Introduction to the women’s slavery imposed by the “conservative” Supreme Court
The Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is the moral and legal equivalent of Dred Scott. Just as Chief Justice Roger Taney held in Dred Scott that African-Americans “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect,” Associate Justice Samuel Alito effectively held in Dobbs that women have no reproductive rights that governments are bound to respect. In Dred Scott, the court made made slavery judicially acceptable in the United States; in Dobbs, the court made female reproductive slavery judicially acceptable. These two forms of bondage deserve to be called by the same name because they are exactly the same in this respect: both give someone other than yourself the legal power to force you to act for the benefit of another individual.
I put it this way because there are certainly legitimate cases in which a government can force its citizens to act for the sake of the common good. But there is no legitimate case in which either a government or an individual can force anyone to act for the good of another individual.
No government or individual can force you to save another person’s life. You can do it, of course, if you wish. But you cannot be coerced into doing it.
Even if the fetus were a “person” with the same kind of life as an actual independent human—which it is not, and cannot be considered so without the addition of a religious belief like a “soul,” which the freedom of religion allows everyone to reject—you would think, by analogy, that no government or individual should be able to force anyone to save its life, not even its mother.
But “conservatives” don’t care about the logic of justice. They don’t care about justice at all. They only care about getting their way, which includes compelling everyone else to accept their benighted notions of God, guns, and government.
Since both black slavery and female reproductive slavery are abominable moral injustices passed off as legal edicts, they require the same response from decent citizens who do care about justice. During the fight over black slavery, people in the free states had to go so far as to break the so-called “laws”—lex iniusta non est lex (an unjust law is no law at all)—of the slave states in their efforts to bring some measure of justice to downtrodden slaves. So too must those of us who still care about truth and justice be willing to go so far as to break the “laws” of the anti-abortion states to bring some measure of justice to downtrodden women slaves.
To that end, I have brainstormed an unordered list of ways to screw the red states that are determined to treat women like slaves. These ideas are not vetted for workability or even plausibility. Some of them will break state anti-abortion laws and some will not. I just want to put as many ideas out there as I can. If anybody knows how to make any of them work, you are welcome to take them and set them into motion. Perhaps altogether we can make these “conservative” zealots and power-mongers eat their own arrogance and viciousness.
25 ideas for punishing red states for women’s reproductive slavery
1. Sue every anti-abortion state on grounds of “religious freedom.” Evangelical “Christian” beliefs about the beginning of life should not be imposed upon non-Christians, nor should non-Christians have to obey “laws” that force them to accept Evangelical “Christian” beliefs.
2. Mount “move to civilization” advertising promotions in every blue state. Every worker who leaves a red state is a blow to its economy. Another benefit is that people tend to take on the attitudes of those they live with, so we can expect the voting behavior of at least some people who move to blue state to change if they are surrounded by Decent Americans instead of Scum Americans.
3. Devise test cases to take red states to court for infringing the rights of blue state citizens. Model these cases on the Dred Scott case.
4. “Drive-in” abortion pills to women in slave states. Women in those states can get them from AidAccess.org. Others should stockpile them and either take them into slave states or send them to women who are enslaved in unmarked envelopes.
5. Stand up an “underground railroad” to get women out of red states for abortions—and permanently if they wish.
6. Women’s free states mount massive lawsuits against the slave states on interstate commerce grounds.
7. Develop a decent alternate legal theory to oppose the wicked “conservative” BS of Alito et al. demanding that rights need to be explicitly mentioned in the Constitution or backed up by “history.” This new theory needs to be simple enough to be grasped by the common person. (Some suggestions for starting points: 1. In McCollough v. Maryland, Chief Justice John Marshall made it perfectly clear that rights do not need to be explicitly mentioned if their existence is implied by the Constitution. 2. History is irrelevant to truth and justice. 3. The only possible encroachment on justice is the worry that society will be upset too quickly. 4. But even that must bow to truth and justice if the rights are important enough.)
8. Ambulance-chasing lawyers set up business in suing deadbeat dads. Slave-state males (and free state males, for that matter) need to start paying the price for being irresponsible. With DNA testing, lawyers could be certain enough about winning to cover the upfront costs and only take a fee if they win—just like personal injury lawyers.
9. Legal organizations help women sue the states that force them to carry pregnancies to term for all the medical services of the pregnancy, as well as for the mother’s health care for the rest of her life and for all the child’s financial and medical support for the rest of its life. Since the state is forcing her to gestate, the state should have to pay for the consequences of the gestation.
10. Blanket the airwaves and the internet with graphic public service announcements warning pregnant women not to travel to anti-abortion states in order to avoid suffering government-sponsored bodily oppression in the case of accidents, miscarriages, or other complications.
11. Blue state companies replace partners and suppliers based in women’s slave states with others based in women’s free states.
12. Incentivize companies based in women’s slave states to move to women’s free states with tax breaks, worker incentives, and moving costs.
13. Every women’s free state immediately passes laws explicitly guaranteeing the right of reproductive choice and bodily determination equally to all its citizens.
14. Every women’s free state files lawsuits the instant one of its citizens is deprived of any right, no matter how slight, by a women’s slave state.
15. Religious organizations offer free women’s slavery deprogramming courses for all those who come to realize that they have been brainwashed and steamrolled by right-wing theocratic fanatics.
16. Religious leaders everywhere, and especially in the women’s slave states, preach to their congregations the abject moral degradation of women’s slavery and the divine condemnation awaiting those who impose it.
17. Religious leaders and the ACLU immediately file suit against any slave state authorities who try to stop the free exercise of religious speech against women’s slavery.
18. Preachers with a national audience start national tours, beginning with women’s free states, where they should videotape their effusive support from the congregations to show to congregations in women’s slave states in order to electrify their excoriating rhetoric against the slavers.
19. Read Robin Marty’s article “Mad About Roe? Here’s What to Do Now” in the New York Times. Use the resources provided there to take action against women’s slave states. (See the next several items.)
20. Just as there were Union counties in the heart of the Confederacy during the Civil War, there need to be women’s free counties and even cities in the heart of the New Confederacy of women’s slave states. Use Austin’s attempt to do this as a model. (Tip of the hat to Robin Marty.)
21. Freedom Riders ride again, bringing teach-ins and sit-ins and non-violent resistance to the women’s slave states. Get educated on how to mount protests at Reproaction.org. (Tip of the hat to Robin Marty.)
22. Frustrate the attempts of the women’s slave states to track down their opponents and the women they victimize by using the tools at the Digital Defense Fund. (Tip of the hat to Robin Marty.)
23. Make sure vulnerable women in the slave states know their legal options by sending them to the Repro Legal Hotline. (Tip of the hat to Robin Marty.)
24. TV producers start making episodes of popular shows that deal with the “conservative” evil of women’s slave states, as was done in the 60s and 70s. Fictional character portrayals often affect the attitudes of those in the audience. Presenting powerful portrayals of the twisted characters who would impose their religious bigotry on others can hit people at an emotional level long before their minds ever change. And some of those who have just been “going along” can indeed have their minds changed this way.
25. The most effective way to screw the women’s slave states is simply to get out this November and vote against every Republican on your ballot. This will teach them, in the only way they understand, not to mess with the majority: it will take away their power to inflict their minority will on the rest of us. And it will empower the Democrats—who are your only hope, whether you like them or not—to make this outrageous moment in American history the high water mark of “conservatism.”
Conclusion
As I said, these are only brainstormed ideas. If you find any of them useful, please take them and run with them.
If you have any more ideas like this, put them in the comments or email them to me and I will use future posts to collate them.
And please send this post to all your friends and acquaintances. Ask them to brainstorm their ideas and send them to me as well.
If enough of us come up with enough ideas, at least some of them will be helpful in screwing the red-state slavers.
Hell is not a real place in the afterlife. But it can be a real place in the present life.
We should make it real for them starting now.
Make the political debate about “state-mandated forced births”. Avoid using the word abortion as much as possible.
No woman wants to get an abortion — it is an unpleasant choice of an invasive medical procedure dictated by unhappy circumstances.
Of course it should be legal, but in the political debate being against “state mandated forced births” frames the issue much better than being “pro abortion”.