/a>, in 20 states and three American-occupied territories. Fourteen states have near total bans on abortion, with Georgia and South Carolina banning anything after six weeks of pregnancy. For context,\u00a0many women<\/a>\u00a0find out well after the six week period that they are even pregnant. Combine that with comically-irrelevant\u00a0\u201cabstinence only\u201d sex education<\/a>\u00a0and the fact that periods can sometimes be unpredictable, a six-week ban is akin to a total abortion ban.<\/p>\n

The latest data show that medically-induced abortions now account for\u00a0more than half<\/a>\u00a0of all abortions performed in the United States \u2014 around 53%. The legal right to perform this is currently being debated.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s review some of the guiding principles that underlie this conversation.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Women\u2019s bodies are not public property. This is a personal medical decision to be made by the woman herself \u2014 just like any other medical decision.<\/li>\n
  2. We do not know the background of a woman\u2019s decision to terminate a pregnancy \u2014 and we don\u2019t need to know.<\/li>\n
  3. Banning abortion only bans SAFE abortions.<\/li>\n
  4. If this was about controlling men\u2019s reproductive freedom, we would not be having this \u201cdebate.\u201d<\/li>\n
  5. You know someone who has had an abortion.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    According to the\u00a0Center for Reproductive Justice<\/a>, just over one-third (34%) of women across every continent have access to safe abortion upon request. The United States does not fall within this category.<\/p>\n

    Now we come to our reality check. The United States is NOT the bastion of human rights \u2014 or of women\u2019s rights \u2014 that we\u2019ve been led to believe. It may consider itself as such, but right now that looks like false advertising to me.<\/p>\n

    Will abortion be on the ballot?<\/em>\u00a0I was asked in a\u00a0recent TV interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Democrats will try to keep voters focused on abortion rather than on Palestine in order to consolidate and retain votes. We\u2019re already seeing these arguments come to light in the \u201cVote Blue No Matter Who\u201d and \u201cLesser of Two Evils\u201d arguments. In an eerily dystopian video, Biden supporters are seen chanting \u201cFour more years!<\/a>\u201d after an event was disrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters. Blue-washed MAGA, perhaps?<\/p>\n

    This election, President Biden\u2019s track record (and mental capacities, quite frankly) are in question. He has claimed time and again to be a supporter of women\u2019s rights \u2014 but his human rights track record is weak and many of his gender equality goals remain\u00a0unmet<\/a>. Specifically, people are critical of President Biden regarding his unwavering support for Israel in the face of\u00a0Gaza\u2019s genocide<\/a>. In short, Biden\u2019s unrestricted funding has resulted in the murder of over 35,000 Palestinians, over 70% of which are women and children. Human rights? Women\u2019s rights?! I think not.<\/p>\n

    The upcoming election ballot holds no appeal for me. I will NOT choose between an old white misogynist and an old white war criminal. This isn\u2019t a choice.<\/p>\n

    And perhaps Palestine has cost Biden the election? The \u201cUncommitted Movement\u201d has now raised over a\u00a0half a million dollars<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0hundreds of thousands<\/a>\u00a0of Democratic primary voters refusing to cast a vote for \u201cGenocide Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n

    But I\u2019m stuck. Surely there are others like me!? I believe in voting \u2014 and in exercising my right to do so. And yet, is there a viable option?! Is there one candidate who might emerge from the ashes of this dumpster fire?<\/p>\n

    Will I be able to vote for someone I believe in \u2014 someone who will preserve my rights to my own body AND stop the continued slaughter of my people?<\/p>\n

    WUNRN \u2013 23.04.2024<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Direct Link to Full 96-Page 2024 Report: My body on the ballot\u2026 again.. And here we are once again. The rights\u2026 | by Lina AbiRafeh | Apr, 2024 | Medium Photo taken by the author at one of the many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-2800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vesti","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2802,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2800\/revisions\/2802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2800"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthrights.mk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_series&post=2800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}