The old barefoot and pregnant...again

We all knew it was coming. The leaked Alito Opinion turned out to be the actual opinion of the Supreme Court issued on June 24, 2022. For women, this will be a day that “will live in infamy.” The three Trump appointees, all of whom had told the Senate Committee in hearing that Roe v. Wade was precedent and would not be overturned, evidently forgot what they had said under oath. Oh well, so much for their word. 
 
Justice Clarence Thomas even showed his hand when he said other precedents, like rights for same sex marriage, rights to buy contraceptives, and rights to love whom you love, could be erased under the same argument that took Roe v. Wade down. Regressive acts might possibly take us back as far as eliminating the 19th Amendment, the Women’s Right to Vote Amendment. Holy Cow! We women must be a real threat if the Supreme Court is taking issue with us and apparently intent on further marginalizing us.
 
Suppression of women’s rights – like suppression of voter rights - is a tactic to put us down and keep us down. That cannot happen. The biggest hammer we have to nail these injustices is our VOTE. Women, we need to vote in numbers “too big to ignore.” We need to encourage our daughters and granddaughters to register and find their way to the polling places every time the polls are open.
 
The sad truth about the reversal of Roe v. Wade is that it will not stop abortion, it will just send it back underground where medical procedures might be barely above the coat hanger. I have written my opinion on abortion before. As a method of birth control, I object to it. But I believe woman has a right to make her own choice about what happens with her own body. 
 
I have not walked in the shoes of those who have been raped, by a father, a crazy uncle, a priest, a coach, or a stranger, and found out that even beyond the trauma, the result is an un-wanted pregnancy. To find out that abortion is not a choice, even in this kind of situation, gives a perpetrator rights that the woman does not have. Then, the woman is left with a child to bear and to raise as a reminder of her trauma. One viable life is sacrificed for another, often unviable life. Of course, this is not the child’s fault, but neither is it the mother’s.
 
Between voting rights and women’s rights, there is enough to stir what may have recently been an apathetic voter block. Now is the time to find out who is running, from president to dog catcher and figure out who can be elected to speak loudly into the suppression and regression we see going on right now, before we are relegated back to the dark ages with no rights and no voice. 
 
There used to be a saying among the men of the south about keeping the little women “barefoot and pregnant.” How would it be if we turned tables and made men tally up the numbers of babies they fathered and charged them with paying child support and college expenses? Perhaps they could share responsibility for the life they participated in creating. I wish I could remember who wrote, “A woman can carry about one child a year. A man can father hundreds of children in that same year.”  How do we create equity when the biological differences we are born with play a huge difference in how we navigate pregnancy? Surely there is a solution somewhere between chastity belts and eunuchs. 
 
By the time the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case was decided I was already married and had two children. Our family was complete. I celebrated for all the women who came after me that they too would be able to call their own shots in family planning. A call to women will ring out in crowds who march and chant and sing a song of freedom. It’s time to elect new slates of open -minded people who will restore the hope we have lived since WWII. Dystopia is not a good destination. Women, our time is now. VOTE! 
 
Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, columnist, retreat leader and hosts the blog www.avirtualchurch.com. You can contact her at libcam05@gmail.com