This commentary is by Judy Olinick, a resident of Middlebury.
In venting her vexation at the overwhelming electoral victory of Article 22 (guaranteeing reproductive autonomy in the Vermont Constitution), state Rep. Anne Donahue equates abortion with slavery, colonial conquest, eugenics, antisemitism, and racism in general.
But it is the other way around.
Long-dead bans on abortion, revived by the Supreme Court’s cynical repeal of Roe v. Wade, are enslaving women again, demoting them from full citizens to state property, whose function as producers of children takes precedence over their mental and physical health, freedom to plan their futures, and sometimes their very lives.
Focus on other urgent current problems must now be diverted to circumventing barbaric restrictions on women’s liberty In the same red states that are suppressing voting rights, persecuting minorities, banning books, censoring school curriculum and denying legitimate election outcomes.
Arguments about fetal personhood are futile because they can never be objective. The distinction between an embryo or fetus and a (developing) baby is purely semantic and emotional or perhaps religious. Even Rep. Donahue recognizes that it depends on a woman’s attitude toward her pregnancy.
The adoption of Article 22 is excellent news, as is the success of pro-choice initiatives in every state where they were on the ballot last month. Most political analysts consider strong nationwide reaction against the Roe reversal and opposition to abortion bans a major factor in stopping the threatened “red wave” in the midterm elections.
But these results do not imbue pro-choice voters with the sense of hubris at having scaled a mountain that Rep. Donahue decries. It remains an enormous uphill battle to restore the 50 years of abortion rights that the reactionary SCOTUS cabal stripped away with a single decision.
Rather, we learn over and over again that no personal rights are ever secure unless we work tirelessly to safeguard and expand them. (It should not be necessary for Congress to codify marriage equality to protect it from another SCOTUS reversal, but it is certainly a wise precaution.)
I don’t suggest that abortion is an inherently good or happy choice in all cases, or one to be made lightly; but it is a necessary option and a decision that every pregnant woman must be free to make in consultation with whomever she wishes without interference by the state. That is the heart of the issue.
