HUMAN RIGHTS UNDER ATTACK IN THE US
Healthcare: One of Many March 7, 2023
Good Day Healthcare Advocates
I am so thankful for all of you and for the actions you take to move us towards a universal healthcare system. Today’s article is a little different. I want to put the struggle we have for healthcare and especially for women and girls into a larger perspective.
Current Situation - Rights Under Attack
I was angry when the Supreme Court struck down a woman’s right to choose. But it is part of a concerted and coordinated attack on human rights in the United States and is part of a seizure of power by authoritarians around the globe. You don’t have to look farther than republicans welcoming the fascist Victor Orban to speak at last year’s republican superpac or Bolsanaro at this year’s superpac convention.
I am old and particularly sensitive to the rise of fascism as I lost most of my family in Nazi extermination camps. Here is a poem by Martin Niemoeller that I think is useful.
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist,
Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.
I bring this up because removing rights, treating people as less than human, and making sure that laws are in place to prevent voting and re-establishing those rights are standard tactics of fascist regimes.
Here are some examples
In a variety of states gender affirming medical care is being made illegal for minors and adults.
Women have lost the right to choose in 11 states.
Medicine used for abortion and safer than Tylenol or Penicillin could be made illegal and the science based authority of the FDA overturned.
Georgia and four other states have made a fetus a person and grant it 14th amendment rights (3 state laws were struck down but 2 remain). Rights that supersede those of the mother and could make miscarriage or taking medication during pregnancy a criminal offense. Moreover, this threatens keeping contraception legal. At least one justice on the supreme court wants to make contraception illegal.
Georgia passed a law that gives the legislature the right to oversee prosecutions and thus fascists can go scot free.
So with respect to women and trans people - NOT FULL CITIZENS. And yet only 20% of republicans favor this. If we do not raise our voices loudly over and over about this they win.
There is a certain abhorrence in the US of the Taliban. They enforce their view of the world at the point of a gun. They treat women as less than human and refuse to educate them or allow them to be more than property. How is it that we are appalled by their behavior but in our country we do not take action to stem this tide?
First, we will be a loud voice to our representatives that this trend of the country to facism is unacceptable. Women are full citizens and are to be treated as such and accorded the rights and privileges that accrue to being a full citizen. Next we will demand that voting rights be protected and that the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act be passed.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
RESISTBOT
Text SIGN PEARFK to 50409 to send your Congressperson, Senators, and the Whitehouse this message (or use it on the phone or copy and paste it to email - Links are in the resources below)
I am very concerned about the right wing fascist trend in this country. I am concerned that women are now considered 2nd class citizens at the federal level by having their right to choose stripped away. LQBTQ people are losing their rights to medical treatment. THIS IS NOT WHO WE ARE AND I WANT YOU TO SAY SO.
I want you to restore a woman’s right to choose at the federal level now. I want you to affirm LGBTQ rights to medical treatment now. I want you to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act NOW.
Fascists have to know that we do not take lightly their subjugation of a majority of the country. This is your job. DO IT NOW.
Resources
Contact White House or other federal agencies: usa.gov/federal-agencies
Contact the White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Contact State and Federal Representatives
https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/change-your-address
Contact all members of Congress
By phone: (202) 224-3121
By email: democracy.io
By US mail: Representatives / Senators
By fax: Representatives / Senators
By Resistbot: Resist.bot
Healthcare Advocacy Reading List
General Reproductive Health References
Abortion and Sexual Health References and Recommendations
Dutch site AidAccess, https://aidaccess.org/en/ They arrange teleconference with a doctor and medication is shipped from India. Costs up to $150
Planned Parenthood https://www.plannedparenthood.org/
Abortion Finder This site can also help you find grants for funding https://www.abortionfinder.org/
General Sexual Health - Bedsider.org https://www.bedsider.org
The Washington State Department of Health has a pretty good website to use for information - use an incognito browser it is https://doh.wa.gov/you-and-your-family/sexual-and-reproductive-health/abortion
CYBER SECURITY REFERENCES
Consider this article first from the Digital Defense Fund on Abortion Related Cybersecurity. https://digitaldefensefund.org/ddf-guides/abortion-privacy
Use an incognito browser that does not track you
Do not go to a Crisis Pregnancy Center, they are NOT HIPPA COMPLIANT and will sell your personal information to people who will harass you
DO NOT USE APPS/WEBSITES TO TRACK MENSTRUAL CYCLES, again they are not necessarily HIPPA COMPLIANT AND CAN SELL YOUR DATA or provide it to authorities and use it to prosecute you or others.
Here is additional guidance - please be careful and share
Here is an ACLU podcast
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Surveillance Self-Defense: https://ssd.eff.org/en