Cinco de Mayo - A Day of Liberation

May 5, 2023

May 05, 2023

Happy Cinco de Mayo, Healthcare Advocates

Cinco de Mayo, or the fifth of May, is a holiday that celebrates the date of the Mexican army’s May 5, 1862 victory over France and Napoleon III at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War. A good day to celebrate the overthrow of a repressive regime. Next week we will cover topics like, healthcare for the rich, and problems with rural healthcare.

Reproductive Healthcare News

Yesterday we were at a local community college where my wife was lecturing students about recent reproductive healthcare legislation in Washington. We met a couple of people there who shared with us their tale of moving to Washington from a state where reproductive health laws are restrictive. Those restrictions were a part of their decision to move. I’m glad they are here but sad that freedom is such a broken mosaic in our country.

Missouri is a state where abortion is illegal, except to save a mother from death.. In the 1980s they passed legislation that identifies life beginning at conception and that the fetus has near-personhood protectable rights with respect to life, health, and well being and the natural parents have such an interest in protecting that life (Link to the law).

In Missouri 52% of the population favors legal abortion. Two days ago in the Missouri legislature Republican Senator Mike Moon proposed a bill that grants full personhood status to a fetus. Abortion is then murder and charges could be brought against the mother and any that aid and abet - like the doctor or nurse. The bill does not indicate whether prosecution would take place for an out of state abortion. It does allow a mother to have a defense of duress in the criminal proceedings. On the same day it is worth noting that another bill was submitted that clarified that contraception is not abortion.

This sort of thing has shown up elsewhere in the world and the result is that miscarriages are then prosecuted as well.

This is a terrorist tactic meant to sew fear and to literally subjugate women as less than human.. Sure looks like the Republican Taliban to me.

I’ve covered this before, making abortion illegal in the US beginning in the 1800s was a technique related to the Great Replacement Theory. That is, white Protestant women were having abortions and there was a fear that too many immigrants from Ireland, Italy, etc. were coming to the US and would replace the white majority. Abortion has a long ugly history of racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy. As homework, here is a podcast about Madame Restell, a 19th century abortionist with author Jennifer Wright. Her book, “Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist.” is fascinating.

Let’s recap. Reproductive rights for women vary across the country. You don’t have the same rights everywhere. I then ask, what does it mean to be an American?. It does not mean being a second class citizen without bodily autonomy. It means you have the right to choose everywhere and that is what we need legislators in Washington to be put in place. NOW.

Phone/Contact

Call or contact your Senators and Congressperson and tell them you want them to sponsor and vote for the Women’s Health Protection Act and the Equal Access to Abortion in Health Insurance Act (EACH). You can find their phone numbers/homepage contacts here or in the references below.

The text can be easy. Try “ I am your constituent in zipcode_______. Women are not treated as equal in all states, like Missouri, where they are trying to make abortion murder, and I want that corrected NOW. I want you to cosponsor and actively support the Women’s Health Protection Act and the Equal Access to Abortion in Health Insurance Act (EACH). While you are at it, extend the deadline for the ERA. You are either a woman, or are related to one and you owe them this.

Resistbot (See References)

Text SIGN PNCNDR to 50409 to tell your Congressperson and Senators

“Women are not treated as equal in all states, like Missouri, where they are trying to make abortion murder, and I want that corrected NOW. I want you to cosponsor and actively support the Women’s Health Protection Act and the Equal Access to Abortion in Health Insurance Act (EACH). While you are at it, extend the deadline for the ERA. You are either a woman, or are related to one and you owe them this.”