Fighting for abortion rights IS fighting for democracy
Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know
By: Lisa M. Hayes
Want to know why women are afraid of losing abortion rights?
Because we don’t trust ourselves to stop it from happening.
That’s why.
Make no mistake, fighting for abortion rights IS fighting for democracy.
I have said it before, and I will say it a hundred times more: Men are not going to save our democracy. Women will have to do that, mostly alone, and it is going to be costly.
If the illegitimate supreme court ends abortion rights, they will prove there are no guardrails to prevent our fragile democracy from driving itself off the cliff. At this point, if I were a betting woman, I would put money on a very glorious, explosive end to our way of life before betting on women.
It is not because women can’t fight and win, but we haven’t yet, and we are running out of time.
It has been a long since women in our country decided to take no shit and take a stand. We have made complaining a hobby and complacency our resting state. No one wants to hear that, but we all know it’s true. That is why we are panicking.
If we let this happen, it will not end with abortion. They have told us it won’t. So far, the radical right has kept most of their world domination promises while we were playing nice. They have a fucking agenda, checking off their to-do lists.
They expect some very large protests.
They expect a very weak women’s strike.
They expect this might cost them a bit in the midterm elections, but they also expect that despite that, they will win in November anyway. I wish it weren’t true, but I don’t think they are wrong.
They expect us to get tired of the sounds of our own voices in the streets and that we will go home sooner than later, returning to our families and jobs, telling ourselves we did our best but our best wasn’t enough —
they have a lot of recent history to predict we will put on a good show but ultimately sit down quietly and shut the fuck up while they continue to erase or enslave us.
We do not have a good track record for staying the course.
Women are an oppressed majority that has allowed the fabric of democracy to wear threadbare because we are fucking tired, too tired, to change the world because we have to make dinner for our families after too many long shifts at work.
Women are so oppressed we have forgotten we are sovereign, AND we pretend we aren’t the majority, conveniently forgetting we are enough to have ended this mess before it began.
Women are the majority in every state, district, neighborhood, and at every polling station. Women control almost all family spending and billion-dollar corporate budgets. Women bare the burden of all the responsibility without taking the rewards. So far, we have lacked the resolve it will take to liberate ourselves.
We might be out of time, but for real, if we don’t step the fuck up now, there, for sure, will be no next time.
Now.
PROTEST LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT – BECAUSE IT MIGHT.
They will tell you not to protest – do it anyway.
They will tell you your protests are pointless – do it anyway.
They will tell you your protests are illegal – do it the fuck anyway.
STOP GIVING YOUR MONEY TO MEN.
Make every possible effort to give your money to women when you spend. Do not go on strike and stop spending money in general. Support your sisters, and support minority-owned businesses. But for real, stop giving your cash to the oppressor and wondering why they have all the money and power.
Boycott spending your money with white establishment men for fucking ever. Refuse to enter their stores. Shut them all down. It would take months, maybe even weeks, to end capitalism and the economic patriarchy if women shopped only with women-owned businesses.
NEVER VOTE FOR A MAN AGAIN.
Yes, I understand there are pro-life women, and occasionally one of them gets elected. However, for real, if women quit voting for men, ever, for anything, we will build a matriarchal governmental structure and society in two election cycles.
If there are no women to vote for, run for office.
File, campaign, and win.
Do not vote for men.
Repealing abortion rights is an act tantamount to the execution of a conservative Christian jihad. The political right is fully radicalized and mobilized. The patriarchy has been playing chess while we played checkers for years. If you do not believe me, look at the makeup of the Supreme Court and ask yourself how we got here. More importantly, ask yourself how WE let things get here.
Women are the most powerful buying force,
voting force,
and fighting force in the U.S.
Based on that, none of us should be concerned about our rights to basic healthcare – but I am concerned, to the point of a sickening dread – and so are you –
because we do not trust ourselves to steel our convictions and actually fight the fight necessary to end the patriarchal fascist surge.
I am afraid the apathy of the political middle will drag us back into the middle ages – and so are you.
I am afraid the daughters of the patriarchy, who sit comfortably in the shadow of their husband’s privilege, will continue to betray themselves in the name of religions that do not value them. I am afraid the poisonous betrayal of those women is more resolved than our will – and so are you.
I am afraid once the social media photos taken on the way to the marches are posted and liked, the protests will stop, and our public outrage will retreat to back-alley clinics where some women will live, and others die – and you are afraid of that too.
I know you are afraid of these things because we wouldn’t be spending our energy on outrage if we weren’t terrified.
We would, instead, be prepping for a war we know we’d win.
Women cannot lose if they decide to fight until all the old white men are out of office or in the ground.
We hold all the cards.
Every single one of them.
We need to shut it all down, from our wombs to the streets and everything in between.
I want to bet on us – and so do you.
But, Sister, we are running out of time to rise.
