Should We Encourage Abortion Restrictions Before the 2024 Election?

Protests against the ban on abortion in Gdynia, Poland. (Photo from Shutterstock by kamilewski)

Arizona just re-instated an 1864 law basically making abortion illegal and punishable by a term in prison.

While I watched the news unfold of the tragedy of their return to the Stone Age on women’s reproductive rights, an interesting thought came over me.

The more states that enact restrictions on what women can do with their own bodies, the better chance Joe Biden has of winning the 2024 election.

Nearly two dozen states have now enacted severe restrictions and harsh punishments since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Almost every southern state is jumping on the abortion BAN — wagon. And, Donald Trump is now bragging about having appointed three Supreme Court Justices who kicked out Roe v. Wade and supporting state’s rights to do whatever they want. But if there’s one thing I’ve noticed after all of this it’s this:

Women don't like what’s happening to their rights.

And, I’m not only talking about the ones on the front lines. I’m also talking about the strong-willed, silent women who either have a deep dark secret about their own abortion or who know someone who has.

And, they’re not about to keep silent.

There are a couple of things I find Crazy about the Arizona situation. First, the “law” was passed in 1864. Arizona didn't even become a state until 1912. If we all have to abide by laws that were in place prior to our states joining the Union, shouldn’t we then be enforcing Native American Treaties and giving back the land to the people we took it from?

I’m sure Arizona’s courts won’t support that view any time soon.

Secondly, if I’m not mistaken, people have been screwing since the beginning of time. But birth control in 1864 was about as effective as a three-legged horse. Times are different today. The problem was that in the 19th Century, the most common birth control method was abstinence, which didn’t work very well and consequently led to large families.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but here in the 21st Century, because of advances in birth control, people are screwing more than ever because the chances of getting pregnant are slimmer. However, unintended pregnancies do happen. And it makes no sense that we should be hurriedly advancing opportunities for activities in the bedroom and not also expanding reproductive rights for women at the same speed.

This is what happens when old white men make all the laws, but that’s a topic for another day.

So what does this mean for the Presidential election of 2024?

Joe Biden and the Democrats are pummeling Trump and Republican candidates across the nation on their support of rolling back women’s rights.

One of the few things the right-wingers haven’t been able to overcome is the right to a secret ballot. No matter what their husbands might think, women of all ages will quietly vote against anyone who is dumb enough to support the further disintegration of women’s rights. And, I think young women particularly will go to the polls and vote to keep the rights their mothers fought so hard for in the 60s and 70s.

As evidence of this, take a look at what happened in Poland in their most recent parliamentary elections. In addition to destroying just basic freedoms, the right-wing totalitarian government was putting the screws to women’s reproductive rights big time. Women young and old came out to vote in numbers never before seen and threw the bums out! An extraordinary 74.4% of the eligible voters cast their ballots.

I can’t imagine that women in the U.S. won’t do the same and quietly … or perhaps not so quietly … go to the polls and vote against Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican gang who are yearning for a return to the days when women were chattel.

I’m not talking about women like Clarence Thomas’s wife. She’s a privileged nutbag. I’m talking about real women. The ones with the brains, and the brawn at the ballot box.

So to all the state legislators who want to squash Women’s Reproductive Rights, I say go, go go! On November 4th of this year, the women of this nation will speak loud and clear and send you to the unemployment lines.