Republicans Want To Control Women, Not Reduce Abortions

With affordable health care, America could reduce the need for abortion by upward of 73 percent.

by Bob Cesca

WASHINGTON, DC – Here’s how you can tell the abortion issue, for most Republicans, isn’t about saving fetuses. I mean, other than the fact that Republicans are opposed to free access to contraception and have even sued in the Supreme Court to block the Affordable Care Act from requiring it. There’s actually a more glaringly revealing way to expose the fact that most Republicans simply want to control women.

The next time you’re confronted by someone celebrating the Supreme Court’s apparent overturning of both Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey, ask them this basic question: “Do you support making pregnancy, neonatal care, and healthcare for children free of charge?” Then watch the confused scramble to obfuscate.

Here’s what I’m getting at with this. 

The most commonly cited reason for having an abortion not only in the United States but around the world is financial: the inability to afford the pregnancy and the subsequent parenthood. Study after study shows as many as 73 percent of women said they had an abortion because they couldn’t afford to have a child. Therefore, it stands to reason that if you eliminate that problem by making pregnancy and early parenthood free, you can arguably eliminate millions of abortions every year without banning or restricting access to it.

It’s an easy amendment to pass as part of the Affordable Care Act. There are already provisions in the law – consumer protections – that regulate what health insurance companies are required to cover free-of-charge, as well as caps on out-of-pocket fees such as co-pays and premiums. Expanding the law to include pregnancy and neonatal care shouldn’t be that difficult a task…

…except for the fact that a supermajority of Republicans are opposed to the Affordable Care Act and any sort of subsidized health coverage. Socialized medicine, they say, among many other derogatory forms of propaganda.

But go ahead and ask an anti-choice Republican if they support greatly reducing the need for abortions by making pregnancy (and more) free. I assure you, the answer will be an immediate no, followed by something-something-you’re-a-communist, even though it could reduce the need for abortion by upward of 73 percent. 

Their opposition to contraception and universal healthcare for pregnant women proves they’re not interested in reducing abortions. They’re solely interested in banning all abortions, no exceptions, by sanctioning government at all levels to control women’s reproduction, forcing all pregnant women to give birth even if it kills them and their fetuses. Controlling women is the ultimate goal.

Admittedly, exposing the true motives of anti-choicers is only one part of a larger plan that must be put into action immediately. We were unable to stop Donald Trump from appointing three justices to the Supreme Court during his single term, but we can make up for it by deciding to dominate elections with the semi-long term goal of passing a constitutional equal rights amendment with a right to privacy clause.

The truth is, close to 70 percent of Americans support legal abortion in most if not all cases. This is only a controversial issue in politics, not in the daily lives of regular Americans. Consequently, as soon as news of the repeal of Roe gets out to millions of non-voters, Republicans will regret this massive overreach, not to mention their ill-conceived alliance with white evangelicals. Judging by the Republican reaction to the leak of the draft Alito document, they’re terrified.

Democrats can ride the wave of newly activated voters toward near-permanent majorities at both the state and federal level, paving the way for a constitutional amendment to inextricably codify the right to privacy in the Constitution. They just have to want it badly enough, and now’s the time. 

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We can waste months and months endlessly bashing people like Susan Sarandon or Susan Collins for their comparatively minor roles in the current makeup of the Court, but that wins us nothing. The focus has to be on dominating elections for the foreseeable future and not letting up. That means registering new Democrats and making sure they vote, while retaining a laser-focus on the real enemies of reproductive rights.

Republicans, for all their shrieking, are ideological minorities. That’s why they need white supremacists and voter suppression laws to win elections. They’re outnumbered and we can worsen their minority party status with energy, determination, and prioritizing victory by any legal means.

And with a long enough view of the future, we can not only roll back this terrible decision by the Trump-Bush Supreme Court, but we can also protect democracy, we can save humanity from the climate crisis, we can greatly expand the ACA to include free pregnancy and neonatal care, and countless other priorities. But none of that can happen unless every last one of us makes the domination of elections our number one priority. The time is now. What will you do?

Read the latest for Banter Members:

Letters To The Editor: Toxic Twitter, Falling Out With MAGA Family And Making Friends With Neocons

Welcome to the latest installment of our Letters To The Editor feature for Banter Members!

A reader responds to Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter:

I can see this coming from a 100 miles away. If Musk does end up buying Twitter the right, who are already praising him despite the purchase not even close to being finalized, will flip on him the nanosecond he puts the kibosh on some horrible thing a person from the right tweets out. That WILL happen. Then he'll be called a liberal shill and part of the child abusing cabal who's really a lizard man from beneath the Denver airport wearing an itchy skin suit. I have a question for The Banter team. In the podcast it was mentioned that at some rally it was stated that people were expressing their desire to kill off liberals that enjoyed baby milkshakes and so on. Given the trajectory of politics and ultra right wing groups and their cultish adherence to shockingly awful disinformation, do you think it's fait accompli that there will be an incidence of severe violence across the U.S. or an incident that is so undeniably egregious (assassination, bombing, gassing, etc)- as if the terrorist attack on the Capitol wasn't enough- it really does snap people back to the reality of facts...that even the likes of Fox "News" is shamed into sobriety?

Ben: Great question. Sadly, I don’t think any act of violence, no matter how egregious it is, will bring the far right back from the brink. This is a country where elementary school children can be blown to pieces with high powered military weapons, and the Right refuses to even entertain changing gun laws….

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