Yesterday the worst thing happened. The overturning of Roe v Wade was the worst thing for women—the loss of control over our own health, the bullying of women by a male controlled authoritarian state, and the not-so-subtle hard right turn of American culture back to the dark ages. In January of 1931—the month before I was born—a law went into effect which would send women to prison for aborting a fetus. If you were a woman coming of age then, the consequences of that law were in plain view. The screams in the night, the bloody toilets, the nondescript packages furtively tossed into an incinerator were all signs of the times. And they were symbolic of America’s concern for the equality of women. For me, the memory of those dark years lingers, when a woman’s only hope of ending a pregnancy was in some back alley abattoir, or at the tip of a coat hanger.
Women, this must not be allowed to stand. Against all odds we must resist, speak out, and, if necessary, fight. Men will not look beyond their power lust to give you a break. Take matters into your own hands. Cross your legs. Refuse to fuck. Do not allow another ninety years of darkness.
mvd