GOPers’ views are terrifying

Like millions of American women, I had an abortion. I cannot fathom what my life would be if I hadn’t had the option — and it’s terrifying for me to watch as this country becomes a place where abortion is a luxury.

So when I vote, abortion is the first issue I see. And while I’d never vote GOP, it’s important for me to think about who is actually the worst when it comes to women because each candidate represents a whole lot of Americans. And I have to live here.

Once again, Donald Trump has articulated the subtext of the mainstream conservative dogwhistle. Anti-choice legislation is engineered to punish women quite literally; for sex, for the audacity of desiring a self-defined future, for wanting motherhood on our own terms or not at all, for rape.

Abortion-related violence is not just psychological or symbolic punishment. There have been thousands of arsons, bombings, acid attacks on clinics and their staff since abortion became legal 43 years ago. Since 1993, 11 people have been murdered.

Demonizing abortion ends lives in all sorts of ways. Suggesting an official punishment (perhaps for doctors, as Trump has also suggested) is more ludicrous than Trump’s wall. One in three women in America choose abortion. We are your friends, mothers, bosses and sisters. You might not know that you know so many of us because we’ve been so effectively demonized that it’s rightly terrifying to speak up. We are one in three women. This country simply does not have enough handcuffs.

Trump is a sloppy, manic caricature of the right. But the GOP platform is based on the premise that one in three American women are murderers, and the party has created a cultural toxicity potent enough to justify the claim. They’re all complicit; they’ve all got blood on their hands.