This Just In – Just like football, democracy requires defense.
Let’s face it, Americans take democracy for granted. There’s no other explanation for the persistently low voter turnout across many decades of elections. We just assume that when we really care about it we can turn out and pull that lever.
What we have not understood very well is the effectiveness of disinformation. Let’s take the question of abortion rights as one example.
As we hear GOP candidates discussing election issues in this cycle, we find candidates who don’t want to talk about abortion and the Supreme Court’s atrocious decision to reverse Roe vs. Wade. This election, they say, is about the economy and crime and gas prices, not a Supreme Court decision with which Democrats disagree.
James Carville, democratic political operative, famously admonished candidate Bill Clinton’s staff (and the candidate) to always focus on one thing. “It’s the economy, stupid,” read a hand-made sign in the “war room” of their campaign’s headquarters.
That what people vote on. That’s what drives people to the polls. Not “culture wars” issues … like abortion rights.
In 1995, Hillary Clinton made big news by saying “Women’s rights are human rights.” It was big news because she said it in Beijing, China at the fourth UN World Conference on Women. Building on that platform, I’ll say this:
Abortion rights are economic rightsAbortion rights are privacy rightsAbortion rights are educational opportunity rightsAbortion rights are violence prevention rights
Economic
Women’s participation in our economy as workers, not just consumers, is profoundly impacted by our ability to control whether we have children and, if we do, when and how many we have. A high percentage of women who choose to end an unplanned pregnancy are women who are already mothers. When women can work while their children are in high quality daycare, families and communities are more likely to thrive economically.
Privacy
It’s already clear that abortion is not the end game. If ending all access to abortion were the only goal, advocates for that would be simultaneously advocating for widespread availability of safe and effective birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies. The opposite is the case. They advocate for policies that are known to result in higher rates of unwanted pregnancies – “abstinence only” programs in schools, parental consent requirements and so on. We can debate all night about “controlling teenagers” (an oxymoron) but Justice Clarence Thomas would like to put the Griswold vs. Connecticut decision back on the table and discuss the right of a married couple to use birth control and avoid pregnancy. He’d like for the Court to enter the bedroom of married couples and make decisions for them, all built on the decision to revoke women’s right to a safe abortion.
Educational Opportunity
Lack of reproductive choice during childbearing years comes at the expense of many other choices. Young women who find themselves pregnant without reproductive choices while in college, will most likely have to drop out to bear children and work to support themselves. Their earning power will be reduced by interrupting their pursuit of higher education and the likelihood of their returning to finish their degrees is slim. That’s a denial of equal opportunity at its core.
Violence Prevention
When women have less than equal control over their reproductive decisions, they can become trapped in bad, dangerous relationships – unable to get out due to financial dependency on an abusive partner and the lack of simple physical autonomy. Public policy that supports and promotes responsible reproductive rights, also supports healthy relationships where personal safety and security are expected.
The path to restoring the rights previously secured by Roe vs. Wade runs straight through the voting booth. We must elect leaders who are committed to defending the democratic process by securing voting rights through fair, free elections. Without secure, legitimate elections, our experiment fails.
So be sure you vote – not for crime, not for gas prices, not to prevent Joe Biden from taking your guns. It’s not those things. It’s the Democracy, Stupid.
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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