Fighting fire

I woke up Wednesday to the news that Texas had effectively overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that guaranteed women the right to end a pregnancy before the fetus reaches viability.

Roe confirmed that women have the right and the autonomy to control their own healthcare decisions. They don’t need to ask permission or be granted it by parent or spouse or, as Texas has now allowed, some random person you’ve never met who has a firmly held belief, no matter how cynical, against one form of evidence-based health care.

Roe’s protections for women died in Texas because the United States Supreme Court was silent. Like a church mouse. So, in addition to a viral plague that is burning through this nation, we stand here mouths agape in witness to another harebrained, fanatical miscarriage of justice that works precisely as intended: to do the most harm to women and any institution that is enabled to protect them.

So we wait for the handwringing and tweet churning of our more rational representatives to solidify into nothing more than shrugs. And as we dread word of this malicious sickness spreading to other parts of this nation, we are told to have faith.

Justice will prevail. Equality is still possible.

Roe, after all, has long been viewed as imperfect. Ruth Bater Ginsberg disliked the law because its sweeping nature made abortion >> an important women’s right — vulnerable to attacks such as this one.

But fear of losing the protections of an imperfect law meant death by a thousand cuts. Without access, the right to safe medical care for women is hopelessly impeded.

The fight is not over, but the way we battle needs to change.

I’ve said before in these pages that as a young woman I didn’t truly understand the nature of this fight.

It wasn’t until I became a mother that my understanding of abortion changed to fuller clarity.

“Choice” is the word that has hoodwinked so many. It has forced us to view women as arrogant or entitled. It has allowed us to look down on one to the detriment of all. Neither should ever happen. It has also forced us to share our private and painful stories only to have them fall on deaf ears.

You will hear these stories over and over again about readiness, about miscarriages, about pregnancies intended or not. You will hear about women whose lives are emperilled for no good reason at all.

And now that Texas has added a new sick twist, the problem will only multiply. These stories are going to break our hearts in a million pieces.

It’s not enough to be broken. We need to fix this now and forever. Because healthcare is also fraught with some of the same political ideologies that sully our nation’s stated commitment to equality and privacy and wellbeing.

This onus placed on women and our healthcare system should be treated like the wildfire that it is.

In addition to using federal authority to enforce the constitutional protections that women have under Roe, we need to expand the courts to ensure this bad-faith chipping away at such a woman’s fundamental freedoms becomes a relic of an abysmal history.

Until then, accrediting organizations that oversee doctors should ensure anyone in their ranks who discloses information about their patients’ histories to a “vigilante,” should face dire sanctions, including the loss of medical licenses.

And men, don’t think this isn’t about you. Your ability to succeed almost certainly hinges on a woman who had choices, too.

If we just let it burn, this fire will ravage us all.