Reproductive rights are human rights, a right most Americans support | Guest view
A May 19 column in The Record by a director of the Southern Baptist Seminary claimed that women are the ones who are the drivers of the anti-abortion movement. He also makes the usual arguments about killing babies in the womb without apparently knowing that babies are what are out of the womb. What is in the womb at first is a fertilized egg, followed by a blastocyst stage; then an embryo stage followed after two months by the fetus stage until birth.
I have to admit I am amazed that some women are the spokespersons for anti-abortion organizations such as the Susan B. Anthony List. Somehow I doubted that Susan B. Anthony would be willing to deny women autonomy and a check on Wikipedia demonstrates that Anthony, who did so much to get women the right to vote, never voiced an opinion regarding abortion.
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However, this did not stop the usurpation of her good name by those misguided who think abortion should be prohibited. They support politicians, mostly women, who will vote to abolish abortion. We know prohibitions don’t work from the last time it was tried with alcohol. Women will die if abortion is once again made illegal and hence unsafe.
Most men and women support a women’s right to choose an abortion. A CNN poll found that 66 percent say Roe v. Wade should not be struck down, and 59 percent would support Congress passing legislation to establish a nationwide right to abortion, including 81 percent of Democrats, 65 percent of independents and 30 percent of Republicans. Clearly, the majority of Americans support keeping abortion a legal and safe procedure, but only a minority of Republicans do.
White evangelicals is the group most opposed to abortion, according to a Pew Research poll of more than 11,000 people. But even white evangelical Protestants, the group most likely to support overturning Roe v. Wade, are divided, with 24 percent opposed to overturning it. More than six in 10 on average of all other religious groups oppose overturning the landmark decision that made abortion available nationwide. That includes Black Protestants (66 percent); White Protestants non-evangelical (60 percent); Catholics (56 percent); Muslims (56 percent); Jewish (75 percent), and non-religious (85 percent).
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The Catholic Bishops are anti-abortion but Catholic parishioners, fortunately, tend more toward the compassion and rationality of Jesus. Recently, a Catholic bishop revealed his animus toward Nancy Pelosi, who supports abortion rights, by denying her communion.
The United States' support for abortion is 19th behind many others. A May 2021 poll finding 66 percent of Americans believe abortion should be permitted in at least some circumstances, versus a global average of 71 percent. Support for abortion is highest in Sweden (88 percent), the Netherlands (85 percent) France and Germany (81 percent) and Great Britain (80 percent).
However, elections do have consequences. The consequence of the 2016 election was that Donald Trump, who lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes but won in the Electoral College by less than 80,000 votes in three states, got to appoint three new Supreme Court justices. These new justices were vetted by the Federalist Society. Any candidate making the approved Federalist List has to be opposed to abortion rights.
Hence, despite the public being supportive of abortion rights, we are about to take a giant leap backward since the Supreme Court overturned Roe in June. In some states, abortion is banned even for rape, incest, ectopic pregnancy, or other life-threatening situations, while in other states, a woman’s autonomy is assured by law.
In California, a woman’s autonomy is protected, but the mentality of the GOP-dominated states of the South and Midwest is going to set women’s rights back to the Dark Ages. We need a common practical law for all American women — not the insane patchwork that is coming. If we had a sufficient majority of Democrats to get the Senate to abolish the filibuster, we could pass the Women’s Reproductive Health Act which recently only got 49 votes. If you want women to have the autonomy they deserve, it is imperative to get out and vote for Democrats in Congress and legislatures across the nation.
Lee W. Miller is retired senior biologist supervisor, formerly with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and a contributing writer to The Stockton Record’s gardening issue
This article originally appeared on The Record: Roe v Wade: Reproductive, abortion rights are human rights
