Rise Up to Defend Abortion Rights!
The attempted legal ban of the abortion drug mifepristone hinges on a 150-year old, archaic and previously dormant law called The Comstock Act of 1873, which has been described as “the only realistic way to force through a national ban” on abortions in general. The Comstock Act prohibits mailing anything that could be used in an abortion procedure, so the recent ruling in Texas, if it’s held up by the Supreme Court, would mean “that all abortions already violate criminal law.”
The judge who issued the recent ruling in Texas is Matthew Kacsmaryk, member of an emerging Christian fascist organization called the Teneo Network, whose goal is to “crush liberal dominance” everywhere. Its founder, Leonard Leo, has been credited as the mastermind behind the right’s takeover of the courts. Propublica reported Teneo Network’s vast reach and how they became “[f]lush with money after receiving the largest-known political advocacy donation in U.S. history.” They see their intent on plunging the nation into totalitarianism as divinely ordained.
Though recent polls show that the majority of the population supports access to abortion medication, Christian fascists successfully seized the courts under Trump and continue to be dedicated to the establishment of their minority rule. Some progressives think the GOP is caught in their own death spiral, destroying their chance of winning elections. “Just look at Wisconsin and Chicago,” they say; and “Michigan is safe, right?”
In reality, Republicans are scoring wins from their long game, using courts to encircle Democrats, who are afraid that building mass movements will undermine their own unraveling control. As Religion Dispatches noted, today’s Christian fascism is bent on “power; not freedom; the control of bodies, the control of movement, the control of identity.”
Today’s Christian fascism is bent on “power; not freedom; the control of bodies, the control of movement, the control of identity.”
Since the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wage, 24 states have either banned abortion, are poised to do so, or where abortions have become inaccessible regardless. Simultaneously and especially throughout state-level governments they control, as noted by Vox: “Republicans are unleashing a torrent of anti-trans bills at the state level ahead of 2024.”
While the far-right media continues to paint the left as demons and pedophiles dedicated to the destruction of their supposedly Christian civilization, the GOP and their foot soldiers are stepping up fascist attacks on our communities. The Democrats aren’t coming to save us.
It took a mass movement to win abortion access the first time around; and as France is showing us today, it will take protests, strikes, and the collective power of working people to overturn these bans while protecting what shrinking access to abortion still exists in the U.S.
Now is the time to come out Saturday, April 15th for the Women’s March national day of action, join groups like the Madison Abortion and Reproductive Rights Coalition for Healthcare (MARRCH), Chicago for Abortion Rights (CFAR), the National Mobilization for Reproductive Justice–or start a group if there isn’t one where you live and mobilize the fightback in the streets.
