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Cancel Culture, GOP Style
What far-right Republicans don’t seem to realize is that prohibition does not work.
Mar 07, 2024
Republican lawmakers across America are increasingly introducing bills that prohibit rights that many Americans assumed were enshrined in law. The laws introduced by the Republicans have a domino effect.
It started with the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, in which the Republican-dominated U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a landmark 1973 decision in which the court ruled that the Constitution of the United States generally protected a right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many state abortion laws. Republican legislators reacted by making prohibitions to abortion in their states. Fourteen Republican states invoked six-week term limits (most women do not know they are pregnant at six weeks) and often ignored provisions for incest and rape.
Thousands of American women, Republicans and Democrats, had their previous rights curtailed. There were conservatively 620,327 abortions in America in 2020, according to the CDC.
From climate change to the coronavirus pandemic, far-right Republicans consistently refuse to accept basic science and pan intellectualism as elitist or made-up.
Republican then extrapolated the Dobbs decision to all embryos, including those used in IVF (in vitro fertilization).
On February 16, Alabama's Republican dominated State Court ruled that frozen embryos have the same rights as children, and people can be held liable for destroying them ( Le Page/ Burdick-Aysenne v. The Center for Reproductive Medicine). While it did not completely ban IVF, it created a legal headache for clinics, and some pulled their services. Many Republicans nationwide, including leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, quickly rushed to declare that this was not official GOP policy. Many falsely claimed this was not related to the Dobbs decision; however, the Alabama court repeatedly cited Dobbs in its ruling.
This coincided with their attacks on LGBTQ+ people.
On March 8, 2022, Republicans in Florida passed the Parental Rights in Education Act, commonly referred to as the "Don't Say Gay" law. The law contains sections which prohibit public schools from having "classroom discussion" or giving "classroom instruction" about sexual orientation or gender identity.
Originally it was to apply to children up to third grade, but Republicans increased this to grade 12 in a later amendment ( Florida House Bill 1069). Using deliberately vague and broad provisions it has the potential to undercut the equal dignity of LGBTQ+ people and have the effect of stigmatizing and silencing LGBTQ+ teachers and students.
It also runs afoul of the First Amendment, according to the American Bar Association. Twenty other Republican states introduced versions of the law.
This led to books being banned in Florida schools.
Books included the Harry Potter series, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Kite Runner, Anne Frank's Diary, Go Ask Alice, The Color Purple, and even the children's poetry collection A Light in the Attic. While these books may cause offence to some people, the schools that banned them cannot prove any identifiable harm. Schools and libraries in Mississippi, Arkansas, Ohio, and Tennessee started culling books. Several parents claim the books contain subjects such as incest, rape, and extreme violence—so does the Bible, but they have no plans to ban that.
The books banned are not just related to culture, but also to science.
From climate change to the coronavirus pandemic, far-right Republicans consistently refuse to accept basic science and pan intellectualism as elitist or made-up. Their attacks on vaccinations led to the first increase in measles outbreaks in decades. They consistently denigrate scientists, defund scientific research by organizations such as NASA, and edit bits they don't like out of textbooks and publish their own versions.
For example, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee published an educational magazine aimed at children titled "The Kids Guide to the Truth About Climate Change," which some education advocates denounced as ideological propaganda. The magazine asserts that climate change is occurring as part of the planet's natural cycle and ignores the scientific evidence that shows that temperatures warmed 10 times faster in the last century than they did in the previous 5,000 years—a trend change that corresponds with industrialization and fossil fuel use.
Books based on extensive scientific research on puberty, such as Where Did I Come From? and What's Happening to My Body? were also banned.
What far-right Republicans don't seem to realize is that prohibition does not work. Banning abortion doesn't stop people from getting them. It just stops women from getting safe abortions. LGBTQ+ people are not going away—they make up over 7% of the U.S. population. Banning a controversial book doesn't make its subject disappear. Banning books only makes them more sought after. For children about to face puberty, it is better to get information from a book rather than from other children, or online pornography.
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This November, Women Will Remember Who Took Away Their Rights
Women—both those who want abortion to be legal and those who want to become pregnant through in-vitro fertilization—are furious.
Mar 01, 2024
It’s 2024, but it feels like we’re back in 1991 this Women’s History Month.
Back then, President George H.W. Bush was following in the footsteps of his predecessor Ronald Reagan by continuing to appoint conservative judges to the federal bench, and Roe v. Wade was expected to fall.
Radical anti-abortion activism had gained prominence and strength. Popular media was awash with stories pushing the myth that women were dissatisfied and unhappy—and feminist ideals of women’s empowerment were to blame.
Then a blockbuster book hit the streets: Backlash by Susan Faludi.
There’s a new backlash, all right—but this time it’s not against women’s progress, but against the loss of women’s rights and their own personhood.
It came out just as the legal notion of “fetal personhood” was taking shape. Among other things, the book captured the horror of giving a fetus, even a hypothetical potential fetus, precedence over an actual living person. Backlash posited that any so-called women’s unhappiness was not the fault of feminism, but the fact that the struggle for equality was far from finished.
Faludi anticipated by over 20 years the deadly choices that women and their doctors are now being forced to make in a post-Roe world.
She was distressed at the prospect of backward momentum—of a world that treated women as vessels for childbearing above all. “What unites women is the blatant, ugly evidence of oppression,” she said at the time, “that will come with the inevitable demise of Roe vs. Wade.”
Faludi was right. There’s a new backlash, all right—but this time it’s not against women’s progress, but against the loss of women’s rights and their own personhood. Since Roe was overturned, at least three states have blocked new abortion bans, and 16 more have strengthened existing pro-statutes with new protections.
Safeguarding women’s autonomy was also front and center in last November’s midterm elections.
Ohio was the epicenter. Advocates put forth a bold ballot question on whether to amend the state constitution affirming the right of individuals to make their own reproductive health decisions—including abortion. The outcome? No contest. Voters opted to enshrine abortion rights by a margin of 57-43%.
Abortion was also on the ballot indirectly in Virginia. Anti-choice governor Glen Youngkin was pushing voters to flip the state Senate to Republicans while keeping the Republican majority in the House of Delegates.
That would have allowed the governor and his lackeys in the legislature to pass a 15-week abortion ban. That grand plan went down in flames—pro-choicers took full control of both houses of the General Assembly after two years of divided power.
The latest trend in the reproduction wars comes from Alabama. Another attack on women’s rights to self determination—but this time from the other end of the argument.
In a first-of-its-kind ruling, Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children and anyone who destroys them can be held liable for wrongful death. At several facilities in the state, the decision has virtually stopped in-vitro fertilization in its tracks for women who are trying to conceive.
It’s reminiscent of struggles of the past. It took nearly a century and a half after independence for women to win the constitutional right to vote in 1919. Winning abortion rights took even longer—until 1973, when Roe guaranteed it under the 14th Amendment. But that ruling lasted only 49 years. One step forward, two steps back.
Women—both those who want abortion to be legal and those who want to become pregnant through in-vitro fertilization—are furious.
The upshot? Women are the majority of the population, the majority of registered voters, and the majority of those who actually show up at the polls. It’s a good bet they’ll remember in November.
Hell hath no fury like a woman deprived of her basic rights.
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Senate GOP Blocks Effort to Federally Protect IVF Access
"Remember this the next time they claim to care about freedom and family," said one Democratic lawmaker.
Feb 28, 2024
Democratic U.S. lawmakers and reproductive rights defenders on Wednesday blasted congressional Republicans and former U.S. President Donald Trump after a GOP senator blocked a bill to protect access to in vitro fertilization a week after Alabama's right-wing Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children.
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) objected to a request to pass by unanimous consent a bill introduced by Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) to federally protect IVF access, claiming that the bill is "a vast overreach that is full of poison pills that go way too far."
Calling the bill "a vast overreach that is full of poison pills that go way too far," Hyde-Smith claimed it would legalize human cloning, gene-edited "designer babies," and commercial surrogacy, "including for young girls without parental involvement."
Duckworth accused her colleague of misreading the legislation, asserting that "it simply says you have a statutory right should you choose to pursue assisted reproductive technology."
Democratic lawmakers reacted angrily to Hyde-Smith's move—and to Republican attacks on reproductive freedom.
"Once again, Republicans have shown their true colors,"
said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). "Republicans are claiming to support IVF while voting down the very bill that would do that. Actions speak louder than words."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
said on social media: "I wish I could say I'm surprised. Senate Republicans just blocked our attempt to pass Sen. Duckworth's bill to protect nationwide access to IVF. Republicans will stop at nothing to deny women in America their fundamental rights and freedoms."
In the House, Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) lamented Republicans' attack on legislation that would "protect Americans' right to start a family through IVF."
"Remember this the next time they claim to care about freedom and family," Clark added.
Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, Duckworth said: "Let's be clear about what led to this moment. The overturning of Roe is what made last week's ruling even possible."
"Donald Trump is the one who bragged about taking down Roe v. Wade," she added. "Donald Trump acts as if that's something to be proud of."
Trump—the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner despite facing 91 federal and state criminal charges—appointed three right-wing anti-abortion justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. All three were part of the 6-3 majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which voided half a century of federal abortion rights.
Following last week's Alabama ruling—which prompted multiple IVF clinics to suspend operations in the state—Trump and other Republicans scrambled to distance themselves from the deeply unpopular decision.
However, Duckworth said Wednesday that "while it may now be convenient" for Trump "to claim that he had nothing to do with what happened in Alabama, we know the truth: IVF is at risk because of him. He is to blame."
"Him and every other GOP official who shamelessly kisses his ring, proving with every word that they they that they care more about protecting his poll numbers than protecting Americans' freedoms," she added.
At the Center for American Progress, senior vice president for inclusive growth Emily Gee said that "Republicans have been on a relentless crusade to strip women of their fundamental freedom to control their own reproductive destinies and medical decisions—seeking to ban abortion, restrict contraception, and limit fertility options for Americans trying to grow their families."
"They have been emboldened and enabled by Donald Trump and his hand-picked U.S. Supreme Court justices, who have misinterpreted the Constitution to rip away Americans' rights and enforce their extreme MAGA ideology on all of us," she continued.
"Senate Republicans' decision to block legislation affirming Americans' ability to obtain IVF treatment is a moral abomination as well as an insult to families devastated by the Alabama Supreme Court's recent ruling," Gee added. "Today, they have made painstakingly clear that there's no limit to their agenda to intrude upon women's most personal decisions. That is an intrusion that Americans will continue to reject."
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