Oppression nearing critical mass — fight for women’s rights

There is a term in science called “critical mass.” It is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. In other words, “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

In the United States, the oppression of women and the suppression of their rights — to own their bodies; to obtain legal medical procedures; to receive a full range of health care, including all reproductive care available — are quickly approaching critical mass. A reaction resembling the social version of a nuclear explosion is imminent.

In past centuries, religion was used by men to suppress women’s rights and treat them like chattel. But religion’s grip on our society is slipping. Women can no longer be censured by religious leaders for failure to defer to the men in their lives, nor can they be threatened with afterlife retribution for refusing to pretend that men are their superiors. And they can vote!

While politicians pooh-pooh single-issue campaigns, when women cannot ignore that one American political party favors curtailing their rights to a complete range of reproductive health care, the response at the polls will be explosive. Coupled with this party’s legislative agenda that includes tax breaks and “incentives” for a handful of Americans and starvation wages for the rest; substandard education for the rest; and a greater tax burden on citizens than on obscenely wealthy corporations, then that party will find itself on the outside looking in. And nobody will answer their knock on the door.