Contraception, Abortion and Women’s Financial Future

We knew the fundamentalist-packed U.S. Supreme Court would trample on women’s rights. It’s been coming.

As medical advancements have saved the lives of premature babies that fit in the palm of our hands, the issue of viability outside the womb has taken center stage, providing radical, right-wing Republican fundamentalists with the necessary ammunition to roll back abortion rights.

What surprises me the most is that anyone is somehow shocked that it’s now happening. Where have you been?

Reproductive rights are the single most important issue for women of all races and ethnicities, full stop. Any woman who doesn’t recognize that is a fool.

Still not convinced? Still think inflation, gas prices, rising interest rates, skyrocketing rents, and global warming are more important than a woman’s unequivocal right to abortion on demand? How shortsighted of you.

The first line of defense in our armor for women’s equality and full participation in society is contraception. The second is abortion. Being able to delay childbirth and plan our families is what has allowed women and young girls to finish high school, attend universities, become qualified for higher paying jobs, compete with men in all fields -- including politics -- and guarantee financial independence.

With financial independence women marry for love, not money (or not) and can exit toxic relationships with men without having to worry about where they will go and how they will be able to support themselves. With financial independence women can raise the children they do have when their men take a walk, as they frequently do. With education and money, women have the smarts and resources to go after the men who abandon their children for child support.

There isn’t enough government assistance to pull us out of poverty if we have children we can’t afford to feed and educate. The same Republicans responsible for the demise of Roe v. Wade and the erosion of abortion rights from coast to coast are the same Republicans who are constantly trying to cut safety net programs low-income families with children depend upon to simply survive. They want to subjugate all women, but they want to cripple Black and brown women.

The Supreme Court decision – made by a bunch of smug, elitist men and one delusional fundamentalist Christian woman – is part of a very large and organized movement to push women out of the workforce and into the home with as many babies as possible, so men can rise back up and be in total control. This is about the return of the “traditional” family, 1950s-style. You know, the good old days when women knew their place, suffered loveless marriages and were dependent on their men for every dollar they spent – when scrubbing toilets and changing diapers was their full-time job.

So, this is not just about refusing to return to back-alley abortions. This is about a woman’s right to determine her own destiny.

This is about freedom and liberty, and without those two things there is no democracy. And right now, there is no democracy for women in America. If we want to live in a democratic country, we need to take our rights back and the only way to do that is at the ballot box.

The Republican party is the single greatest threat to women’s existence and they must be voted out of office at every level of government. This is the same political party that votes against minimum wage increases and affirmative action and is trying to dismantle the public education system.

Let’s remember that Republican George Bush Sr. put Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, who in his

concurring opinion on the Roe decision wrote, “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence and Obergefell … we have a duty to ‘c

orrect the error’ established in those precedents.”

Griswold v. Connecticut was a landmark 1965 case which ruled the use of contraception between two married individuals was a matter of privacy and constitutionally protected.

So, if you’ve not been politically active before, this is the moment to start. In the meantime, every unwanted child born because of this Supreme Court ruling should be left on the doorstep of Thomas and his wife, Ginni. They didn’t have any children of their own and they didn’t adopt. If they really care about the unborn child so much, it’s high time they get the chance to raise a few live ones.

Emily Cardenas is the executive editor of Biscayne Times. She previously worked as a producer at WTXF in Philadelphia and at WSCV, WFOR and WPLG in Miami.