abortion is the new background check
One thing that’s been giving me hope this week is reflecting on the paradox of progress, about how it happens both slowly and swiftly.
Just look at gay marriage. While LGBTQ activists had been busting their butts off for decades, the unified support for gay marriage also feels like it almost happened overnight. During the summer of 2014 I remember working for a news site that encouraged debate between different political parties and the editor-in-chief just deciding one morning, that we were no longer publishing takes against gay marriage. Just like that, it became painfully obvious that it was wrong to entertain another side on whether sexual orientation should preclude anyone from the right to love. And it wasn’t just us. Suddenly, there’s was a consensus across political parties, corporate leaders and the general public that this wasn’t acceptable.
I believe this accelerated progress is happening with abortion rights. Pro-choice sentiment has hit a record-setting all-time high. As Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez pointed out last week, the failure to codify roe is partly due to the fact that even amongst democrats, support for reproductive rights didn’t used to be uniform. However, amongst progressives and conservatives alike, the support for abortion rights has increased significantly over the last year alone. This means that an interesting phenomenon is happening: the attacks on women’s rights are not softening us, they’re radicalizing us.
I’ll be the first to express exasperation at the fact that it took a tsunami like roe being overturned to get people on board. But I’m less concerned with how and when people showed up the right side of history and more interested in how we tap into it. Horrifying events can make us despair or they can invigorate us to change. For instance, the Sandy Hook and Charleston massacres had an undeniable impact on the public sentiment on gun safety. March for Our Lives, the movement that was started by survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School helped change public opinion, where background checks have become uncontroversial regardless of political leaning. Does it mean the laws on guns have gone far enough? Of course not. But when gun safety reform does pass, it will be because of all those people swaying the public and our elected officials to that position.
I’ve often gone back to my Vox interview with Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut for inspiration because his messaging about the popularity of gun safety is useful for other issues. "This is not a controversial issue out in the American public,” he told me back in 2016. “Polls show 90 percent of Americans support background checks before you buy a gun, and [they] support keeping terrorists, or would-be terrorists from getting guns. There is virtually nothing in America in which 90 percent of Americans agree. This is an exceptional issue to have that much consensus.”
We need to talk about the right to abortion like we talk about background checks. Not everyone would personally choose to own guns, but virtually everyone agrees on laws that govern them. Abortion should be discussed in the same way. Not everyone would personally choose abortion, but we all agree there should be laws that guarantee it. The absence of background checks, just like the absence of a right to abortion, poses a serious safety threat to the public and americans are almost unanimous on both. Supporting the right to abortion mirrors the statistics of americans who support universal background checks. The comparison is not a leap.
As I argued in Fortune Magazine, we must dispel the myth that abortion is controversial. Celebrities, artists and corporate leaders are being told by their publicists and advisors that standing up for reproductive rights means they’ll alienate half of their customers or fans, when in reality statistically speaking, they risk upsetting 15% at best, which is a risk they already take on issues they’re vocal about like gun violence.
My message to those who have remained silent is to stand up for women like you stand up for everyone else. Is the potential of upsetting a fraction of the population worth staying silent about the stripping of citizenship of the majority of the population? Find the moral courage to lead. You never know who your words will inspire to action.
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