It can’t happen here. Right?
We used to think that about America as a whole — until it happened here. Now Republicans will soon control both houses of Congress and the White House, with a conservative majority on the Supreme Court seemingly inevitable. OK, it happened here. But it can’t happen RIGHT HERE. Right?
Even if those endless expanses of red America on the 2016 electoral maps go full-on Trump-nuts, those of us lucky enough to live in blue state refuges and urban oases may have the feeling that we can weather the shitstorm by hunkering down in our safe spaces. No matter how crazy middle America goes, it can’t drag the coasts down with it. Can it?
Actually, when it comes to abortion rights, conservative nutjobs are pretty well positioned to pull every state down into the hellhole that they’ve dug. An article in The Week outlines how Republicans in control in Washington could essentially put abortion out of reach for everyone, even in the bluest corners of this country.
There’s a feeling that even if a conservative Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade, that would put the question of whether to allow abortion back onto the states. Big problem if you’re a pregnant person without a lot of resources trying to stay afloat in that vast red ocean. But if you’re ensconced in a blue state, you might be tempted to think your rights are safe.
Wrong. As The Week article points out, nationwide versions of repressive TRAP laws designed to shutter clinics, mandatory waiting periods, or even lunacy like the mandatory fetal burial laws are all ways that conservative majorities in Washington can reach out to grab uteruses everywhere from Brooklyn to Berkeley.
It can happen anywhere. The bad news is that nobody’s reproductive rights are safe. The good news is that means that we’re all in this fight together. Everywhere.
