Current right-wing attacks are intensifying around issues of reproduction, healthcare, maternal care, and now gender identity. Women, trans people and children’s lives are at stake. Poor women and youth are particularly hurt, but the laws potentially threaten all pregnant and gender-diverse people. New “anti-trans” laws are targeting medical care for gender-diverse children. Some families are trying to move out of state to continue their child’s care. Of course, many cannot afford to move and their children will be traumatized and more susceptible to suicide.
“It’s not just for me,” says Amanda Zurawski, one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state of Texas over life-threatening abortion laws. “It’s for every pregnant person and for everyone who knows and loves a pregnant person. It is with and for all Texans who like me are scared and outraged at the thought of being pregnant in this state that I stand and fight.”
Organizations that support people getting abortions in states that ban them are scrambling to provide help under the new laws. “We won’t be bullied by legislators who are trying to pass these illegitimate and frankly unconstitutional laws,” says Denise Rodriguez of Texas Equal Access Fund. OB/Gyn doctors are being pulled into this fight, too, as they try to provide care deemed illegal in many states due to bans on abortion and gender-affirming care. Dr. Marta Crispens says, “We took an oath — we have to be able to take care of these women.”
The lawmakers passing these laws are the same ones attacking our democracy at every level. In Texas, district attorneys from several large cities agreed not to prosecute election fraud or abortion-related cases. In response, HB17 just passed, which will allow the D.A.’s removal if they fail to prosecute these new crimes. “It’s vile legislation at its core, threatening the removal of democratically-elected officials who dare to reform our justice system or stand up for voting rights and reproductive freedom in our state,” said Laquita Garcia, Statewide Right2Justice Policy Coordinator of the Texas Organizing Project.
Attacking the rights of a section of people threatens everybody’s rights. Either everyone has their rights or no one will have their rights. As history teaches us, the only way forward is for a massive movement for rights and democracy from the scattered battles raging on many fronts, with the people most affected in key leadership roles.
Karel Riley works with the People’s Tribune, and its bilingual sister publication, Tribuno del Pueblo, as a writer and contributor on human rights and women’s issues. “I’ve been a feminist since early adulthood. As a clerical worker, I joined a union drive with AFSCME seeking comparable wages to men for female-dominated jobs, and we were partially successful. In the mid-80’s our union participated in the historic Hormel strike in Minnesota. Later, I joined others in support of a local welfare rights organization,” she says.
