The Party of Death
Esteemed Palmer Report writer Robert Harrington accurately pointed out that one could substitute Hitler for Trump in news headlines. Recently I read the latest edition of Ann Rule’s book “The Stranger Beside Me” about serial killer, Ted Bundy, who stalked, brutally raped, and murdered dozens of young women and girls. As I read Rule’s descriptions of the creepy psycho, my mind would substitute Trump for Bundy. As I read on, I learned that Bundy was once considered a rising star in the 1970s Republican Party.
So, we have the party of Ted Bundy taking away women’s bodily autonomy in America. The party of serial adulterer Rush Limbaugh who coined the word FemaNazi to ruthlessly slander accomplished, heroic women, like Hilary Clinton. The party of “Corporations are people too” putting big business before women’s health and safety.
Not so fast. For fifty years Republicans tried to overturn Roe vs Wade, using Abortion as a polarizing issue to win votes. Then SCOTUS used Dobbs to overturn Roe. Now pro-abortion activists have embraced the word Abortion over medical jargon like “Termination for Medical Reasons” (TFMR), because even the word “Termination” connotes that women have other options. So, we are harnessing the power of the word “Abortion” as positive. If the right can weaponize it as negative, why give them all that power?
Birth control is another term being weaponized by the Right. Republicans have been redefining contraception as “abortificaients” thus lumping it in with abortion. A right-wing disinformation campaign is even depicting birth control as dangerous, with the goal of deterring young women from using contraceptives.
Laughably, in an attempt to reverse persistent Republican election losses due to the backlash from Dobbs, political hack Kellyanne Conway is promoting a new pro-birth control message, only to be met with her own Republican party backlash.
In my 20s working in France, I was covered under universal healthcare. My abortion experience was efficient and caring. However, part of the process required a brief formal meeting with the French version of planned parenthood. My mind was already made up. I had been on birth control with no intention of getting pregnant, but shit happens. That meeting made me realize THEY had all the power. It was jarring. Today, women have more power with safe options like Plan B and Mifepristone. But SCOTUS is considering taking that away.
Meanwhile, the Dobbs ruling is uniting reasonable pro-abortion voters on both sides, giving Democrats an opening to swoop in and stop Republican oppression. In Florida, a petition to put abortion rights on the ballot in 2024 that needs 900,000 signatures now has over 150,000 signatures from Republicans alone. Overall, there are over 1.3 million signatures.
The GOP has watched as voters allowed them to deregulate guns, and support fossil fuels as the world burns. They thought they could get away with overturning Roe. But they have gone too far. My body, my choice, my vote.
Chicago native Lorraine Evanoff earned her degree in French from DePaul University then became a Certified Financial Manager. She worked as a finance exec in film production for seven years in Paris, then in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era, and later for various Hollywood production companies, notably as CFO of National Lampoon. She is currently living in Los Angeles with her husband.