the year abortion won
turning lemons into more abortions
I was going to make a list of my favorite things that happened this year, but then I realized nothing could top the anti-abortion movement involuntarily becoming a sentient Chrissy Teigan meme.
When I think about the humiliating moments that altered my brain chemistry this year, I think about celebrity couples taking stage cues from backgrid or jeff bezos wearing that cowboy hat to space. But cringe doesn’t even begin to describe the time the anti-abortion movement overturned Roe, and still managing to fuck it up. Imagine having the highest court in the land packed with your hacks, and then somehow still losing.
Now before I get thrown to the wolves, I’m not saying that the constitutional right to abortion wasn’t essential. A dozen states now have abortion bans and that’s devastating for women who cannot get care. If you follow my work, you know I reported on the girls and women who were denied their life-saving medication and how inhumane these bans are.
That being said, there’s reason to be hopeful that these abortion bans won’t last. In three states (North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming) that tried to ban abortion, their trigger laws were blocked with preliminary injunctions and what’s particularly hopeful about this is that pro-choice activists have been sophisticated enough to use republican principles to preserve the right to abortion. In Wyoming for instance, the law was blocked based on the principle in the state constitution that allows citizens to make their own health care decisions. It’s promising to see abortion being connected to american values of privacy and freedom especially since this is at the root of an expansion of the pro-abortion rights coalition in states like Kansas.
“Leave it up to the states” used to be synonymous with wiping out abortion rights, but now it’s becoming the way to strengthen them. As beautifully explained by Sabrina Tavernise on The Daily, because the Michigan legislature flipped to Democrats (at least in part because the GOP’s unpopular anti-choice position) lawmakers are crafting something even better than Roe as an amendment to the state constitution. While a lot of people were mad that Democrats didn’t codify Roe, what state legislatures could be doing is offering women even more protections for their reproductive rights.
And the truth is that women can still get abortion pills in all fifty states, even where republicans think they have successfully banned abortion. As I wrote on the day that Roe was overturned, organizations like Mayday Health (which I sit on the board of) are helping guarantee access to the largest abortion provider: the post office. Most abortions don’t happen in a clinic, they happen with abortion pills, which republicans are going to have a lot of trouble legislating because the mail is a federal service. Since Roe was overturned, the demand for abortion pills from overseas through organizations like Aid Access has more than doubled, and women are stocking up on other forms of contraception like Plan B. Very few people knew about abortion pills but since Roe was overturned, they’ve gained in popularity.
In other words, there’s very little the government can do to stop women now. In extremely online terms, the pro-choice movement is céline dion rolling her window and the fan she’s driving away from is lindsay graham’s abortion ban.
In addition to women doing whatever the fuck they want, men are also giving the middle finger to anti-choice zealots by getting vasectomies by the pound. There’s a vasectomy revolution (politico’s words not mine but yours truly predicted it) where men are taking a lot of steamy responsibility for birth control which is very sexy and very positive for the future of gender equality and reproductive health. I don’t think the ultra ring-wing supreme court justices thought their stupid decision would spark a tik tok trend of young men documenting their vasectomies with their front cam, but that’s a cool thing to add to their resume I guess? It will be perfect for their two truths a lie at their next job when they do something super pro-life when they retire like becoming consultants for a weapons manufacturer.
Regardless of what 2023 holds for us, I’ll always remember this year as proof that hope is rational. What gets us through the present, is a faith in the future. And even when the bad sexist guys look like they’re about to win, there’s always the possibility that they end up accidentally causing an abortion rights revolution instead.
And remember that if you need a last-minute gift for your family, friends or that chauvinistic coworker whose email you possess and whose brain you want to influence with cool feminist content, please consider getting this newsletter as a gift for someone you love (or hate!) I can’t believe how much our community has grown in the last year. Subscribing and encouraging others to do it too, helps me continue to do this work, so thank you. Happy holidays, merry everything or whatever it is you celebrate, thanks for being here with me.
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