We Know Who’s Responsible

The threats to women are getting worse

Like so many things these last several years, the fall of Roe v. Wade should have been rock bottom. 

Two years ago, when six unelected right-wing Republican operatives posing as Supreme Court justices decided to strip basic human rights from millions of women, that should have been the lowest point: that should have been when America said enough.

But the horrifying truth is, that it was just the beginning. 

If we’ve learned anything these last two years, it’s that Republicans were never going to stop with Roe, and they’re just getting started when it comes to their efforts to control women.

What they’ve already done is horrifying enough. For two years now we’ve heard about one nightmare story after another: Kate Cox having to leave Texas in order to seek treatment; women almost dying after being denied treatment for miscarriages; a 10-year-old rape victim having to flee Ohio for Indiana in order to receive an abortion.

Those are just the stories we know about. How many haven’t gotten press attention? How many women have almost died from miscarriages because their doctors were too afraid of the legal consequences to help? How many rape victims have been forced to give birth to their rapist’s child in the last two years? How many victims of incest? 

If Republicans had only overturned Roe, it would be an unforgivable attack on the women of the United States. But that’s not all they did. And it’s not all they will do if they get a chance to force their retrograde beliefs on the rest of us. 

In Alabama, a state Supreme Court made up of Republican-appointed religious fanatics decided to come for IVF treatments. More than a dozen states saw that as permission and began moving forward with their own “fetal personhood” proposals that give embryos more rights than the women who carry them.

We’re also seeing a concerted right-wing assault on abortion medication like mifepristone. While many saw a recent Supreme Court decision that saved the right to the medication as a win, the reality is that the illegitimate super-majority court didn’t rule on the merits at all. Doing so would have made the issue of abortion medication an election issue and they want to help their candidate as much as possible. They’re keeping their powder dry for a time when it’ll be safer—for them—to abolish yet another right. After Louisiana moved to classify abortion medications as controlled substances, it is pretty obvious that conservatives won’t stop coming for them. 

And then there’s my uncle. 

There is no greater threat to the women of America than Donald J. Trump. He is the reason Roe was overturned. He is the reason the Texas, led by its authoritarian governor Gregg Abbott, feels so emboldened to go after women. And he is the reason there will be a national abortion ban if we don’t do everything we can to stop him.

Donald keeps bragging that he was the one who got Roe overturned. He keeps telling us the decision was “amazing.” He said watching states enact new restrictions is “a beautiful thing to watch.” He has said everything should be left to the states. Including contraception and IVF treatments. And he has winked and nodded at his extreme right-wing friends about what he will do if he gets another chance.

For two years, we have watched endless attacks on the rights of women that were championed by a man who bragged about grabbing women by the genitals—because he could. And for two years, we have seen just how much worse this nightmare can get for women because of a man who is an adjudicated rapist. 

What will we be able to say two years from now? Will we say Dobbs was our rock bottom that became the turning point from which we started to do the hard work of restoring the rights women used to be able to take for granted? Will we draw a hard line in the sand and make clear that we will not abide anymore attacks on our rights? Will we do everything we can to make sure there is no more going back?

Or will we look back on this as the moment as the beginning of much worse?

I’m counting on the women of America to see through the noise and the lies and see the truth of what is happening in 21 states. I’m counting on them to stand up and take back what has been taken from them. I’m counting on all of use, including our male allies, to making sure Donald is never anywhere near the levers of power again. 

If we don’t do these things, Donald and his party will finish what they started. And then we’ll know, unmistakably, just how much worse things can get.