Ugly post shows lack of empathy

Those who want to keep women from having mastery of our own bodies should be ashamed, writes Gina Barreca.

LET’S all be disgusted by misogyny again, shall we? Let’s send every desperate woman forced to carry an unwanted and unplanned pregnancy to the home of a conservative lawmaker. We can start by sending them to the home of Parkersburg, West Virginia, City Councilman Eric Barber, who posted on his Facebook page the following message, which I am repeating as written: ‘‘Better get you’re coat hangers ready liberals.’’

Barber was apparently referring to the Senate’s confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. Kavanaugh is seen by his supporters as an opponent of Roe v Wade, which legalised abortion. When abortions were illegal, coat hangers became a symbol of the dangerous and sometimes fatal methods women would use to end pregnancies. Barber’s post recalled that dark time with no sign of empathy for the desperate women who sought backalley abortions. He later apologised for an ‘‘insensitive’’ post and said it referred to his having been hit by a hanger thrown by a proabortion rights demonstrator in Washington. Even it that’s so, how could he have not known how his words would be interpreted?

President Donald Trump says it’s a scary time to be a man in America. Let’s make it an even tougher time to be an entitled white guy who believes it’s his heavensent right to decide what happens to the bodies of women and girls.

Let’s have him accept responsibility for his decisions when it comes to women’s healthcare and the ability to terminate a pregnancy. Let him face the consequences of his choice. Let’s have him pay all the bills, deal with the woman’s depression, despair and sense of hopelessness. And, of course, let’s make sure he helps the woman — whose decision he made — to reenter the workplace or educational system without penalty. After all, it wasn’t her choice to have the child. It was his.

If the conservative activist is a woman — and some of them are — they, too, should be made responsible for the child they mandate be brought to term. Let’s also make sure that the designated antiabortion activist adopts the newborn, raises the child, pays for all medical care, schooling and activities. As the child grows, we should insist activists personally provide the same sort of vigilance for the rights of the alreadyborn as they believe belong to the unborn.

Oddly enough, despite the fact that the rights of alreadyborn seem to be of little interest to antiabortion advocates, dogmatically rightwing lawmakers want to ensure, above all else, that children are had, right?

Isn’t that what underscores their outrage at the very thought that women can freely make our own decisions about sex and reproduction?

The goal of overturning Roe v Wade, which is the sole reason Brett Kavanaugh is now on the Supreme Court (and you know it), is why folks like Eric Barber felt he could blow his ungrammatical horn in gloating triumph.

But making abortion a criminal offence won’t touch everyone. It will not, for example, have much of an effect on the wealthy and independent. Women and girls from rich families and women with their own money have always been able to terminate unwanted pregnancies. If Roe v Wade is overturned, women with money and connections will fly to places where abortion is legal.

It’s women who are uneducated and ashamed of their bodies, poor women, young women and scared women who will be affected by the overturning of Roe v Wade and it will wreck their lives. Because they, too, will stop their pregnancies. But they won’t be able to escape to another country; they’ll just destroy themselves, right here in the US.

Those who want to keep women from having mastery of our own bodies should be ashamed.

Let’s stop equating authority with masculinity. Let’s tell these lawmakers to use ‘‘your’’ and ‘‘you’re’’ correctly, as in the following sentence: ‘‘Your laws won’t rule my body. You’re not going to be in power long.’’