What are Republicans' true intentions with Tennessee's anti-abortion laws | Opinion
Civilian outcry explodes across the United States as new legislation cracks down on sexual freedom and bodily autonomy. The Supreme Court is callously intruding into Americans’ bedrooms and medical appointments, yet justices such as Brett Kavanaugh cannot fathom that their own privacies are now being violated.
Even though anti-abortion legislation infringes upon non-Christian religious freedoms, endangers mothers with unviable pregnancies, forces victims to give birth to their rapists’ offspring even in cases of incest and categorizes women as second-class citizens, the Supreme Court is positioned to overurn Roe v. Wade.
Conservative states are confidently pushing inhumane bills in response. Always at the frontlines of pro-life politics, Tennessee serves as a frightening example of theological extremism.
Tennessee already has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, but lawmakers are further tightening control. Gov. Bill Lee recently signed a new law that penalizes individuals who mail abortion medication to Tennessee with a fine up to $50,000.
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House Bill 2416 states, “A manufacturer, supplier, pharmacy, physician, qualified physician, or other people may not provide an abortion-inducing drug via courier, delivery, or mail service.”
Misinformation regarding HB 2416 is spreading rapidly across the state: Plan B is not an abortion medication, but rather a contraceptive, so it is not threatened by legislation at this time. However, it is only a matter of time before the GOP goes after birth control.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn has loudly voiced her opposition to Griswold vs. Connecticut, a Supreme Court ruling that grants married couples the right to use birth control. If Roe vs. Wade is overturned, Griswold vs. Connecticut will undoubtedly be targeted next.
Point: Abortion is now illegal in Tennessee, but state bans were decades in the making | Opinion
Counterpoint: Tennessee benefits from Human Life Protection Act and other anti-abortion laws | Opinion
Republicans' true intentions with ant-abortion laws
U.S. citizens are asking themselves, “Why is this happening?” Republicans will have you believe they are passing legislation that upholds the sanctity of life, but their purpose is more sinister than that. The U.S. cares nothing about the sanctity of life.
While basically all other developed countries’ pregnancy-related fatalities have steadily decreased over time, research proves that the U.S.' pregnancy-related fatalities are continually increasing. Government officials do not care about the lives of mothers any more than they care about the lives of babies after they exit the womb.
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What they really care about is padding the working class, because the cost of living makes it nearly impossible to raise children, the U.S.' birth rate is lower than it has been in decades. If people are not having children of their own accord, the government will simply force individuals’ to contribute to “the domestic supply of infants”.
All under the guise of providing families with children to adopt, spitting in the faces of the thousands of children who age out of the system annually, never having been loved or cared for. Alito claims, “A woman who puts her newborn up for adoption today has little reason to fear that the baby will not find a suitable home.”
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This notion is astonishingly removed from reality.
Without command over our reproductive health, there is little separating women from livestock. The extreme conservative movement that is rampaging through the states is and never has been about saving babies. It is deeply rooted in misogyny, and it undermines the integrity of the U.S. government.
McKinley Heard is a PhD student at the University of Memphis and a member of Tennessee Press Association.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Tennessee's anti-abortion laws are deeply rooted in misogyny
