My husband's mother called us, joyfully eager to spread the life saving news, in which I screamed for joy as if it was the first I heard, never mind that election updates had been streaming in our home 24/7 since the rally to the polls began, news this powerful deserved a second, 'first' response. After all, celebrations will soon become a memory as there is little time to spare because this victory is not an invitation to take a vacation of relaxation. We have much to do and are simply at a rest stop, our journey to recovery swift to begin.
Trump's presidency, though seemingly short in accordance with others, made up in the deep depth of damage it left behind. Recovery from stage 5 tornadoes are overwhelming at best, and endlessly destructive at worst, leaving a chain reaction of damages, many broken elements going unnoticed due to the distracting destruction of the initial show, and so true now, and why time is not a luxury we bare. Among Trump's destruction lays 30 abortion laws, surfacing, similar to most abortion laws, with sole intentions to foster hate and distrust towards women.
While there was no shortage of hate based rhetoric or eye opening moments in Trumps 2016 presidential campaign when it came to intense moments of disrespect and hostility geared towards women, psychologists have long reported women are strong gathers of subtle emotional messages from others and better at reading facial expressions of emotions than men and so it is no surprise that even before Trump stepped into office, 52% of women across the country reported the election as a very significant source of stress in their lives. Women reported being scared for their lives, and an increase in nightmares, many involving Trump in a dark and destructive way.
Throughout Trump's presidency, women increasingly expressed a general sense they are seen merely as a vessel for breeding a fetus, not human beings, and thus feeling of demeaned and devalued steadily grew. Psychologists speak of three groups of women particularly hit hard by the increased restrictions on abortions throughout the country. Women who have had an abortion, about 30% of women in the United States, realizing how their lives and those of their families would have been harmed under such restrictions. Sexually active women and do not want or are not ready to have children report feeling trapped and terrified.
Survivors of rape and childhood sexual abuse, many remembering feelings of helplessness and vulnerability that follow such horror, bringing even more weight to the importance of a women having complete control over her bodies.
Not falling into a group, many older women also expressed feelings of fear and anger, personally remembering life before women were protected and laws established providing rights as they think about their daughters and granddaughters.
Collateral damage of these laws coupled with the increased hate and hostility towards women resulting from Trumps dismissive behavior of women the past 4 years, are just some of the driving factors that that are killing women in a number of ways.
Trump's first year in office showed the hard reality of what was to come as for the first time in over a decade, over half of suicide victims had no previous known mental health condition. Suicides in 2016 took 45,000 American lives, making suicides the 10th most common way to die in the United States.
WHAT WE ARE UP AGAINST
Though the American public is overwhelmingly against overturning Roe v. Wade, the Republican party has no intention of slowing down their eradication of women's rights over their bodies. The 30 New laws were built on a foundation of 57 formulated abortion restrictions passed by 17 states in 2015, a relativity small number considering that 514 provisions related to abortion were considered by lawmakers in 2015, a vast majority, 396 in 46 states, sought to restrict access to abortion services. One could say, this was a foreshadowing of what was to come, if we had only had time to notice the connection in between brutally fighting to protect women's rights to medical care. Perhaps it was the exhaustion created by having the same amount of abortion restrictions generated over the previous 15 years, lay law in the last 5 years, that left us blind to our true future. In total 288 abortion restriction have been put in place since the 2010 midterm elections swept abortion opponents into power in state capitals across the country.
Abortion restrictions prove no bias, stretching across all areas of dominance including restrictions on insurance coverage and restricting or banning some abortions.
Leading the pack of 31 states that enacted at least one abortion restriction in the last 5 years is Kansas, birthing a whopping 30 NEW RESTRICTIONS since 2010. Over achievers not far behind include Arkansas, Indiana and Oklahoma, all bringing strong competition, and at least 20 NEW ABORTION RESTRICTIONS.
Abortion restrictions prove no bias, stretching across all areas of dominance including restrictions on insurance coverage and restricting or banning some abortions.Leading the pack of 31 states that enacted at least one abortion restriction in the last 5 years is Kansas, birthing a whopping 30 NEW RESTRICTIONS since 2010. Over achievers not far behind include Arkansas, Indiana and Oklahoma, all bringing strong competition, and at least 20 NEW ABORTION RESTRICTIONS.
One can readily see the similarities between the states that have increased abortion restrictions and higher reports of mental health as there are more than a few states that have a correlation including New Hampshire, Indiana, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arizona, Missouri, South Carolina, Virginia, and more.
As expected, many laws dabble in the waiting game, increasing time in between initial doctor's visit and abortion procedure. Medication Abortions took another hit, adding 4 more states to the ban, leveling out at 18 states total who currently ban the use of standard telemedicine, a critical tool in the mists of a pandemic.
Arizona and Arkansas breaking new waves to increase the discomfort of women seeking abortions, now requiring doctors to continue harassing women even after taking the first steps of the medical abortion regime, striving for guilt by telling them they still have a chance to stop the abortion, pushing a method even the Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists testify is based on scant scientific evidence, with a single flawed study of six cases without oversight by an institutional review board, but no big deal, obviously state Congress members, though without medical licenses, know whats best for the women of Arizona and Arkansas, over specialist. Kansas and Oklahoma banning abortions after 14 weeks, tough luck to 1 out of 475 women like Jeanne Myers, who do not experience symptoms till later in their pregnancy, often not knowing of their pregnancy till into their 2nd trimester. West Virginia and Wisconsin jumped on the 20+ week abortion ban, now totaling 12 states.
Perhaps the scariest and most deadly of the laws adopted by 5 states would be Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers, otherwise known as TRAP. TRAP laws, holding a seemingly perfectly fitting name, as they trap women to live in a country that rules over and over again they are unfit to make appropriate 'American' worthy decisions regarding their own bodies, grants lawmakers the ability to enact virtually limitless abortion restrictions.
Many of these laws place little importance on the health and well being of the women, rather trap them into spirals of unnecessary and dangerous journeys all in efforts to prohibit women from making decisions for their bodies. Tennessee enacted a new TRAP law requiring abortion providers to meet standards that support more invasive and risky procedures than abortion and higher levels of sedation than commonly provided in abortion clinics.
Quick is the list of added requirements and procedures, facilities must follow as well in many states like Arkansas, Ohio, and Indiana, knowing the longer the list, the harder it is for women to exercise freedom over their medical decisions and body. These requirements span across all facets for facilities that provide abortions including locations in which they are allowed to have facilities, what procedures, medications, equipment, intake policies, methods of disposal, approval needs, and processes they can and cant have or use to the doctor's added number of flaming hoops needed to clear before medically assisting a women who would dare decide an abortion was best for her body and future.
Due to Covid-19, 8 states have filed suit to ban abortions during the pandemic completely and Texas did just that banning abortions for weeks, forcing women to travel 678 miles one way for abortions.
In the end, states have made it clear, State Legislators are more equip to make decisions regarding women's medical health needs than Medical Doctors and the very women themselves.
TRUMP LAWS FOSTER
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN
While legislation intensifies its fight to grant business, corporations, and organizations the privilege to discriminate against women based of the company's beliefs or needs, women are the ones taking the hit.
FINANCIAL HIT: For 50% of abortions, costs are 1/3 of the women's total monthly income. Research shows 75% of women who obtain abortions are low-income and almost 50% living below federal poverty;level.
1-PROCEDURE- As laws allow for insurance companies and businesses to decide themselves whether or not they WANT to cover birth control and abortions, in addition to some states prohibiting Medicaid coverage to women, all medical costs specifically and solely fall on women, 29% of women paid the full out-of-pocket cost for their abortion last year, costing depending on the state amount on average around $500 but can add up to $3,300 depending on stage of pregnancy and initial health of women.
2-DOCTOR VISITS/PRE-ABORTION COUNSELING: Many states already have or are pushing for laws that require women to go to multiple doctor visits, while 34 states mandate women receive pre-abortion counseling and 14 states require in-person counseling. These requirements, many not be covered by insurance at any level are added costs ranging from $100-500 per visit depending on the state.
3-TRAVEL-In addition the abortion costs, due to increasingly restrictive laws embraced in some states, women are now hit with travel cost to obtain abortions which can add up to $3,000 on top of the procedure. On average 1 in 5 women must travel 42 miles or more. Women living in states extremely restrictive areas including Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming are required to travel at least 180 miles to seek assistance, obviously a HUGE barrier for women, specifically women already struggling in low-income or poverty situation.
Another side effect of the increased restrictions and laws is massive amounts of facilities that perform abortion are closing. These closures are leaving some states with 1 single facility, including Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and West Virginia, making the average one-way distance to a clinic in North Dakota 157 miles away. Many states, 13 to be specific, have less than 5 locations, including Wyoming (2), Rhode Island (2), Wisconsin (3), Utah (3), Nebraska (3), Arkansas (3), Idaho (3), South Carolina (4), Oklahoma (4), New Hampshire (4), Louisiana (4), Kansas (4), and Delaware (4).
;4-LOSS WAGES- Most common, medical abortions, require little down time with most taking women away from their jobs 1 to 4 days at most, though there are a number of instances that require 10-16 days off of work due to bleeding following abortion procedures. Unfortunatly, with added necessary travel for women to obtain abortions, women are now needing additional days off of work, piled on the the additional missed days of work due to added requirements of multiple doctor visits and counseling requirements. With 34 million people working in private sectors lacking even 1 single paid sick day, leaving nearly 1 in 3 private sector workers with no paid sick days available to them for their own health, women foot the bill here too. About 50% of Latina workers and 36% of Black women workers lack paid sick time and roughly 7 in 10 minorities in general have no paid sick days. Loss of wages sets women back an additional $144 to $1,200 depending on needed days off and typical pay.
Eliminating and increasing distances between abortion facilities seems a cruel trick to play on women, 75% of whom are living in poverty and 50% below the poverty level. Seeing that one of the top three reasons women have abortions is their inability to afford a child, it's as though the laws are created as punishment, a penalty and the reality is, they are. Stripping insurance coverage, prohibiting medicaid contributions, reducing time windows, increasing procedure cost, closing and distancing facilities, creating unnecessary and dangerous barriers that in effect increase a women's risk, mandatory exposure laws, multiple doctor approvals and multiple doctor visits, on top of counseling requirements and various forms of harassment at every level targeting to create guilt and self hate within women, saturating tainted messaging on social media and college campuses in efforts to portray women who get abortions as the enemy, protesting, shouting, criticizing, and judging outside the few facilities standing, making women beg judges and lawyers to 'allow' an abortion, forcing women to submit cases to politicians and social workers for approvals, giving the government control of women's uterus, denying women approval to have an abortion and forcing women to carry a baby inside of them and give birth. The sole act of giving birth alone has a higher mortality rate, of 700 women per year than abortions do being 2 or less a year.
ALL ASPECTS OF ABORTION RESTRICTIONS & POLICIES ARE HARMFUL.
All aspects of government abortion policies limit women's resources.
All aspects of government abortion requirements cost women financially, mentally, physically, socially, and basically every aspect of their lives.
ALL ASPECTS OF ABORTION LAWS CAUSE HARM TO ALREADY VULNERABLE WOMEN.
All government interference with a women's medical decisions put women in danger, specifically putting added stress and anxiety on women in poverty and minority women, two groups that already have higher rates of depression, anxiety, and stress.
While Anti-abortion supporters throw reasons like protecting the fetus, preventing pain to the fetus, all in support for their top reason: abortions kill babies and all lives matter, THEY ARE LYING.
->If all lives mattered, the mother's life would matter, her emotional health, physical health, spiritual health, and mental health would matter->
Why only provide mandatory counseling before and not after the abortions as well, in correlation to studies relaying the pain and suffering some women acquire after?
Why establish laws that increase a women's anxiety, depression, and stress, all in which are linked to enormous amounts of various diseases?
-> If preventing the execution of the fetus is important->
Why eliminate facilities that women use to obtain birth control and STD testing, therein increasing the probability of unwanted pregnancy?
A government hijacking a women's uterus and forcing women to carry and give birth, is something you might hear happening in a 3rd world country, or so I thought...
->HEAR THEIR CRIES- HEAR THE STORIES OF AMERICAN WOMEN FORCED TO GIVE BIRTH AGAINST THEIR WILL...CLICK HERE!
WHERE TO BEGIN->
Changing Societal Perception & Acceptance:
Women's Rights are Human Rights. It sounds simple enough, yet decade after decade women are needed to relay this piece of common sense. One can only ponder how many hours, days, weeks, months, or years of time women have been forced to spend addressing this fundamental statement accompanied by the endless amounts of energy gifted to the cause by an overflowing stream of women.
At a minimum, American women's tireless devotional persistence to the Women's Suffrage Movement, a mere extra curricular activity for the majority of women participating, though you would never know by the engulfing passion that radiates from every pore of a women at a march or rally, is evidence women embody supernatural abilities beyond that in which society could ever formulate words to the degree necessary for comprehension. Scanning a Women's Suffrage March or Rally it is easy to see women, but what is often invisible, overlooked, forgotten, is the true identities of women. They are mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends. They have full time jobs as teachers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, police officers, soldiers, journalist, authors, directors, CEO's and on and on and on. These two roles are often accompanied by a third or fourth as a caregiver to a family member, volunteer to the community, lunch mom to a school, boo boo healer tasked with distributing magical kisses or any number of endless identities women care with them as they attend a rally or march to fight for rights to their body, free of government restrictions, regulations, or obstacles that more than anything just add additional requirements piled on the mound of requirements society already weighs them down with.
To say women are superheroes would be weak attempt at best to depict the never-ending, life-saving, community-building, problem-fixing, future-molding, task-destroying, career-holding, self-sacrificing, essence women embody. In other words, man will walk on Mars before man will fully grasp the dept of knowledge needed to provide an answer to the deep mystery of how women manage to do everything that is needed or required for them to accomplish, further elevating the work they facilitate in their fight for their rights.
What could be seen as an equally ridiculously hard question to answer's, why, on top of everything else women are fiercely committed to accomplishing, are women forced to section off non existing time from their already overbooked life schedule to chant reminders that Women's Rights are Human Rights? As if, there was a secret meeting at the birth of this country deciding that Women's Rights were not Human Rights and thus if women take a break from playing the broken record of Women's Rights are Human Rights, all memory and momentum of all that was accomplished or comprehended regarding this truth would be lost.
Unfortunatly for women, there indeed was a meeting in the mists of building this country that said just that. Though it has to be questioned, what is the total cost, the final payment, the forever memory to this dauntingly, tediously, ridiculous nightmare, created centuries ago, that women have been forced to partake in reenactments of on replay year after year. A viciously deepening and painful horror in and of itself, just to have the very policies that women had to fight for so long to bring across the finish line, like the Violence Against Women Act, be required a vote every 10 years to keep alive.
To think that a policy like the Violence Against Women Act comes with a time limit further demonstrates our counties lack of commitment to sustaining and building on women's equality and to further salt the wound, Trump and the Republican Congress let the Violence Against Women Act die without re-authorization as it's 26 year anniversary passed. As is the story of equality and protection for women in the United States, a wheelhouse of uncertainty and unpredictability, fostering little trust within women and lacking the luxury of comfort for everyone.
Hats off to the men who accompany women as they fulfill their yearly standard of backbreaking efforts to remind the others, now littered with women who seemingly have waved their white flag long ago, now needing a yearly reminder as well in efforts to ward off the angry mobs that seek destruction to our bodies. You can hardly call it a fare game though, as men seemingly have their privilege of power securely written in our country's original form, their time invested in maintaining the presence of their human rights declaration can be summed up in moments rather than decades.
While many explanations have roared out along the way, only to linger among us, resurfacing yearly to begin the awakening, indicating to us once again to take our places on the time-warp battlefield. One has to wonder if there perhaps is a better use for our time.
While righteous morality is defined as the standard motives that drive the never-ending battle over women's rights to their bodies and equally matched freedom allotted to men, an American standard, one could pass out of exhaustion reading American Women's history, seeing it took over 100 years just to obtain the right to vote. The pattern of miracles women dedicate themselves too is sidelined by tales of women's deceit, a demonstration of the magnitude of distrust men hold for women, as one would think trusting a women to make medical decisions regarding her own body on the surface would heath no other answer but of course, a given yes.
After all, there are no laws in which restrict the control a man has for medical decisions regarding his body, nor any argument that there needs to be. The lawmakers hold deep trust that men can make decisions regarding their bodies; believing they have no willful desire to harm children. The powerful acts of selflessness, women regularly display is thrown to the curb, dismissed, and forgotten when lawmakers slap incompetence stickers upon women's backs.
The Irony is crippling, when you think about it. Pro-Life's main argument for the need of government laws that restrict and regulate women's rights over their bodies, prohibiting women from seeking medical procedures that are less than desirable to the opposing players, is typically justified in chants of a need for protectors to save the babies from the ruthlessness of women's desires to harm children, and their addictive enjoyment for seeking out potentially deadly medical procedures all in efforts to torture and brake apart infant bodies. The notion that Women's Rights are Human Rights, regardless of the degree of truth it may hold, can only apply if women were indeed categorized as human, a title rarely given to serial killers.
You can clearly see by the high rates of abuse towards women, the level and amount of restrictions represented in the new 288 additional laws to strip women of their rights to health care and over their bodies, the unbelievable amount of women killed by the men in their lives, the out of control domestic violence inflicted on women each day, the heavy silence surrounding the never closing wage gap, and the overall acceptance of hostile language directed at women during Trump rallies and beyond, women take 2 steps forward and 1 step back every year as is but the moment Trump declared war on women's rights, announcing that not only there would be no steps forward during his time in the office but rather significant setbacks across the country.
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