Welcome to Gilead!!

Did you really not see this coming?

Every new day, it seems like we are getting one step closer to living in the Christian Theocratic State of the USA.

It was the issue of “segregation” until 1973.

But after 1973, abortion has become the single unifying issue of the American Right for almost 5 decades now. They have been working meticulously for 50 years to undo what Roe vs. Wade did to them in 1973. It’s just that some of us, living in our own progressive cocoons, were swept by the euphoria of a couple of Democratic Presidential wins in between and never took the religious right’s anger seriously. With those Democratic Presidential wins, we were disillusioned into believing that we had really made progress as a country — especially in 2008, when we elected Barack Obama.

All along, Republicans have been working very diligently on changing the foundations of courts — at all levels. And election after election, they have been using abortion as the single most unifying issue to bring their base together. When the GOP base decides to unify strongly, time and again, Democrats have found themselves defending instead of going on the offensive.

So, here we are, in 2022, when 5 out of the current 9 lifetime justices at the SCOTUS who were “installed” by just 2 Republican presidents (both of whom got elected as presidents after losing popular votes), are on the verge of dismantling not only Roe but are also on the verge of setting up a domino effect which would annihilate American women’s rights to a magnitude which may seem dystopian right at this moment, but shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been following American politics.

When I write this, it’s actually been less than a week, since Politico published the “leaked” draft majority opinion of Judge Alito.

Here is a short list of all the anti-women’s rights legislations that have been either proposed or passed in various states around the country. This is not a comprehensive list by any means. I am just trying to give a taste of what it would mean to be a woman in this country very soon.

1. As soon as the Dodds decision is final, there are 13 states that will ban abortion immediately. Michigan will be one of those states (where a century old law i.e. from 1931 would come into effect and make abortion a felony). There are 26 states in total where abortion will be highly restrictive or totally banned. Picture that. This could literally happen from tomorrow.
2. McConnell has openly floated the idea of a “Federal Abortion Ban”. All it takes is for GOP to take control of the Congress and Senate, then they will codify this whole damn thing. This won’t happen tomorrow. But could happen in 2025.
3. Idaho — They are not only discussing banning Plan B but also IUD. Imagine.
   https://twitter.com/SHolla2258/status/1523318382619430912
4. Tennessee Governor has signed into law making abortion pills by mail a felony.
5. West Virginia is going to leave in place an anti-abortion law from the 19th Century that makes obtaining an abortion punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
6. Marco Rubio is introducing a bill targeting private companies who have pledged to provide travel benefits for women traveling out of state (or country) to get abortion. How cruel is this?
7. Both Carolinas are poised to criminalize abortions (without exceptions) as soon as they can.
8. A few other states like Missouri and Ohio, just to name a couple, have trigger laws to criminalize abortion, just waiting.
9. In Texas, there are some pharmacists who have begun refusing to fill prescriptions to treat miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies. Because the drugs/procedures used to treat them can also be used for abortions. So, if you are thinking this is still hypothetical, no..it’s already happening.
10. Now add these following nightmarish proposals to the above list:
    A proposal by an AZ senate candidate calls for a state wide ban of condoms, an US senator (Marsha Blackburn) is allegedly calling for contraceptions to be made available only to married couples, Missouri GOP is currently debating a bill to ban women from traveling out of state for abortions, Louisiana GOP has declared life begins “at fertilization” (this could eventually lead to death penalty for women seeking abortions). I won’t be surprised if someone in some state comes up with the idea of issuing chip IDs for women who are of reproductive age so that they could start tracking their movements in order to ensure that they don’t travel out of state.
11. On top of all of the above, just a reminder that we have seen over 500 abortion related restrictive laws being passed in various GOP controlled state legislatures in the country — in the first 5 months of 2022. Just 5 months.
12. Finally, to give you an example of ‘to what extent these folks are willing to go to control women’s rights’, look at the language used in the Louisiana legislation for abortion ban. I mean..

Louisiana — Look at the language used in this abortion bill. Basically the state can disregard any federal court order ruling curtailing the law and the state judges who declare the law unconstitutional will be impeached.

Because of the relentless ground work around pushing this single issue for 50 years, Republicans have managed to mobilize their anti-choice agenda at such rapid pace. It’s like they were waiting for this leak.

What’s worse is that nowhere in their ambitious anti-choice plans around the country, Republicans had left any room for democracy. Don’t expect them to do that in future when they come out with even more choking anti-women laws. All these draconian proposals are being presented as edicts and as non-negotiable truths, without entertaining debates and discussions with women whose lives they are going to devalue.

What is impending may be a nationwide political disaster in the short term but what this country should prepare for in the long run is a moral disaster with a complete collapse of our humanitarian values that will condemn women to third-rate citizenship.

Welcome to Gilead!!
I saw this coming. You all should have seen this coming too.