May 11, 2022 • 59 mins
In the wake of the recently leaked Supreme Court brief that would overturn Roe v. Wade in the United States, we turn to Melita Easters of Georgia's WIN List to shed some light on the situation and provide potential solutions.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I welcome to Stephane
never told your production of ihear Radio. Yes, and welcome
to Oh my God, what's happening? We have to talk
about things because things are happening kind of segment um.
(00:26):
And if you've been paying attention to what is happening
in the United States, you know there's a lot happening
here and we are a bit stressed, to say the
very least. So before we begin, we want to time
stamp this because we know so many things are changing
and as you know, as you know, oftentimes before our
episodes even published, we are already out of date. But
(00:47):
just to go ahead and let you know we're trying
today is May five, twenty two, Andy, go ahead. We
always have to have a Star Wars plan if we
can have to. And recently political elated and a Supreme
Court brief which would overturn Roe v. Wade, which, by
the way, was the nineteen seventy three ruling that stated
(01:08):
unduly restricted state regulation of abortion is unconstitutional, which Justice
Harry A. Blackman wrote for a Texas hearing which against
states statutes are criminalizing abortion in most instances violated privacy,
which was guaranteed by the Fourteeth Amendment under the Due
Process Clause. We're gonna get into that a little more. So,
(01:30):
what exactly is this briefing that has so many people
on high alert? Well, we had to bring someone in
to talk to us about this, and today we have
executive director of a Georgia win List, Molina Easters. Welcome,
Thank you for pleasure to join you. Can you kind
of let the people know who you are and why
(01:53):
you're here to talk to us? Thanks well. I am
the founding chair of Georgia Winless. WHI is a twenty
two year old state based pact to elect pro choice
democratic women in Georgia, and we have helped elect seventies
six legislators, forty six of whom currently serve over our
twenty two year history. And so, because reproductive freedom is
(02:18):
the core of our mission and the lens we use
for endorsing women, this case and this opinion puts what
we do in the center of Georgia's political spotlight. Yeah,
so we needed to do something when it comes to
obviously reproductive rights. We are very loud about where we
stand on sminty and one of those things that we've
(02:41):
been talking about in the past what how long have
we been here any three years? Is that women in
UH political positions and leadership is important and impacts a
lot of these issues that we have been talking about
and now are very concerned about. UM. So yeah, before
we start into all of that, can we talk a
little bit about the briefing, UM, And can you kind
(03:02):
of tell us what you read through as because you
definitely have been talking about this out loud and I
know has been a center point as you are in
this UH political time because we are all in the
middle of the primaries. UM. What this briefing has for us,
well for for the Judge Alito to say Row was
(03:24):
egregiously wrong from the start is pretty devastating to the
entire pro choice movement. And it means that existing laws
like the Georgia six week ban, which is currently under
a stay by federal court order that law was passed
in ten would then immediately go into effect. And I've
(03:48):
read in one report today the fact that this leak
allows women who are currently pregnant who are thinking about
their options, it puts the time to able on them
to hurry up because many court decisions give a window
when the ruling will take effect. The draft by Justice
(04:12):
Alito does not give a window to ease in. So
this leaked decision does put all pregnant women on notice
that if you are are considering an abortion, you need
to go ahead and have it now because the state
laws that are regressive that have been stayed by federal courts,
(04:32):
that are awaiting court review, are that are awaiting a
Supreme Court opinion from this Mississippi case. The minute it's overturned,
you might not have the same options you had the
day before the decision goes into place. And you know what,
let me backtrack a little bit, because you actually have
some personal connections to the original Roe v. Wade. Can
(04:55):
you kind of talk about that decision and even talk
about what happened in Georgia as Yes, it is because
I've been at this work for so long and I'm
old enough to be a grandmother. Um. I have had
the pleasure of meeting both Sarah Weddington, who argued the
Roe v. Wade case in front of the Supreme Court
(05:15):
on several occasions, and I've met Marjorie Pitts Haynes. Both
of these ladies are now deceased, but Marjorie Pitts. Hams
argued the Dove Bolton case on the same day as
Roe v. Wade, and Dovie Bolton was a Georgia case
before the court on the same day, and and the
judges decided to hand down their ruling from the Texas case.
(05:40):
But not everybody in Georgia realizes that Georgia had a
long history for progressive abortion policies at the time the
Roe v. Wade decision was handed down. In fact, women
had greater access to reproductive services and abortion procedures back
then than in many states, including the Northeast. That is
(06:05):
something that is new to me, Like I learned it recently,
and I was kind of like, well have I never
heard about this? That the thing is Number one, both
of you are relatively young, and so you have never
lived in a time when contraceptive were not readily available
(06:26):
and when abortion was not safe and legal. It may
have been cumbersome to get an abortion, it may have
required some travel or some weight periods, but at least
it was safe and it was legal. And what we
forget sometimes is that the wide availability of the birth
control pill came at about the same time as the
(06:50):
Roe v. Wade decision. Both things happened at the same
time and and women did not have the same options
prior to the in And what people don't understand is
that abortions have always taken place, and abortions when they
are banned, then the wealthy men, the wives and girl
(07:15):
friends and mistresses and daughters of the wealthy will always
be able to travel somewhere where abortion is legal. But
it closes down the options for the poor and the
disenfranchised who don't have the money to travel and the
ability to to jump through the hoops that certain states require.
(07:40):
And so that means a lot more unwanted children. And
you know, the right to life crowd talks about, oh well,
adoptions and foster care. I don't know of a state
where foster care is not overburdened and um and in fact,
one of my daughters has adopted three children out of
(08:01):
foster care. That is a broken system. It is not
an option for all of the new unwanted pregnancies which
will happen as a result of greater bands on abortion
because of this decision. And there's so much to break
down into what you just said, because it definitely is
mentioned in the brief that we're going to get into
(08:23):
in a second, but before we do start, I find
it fascinating that, yes, as you just said, UH, this
is not going to stop abortion, no matter how moral
high ground that they think this is going to take,
and they being whoever is supporting of this briefing, it's
not going to stop it. It's just gonna stop safe abortions,
safe access to abortions, as well as it's not gonna
(08:44):
stop again those who are well off or in a
higher level of socioeconomic status and being able to get
as safe freely and quietly, because you know, everything's got
to be so hush hush for it in order to
get things done, to accomplish what they need to accomplish. Uh.
In general, and we also know that this conversation of
(09:05):
the late term abortion, which is often brought out a
majority of the time, and I'm not saying all the time,
so taking a majority of the time, these types of
abortions are not necessarily because they didn't want the children,
but because it's life and death. I've had so many
friends who went through this process, such a traumatic process.
Other people calling this anything but the word abortion, but
in medical field, hand insurance, it is considered an abortion
(09:28):
and oftentimes is not covered, and it's oftentimes costly and damaging.
So there's so many layers, the wait time, the additional
processes like an extra ultrasounder to all of those things
happened to women. The doctor and the woman know what's
necessary when there is this troubled, problematic, complicated pregnancy which
(09:53):
for the health of the mother must end. But insurance
companies off didn't require extra tests. Hospitals may require an
extra test so that everybody has covered there rear ends,
and that makes the patient's blood pressure increase. It puts
(10:17):
a woman at greater danger. And a wealthy woman might
be able to have leverage with her doctors or her
insurance company that the poor woman, the under insured woman,
the less sophisticated woman, will not have. And so when
we add these extra barriers for necessary medical procedures, because
(10:43):
abortion is a form of health care, then we will
lose lives. And the lives we lose our women of
color and women of lesser income where community are deeply
affected by these types of laws as well. And I
think this is a whole other conversation in what is
happening and what who are they really trying to come
(11:05):
after not a whole other conversation, It is a conversation. Well,
and this is the first step. Banning abortion is the
first step. Then there will be a push to ban
on contraception. Then there will be a push to ban
in vitro fertilization. Then there will be a push to
go back to the days when gay marriage was not legal.
(11:28):
We've already seen the attacks on young transgender athletes. It's
it's it's all out war on any group. The other
side can call other right right, absolutely, and that's kind
(11:48):
of what's infuriating in this language that we're going to
jump into. UM. Which was based out of Mississippi. So
this case brought was brought in the Supreme Court based
out of Mississippi, which is called Dobbs v. Jackson Women's
Health Organization, UM. And we're not gonna necessarily to dig
too deep into that, but it should be noted in
Mississippi is one of the trigger states, UM. And we're
(12:09):
talking trigger states that are ready to go with an
overall band abortion the minute this has turned over. So
Mississippi has brought it into play. They've been waiting for
this day we've had this conversation at least about what
was going to happen, and we're not going to go
into twenties sixteen because I might cry, but we did
want to talk specifics in the actual briefing, and y'all,
(12:32):
it's ninety eight pages, not including the appendix that goes
with it, and trying to read through it. I went
through most of it. I had to take breaks because
of the anger. Like I was sitting here yelling at
my computer screen as if I was arguing with an
actual person while reading this, because I was so infuriated.
(12:54):
So merely, if you don't mind, we're gonna kind of
read through it and just kind of discuss those little
parts and honestly, obviously they all connect and pretty much
say the same things repeatedly, but I still just want
to talk about what they are saying. Justice Alito begins
the statement with talking about how divisive this issue is
correct and is a quote profound moral issue, which I
(13:15):
know is always surrounded in talking about abortion laws. In
any of those laws, and honestly, any loss implicating marginalized communities,
people of color, queer people always a profound moral issue, right,
which again leads to the fact, perhaps politics shouldn't play
into it at all, because if it is this moral grounds,
how is this political? And yes, I would say that
(13:38):
it is conjecture for it to be on moral grounds.
And I am I making that up in my head
because morality is not defined as specific things other than
what people judge to be moral. True, and you know,
morals should be more governed by the Church and and
those whom people call on for moral authority. Frankly, abortion
(14:04):
and the autonomy of a woman to make her medical
decisions are really not a matter of morality. It's a
matter of a woman's right to the autonomy over her
own medical decisions. But by couching it in quote moral terms,
justice Alito wants to put down the idea that women
(14:27):
should have rights for bodily autonomy and the freedom to
choose their own medical decisions. So that just having it
based in that, everyone already knows where it's going. And
it's kind of like for me, it was high alert.
I was like, oh, oh, here we go. He continues on,
we hold that row in Casey, which they do talk
about the case which was planning parenthood versus Casey. I
(14:49):
don't know too much about that case, but it defines similarly,
at least at ninety nineties, that this came about. Yes,
it was a subsequent case that, after it was decided,
was was sort of the other defining case law about abortion.
(15:22):
The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such
right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the
one on which the defenders are Broke and Casey now
chiefly rely the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that
are not mentioned in the Constitution, and this is part
(15:43):
I highlighted. But any such must be quote deeply rooted
in this nation's history and tradition, and implicit in the
concept of ordered liberty. The things that come to mind
when I hear you read that section. Our first abortion
is also never mentioned in the Bible, which he as
(16:04):
a practicing Catholic whole sacred. The other thing is, we
have to remember who the founding fathers were. They were
rich white men, some of whom held slaves on their plantations.
They did not mention women in the Constitution. Women did
(16:27):
not have a right to vote, and they did not
believe in the sanctity of all life, they believed only
in the sanctity of their own and so to be
a strict constructionist in this day and age as he
is trying to be in his opinion is a rather
(16:49):
outdated notion. The the other thing to remember as we
hear this opinion is the fact that three of the
justices who are signing this opinion if the case goes
forward as the draft, are justices who were appointed by
(17:09):
presidents who were not elected by a popular vote, and
some of those justices were approved only by deeply disruptive
political maneuvering by the other side. And it's all part
of a federalist society plan. And further, the justices who
(17:32):
are now signing off on an opinion which repudiates roe v.
Wade said Roe v. Wade was the law of the
land at the time of their confirmation hearings. So there
are lots of layers of of fact and history to
(17:54):
contemplate when we read this opinion, And there are plenty
of reasons for you to want to throw things at
your computer screen or or cuss out loud as you
read it, because it makes all of us are angry.
The thing that we have to think about and remember
as we move forward is how to most efficiently and
(18:17):
effectively channel our anger in the direction that makes the
most good in the end. I love that. Yeah, I
have such a hard time in reading things like this,
and I know the Supreme Court hasn't really taken on
anything about critical race theory or the bands that are
(18:39):
happening in our schools right now, including just recently happened
in Georgia, um about not teaching some histories because they
don't want to have a bias quote unquote uh teachings
about race, which is hilarious in itself, how that's not
biased in itself, but the fact that they have the
audacity to talk about nation's history and tradition and talk
(19:00):
about history as if it's something to actually link up on,
but still want to ignore history as well. It's just
I know, I shouldn't be shocked. I'm not shocked. I'm
just irritated that this is a continued conversation that is
kind of that level of well once again, and I
know every side does it. I'm sure whatever whatnot picking
(19:22):
and choosing for their own purposes and this theme of
this ordered liberty, which, by the way, I'm very confused
on who gets to say what's ordered and orderly. That
is the that is the crux of the issue. That
is the the sword um they're raising. But they're raising
(19:45):
it from a position of power, and many people think
we're headed towards a fascism system of government. And it's
scary to think that it people like Aledo get to
decide what is orderly and what is not. He hardly
(20:07):
represents the majority of the will of the people. More
than seventy percent of the nation did not believe Rov
Wade should be overturned, and the figure for Georgia was
sixty eight percent. This will be a galvanizing and very
unpopular decision by the Court, and it heads our country
(20:31):
in the wrong direction. Some of the Court's previous unpopular
decisions during the Civil rights era headed our country in
a positive forward direction. This decision takes our country back.
It does, and I'm not gonna get too into it,
but it's very reminiscent of what's happening in Poland, including
(20:53):
the thing that this was leaked earlier than when it
was supposed to be so. But that's a whole different
conversation that we've been having. UM here's another quote we
wanted to include Rose. Defenders characterized the abortion as similar
to the rights recognized and past decisions involving matters such
as intimate sexual relations, contraception, and marriage. But abortion is
fundamentally different, as both Row and Casey acknowledge, because it
(21:15):
destroys what those decisions called fetal life and what the
law now before us describes as an unborn human being. Well,
this language in some ways is even inconsistent with the
biblical types of precedent for what begins life, because the
(21:38):
ability to breathe, the ability to maintain life outside the womb,
is what makes the fetus a person, and philosophers and
religious scholars can argue that frankly, they're opening the ability
for them to go back on all of those other
(22:00):
areas where the Court has ruled and turned the clock
back on other issues as well. We can no more
believe the assertions in this part of the opinion than
we believed the most recently confirmed justices when they said
(22:21):
Rovi Wade was the law of the land right. And
we're not gonna talk about Sennator Collins at this point,
But anger thoughts of anger in that one, Yeah, I
find a lot of of course, we knew coming in.
We know the rhetoric, and we know these type of
languages that come up in order to make sure that
those who truly see this as a life and death
(22:43):
case can can cling to that as a moral higher
stands and being able to say that you're talking about
murdering babies, okay, my family, um in which we have
to have this conversation of like, no, you're not You're
no longer talking about a pro life, especially right now
when we're talking about the fact that you're not helping
those who are actually born. When I was a social worker,
(23:06):
I watched many of kids die at a young age
because no one cared enough to help and blame the
death onto themselves, onto these children, and they didn't care.
So one of the big reasons I went from my
opinion of being pro life quote unquote. And I'm saying
this as in the old terms of what I saw
myself saying. And of course this has everything to do
(23:26):
with me being adopted and being told I should be
grateful that I'm alive and not aborted all through my
life up until recently. But all of those conversations leading
to the fact, like, yeah, but I see what's happening here.
I've seen the bigger picture and the narrative that that
narrative is a heart string pull type of thing that
(23:46):
you want to do. But it's misleading because what you're
talking about is just being pro birth and no longer
pro life, because what I have been told that I
should be grateful. So therefore that's what I'm doing, trying
to save lives that are out there. But I don't
have any help, any assistance, or any backing because people
really don't care. And it's typically those who are the
loudest about having birth children that don't care about those
(24:11):
children that have been birthed. As we would say, this
is very very true. The same forces who are so
ready to ban a worship are also equally and more
forcefully ready to cut social services to make sure that
there's no mental health provisions and funding. And and also
(24:36):
those people who my body, my choice about masks are
unwilling to um give women the same autonomy over a
far more serious, long term medical decision. And what's ironic
(24:57):
about all of that that conversation is how they will
weaponize these words so quickly to get their point. And
this is exactly what's happening in this brief that says
things like unborn humans, um and and life after a conception.
All of these things are very weapons, are weapons of
language in order to make someone be like, oh, yeah,
(25:18):
I'm definitely in the right if I believe the statute. Right, yeah, absolutely,
this is correct. A fetus which cannot sustain life is
not an unborn human. Even the premise of these quote
heartbeat bills are based on a false assumption that the
electrical synapses heard in an ultrasound are actually a heartbeat
(25:43):
when the heart has not yet formed at that time
point in the development of the fetal tissue. Oh, now
you're talking about science, so we we don't, we don't.
Just well, mean, science is tough to hear for certain
parts of the political spectrum, they selectively hear it, Yes
(26:05):
they do. Going on into the briefing, it says, talking
about the equal Protection Clause, they actually state quote which
established that a state's regulation of abortion is not sex
based classification, and it's thus not subject to the heightened
scrutiny that applies to such classifications. The regulation of a
medical procedure that only one sex can undergo does not
(26:27):
trigger heightened constitutional scrutiny unless the regulation is mere pretext
designed to affect an invidious discrimination against members of one
sex or the other and then list the cases and
as the Court has stated, the goal of preventing abortion
does not constitute and vidiously discriminatory animals against women, which
(26:48):
I'm like, really, well, I wish Ruth bader Ginsburg were
alive to cut him down to size on some of
that language. And I certainly hope that our other justice
is Sodomyer and Kagan will take the inspiration of Ruth
(27:09):
bader Ginsburg and channel her in their descent, which we
have yet to see, right, Yeah, we haven't seen that.
I really do wish uh Judge Jackson was a part
of this, which she was already on board right now, Well,
maybe maybe she can give them some hints from the sidelines.
(27:29):
Have a feeling it'd be a doozy um. But yeah,
that language in itself says a lot to automatically try
to take that away when obviously this is a healthcare issue,
especially when we talk about again what we were talking
about when it's hybridus pregnancies. Uh, being pregnant is traumatic
in itself. The level of I have a daughter expected
(27:51):
to deliver in July, and there are lots of ups
and downs on the roller coaster of pregnancy, and it's
daily to ship body. I mean, your body is also
hopefully if you have a healthy pregnancy, as in like
everything goes as you would hope, then maybe you can
bout that very quickly, but it's not always the case.
I remember having a friend who uh broke bones during
(28:16):
her pregny, during her labor as well as after the fact,
having a lot of problems due to her complicated pregnancy.
There's so many things that we don't even consider talk
about in the aftermath and the beginning, like how it
really changes a person's body to go through the process
of being pregnant. And other countries are so much more
(28:41):
aware of the needs of pregnant women and working mothers
and the state support needed for getting a baby a
new citizen off to a good start. Then we have
traditionally been in this country. Our postpartum healthcare, our work
(29:06):
leaf policies. So many of our policies are so far
behind other developed countries, and that disdain for women shows
through in the wording of this opinion. Yeah, I think
that's definitely been one of the things, all the conversations
(29:27):
I've heard, and those numbers you quoted earlier about you know,
seventies of Americans don't want revew weight overturns. I think
that shows how effective UM conservatives who are really backing
this have been, because I was kind of surprised. I'm like, oh,
I thought it was much more controversial than that, But
they've been so effective and making this sound like it's
(29:50):
much more popular than it is. And I think the
fact that it got leads and they were going to
do it on the last day of their session, like
it's really telling that that this is about controlling women's
bodies and and they're just trying to paint all this
moral stuff on it. But they know it's not popular,
but they've been very effective in their messaging that it is. Well,
(30:13):
the messaging around choice and reproductive freedom has been more
effectively wielded by those who oppose abortion and oppose contraception
and oppose a woman's right to her own medical decisions.
(30:33):
They have more effectively wielded the language throughout the last
five decades. And that is a sad thing to say,
because we have a lot of smart, effective communicators on
our side so we're going to continue with some quotes
(31:03):
from this this briefing. On occasion when the Court has
ignored the appropriate limits imposed by respect for the teachings
of history, it has fallen into the free willing judicial
policy making that characterized discredited decisions such as Lochner v.
New York. The Court must not fall prey to such
an unprincipled approach. Instead, guided by the history and tradition
(31:25):
that matt the essential components of our nation's concept of
ordered liberty, we must ask what the Fourteenth Amendment means
by the term liberty when we engage in that inquiry.
In the present case, the clear answer is that the
Fourteenth Amendment does not protect the right to an abortion. Honestly,
I'm still trying to figure out what it means by say, uh,
(31:46):
the clear answer right. It may will be the job
of our dissenting justices to provide the clear answer and
the opposite view, and I have no doubt they will
be l point and forceful in their descent and perhaps
(32:07):
sharpen the descent based on the outcry which has arisen
from the League draft. And there's a couple of things
We're gonna go ahead and put in there just because
I think it's important. It says Roe either ignored or
misstated this history, and Casey declined to reconsider rose faulty
historical analysis. It is therefore important to set the record straight.
(32:31):
It continues with talking about some of the historical contacts
that he wants to talk about, which it's so problematic
that I don't understand why he thought it wouldn't be
looked into. But he puts two treatises by Sir Matthew
Hall likewise described abortion of a quick child who died
in the womb as a quote great crime and great misprison. C. Mhill,
(32:53):
please of the relating which is the book that he's
talking about, and the histories are the pleas of the
crown and writing near time of the adoption for a constitution. Blackstone,
another historian, explained that abortion of a quick child was
by the ancient law homicide or manslaughter. By the way,
this was in seventy six UM and at least a
(33:14):
very heinous misdemeter. So I wanted to talk about these
two historical references for a second because they seem article.
By the way, again, this was in the early sixteen hundreds,
seventeen hundreds that this was done. These are things written
through the lens of white men which probably had never
(33:40):
been in a birthing room and certainly had never carried
a child to term in In in that era, women
often were sheltered away from society while they were pregnant.
They went away to a vacation home or a second home,
(34:00):
or they certainly weren't seen in public. And so to
go back to that history for a modern day court
opinion shows how out of touch justice Alito truly is. Right.
I mean, let's talk about the history of Sir Matthew
Hale of himself during this whole brief he writes, Alito
(34:22):
actually rights that Matthew Hall calls specific medicine medicines that
may have caused or had brought about an abortion potions,
so that in its term made me laugh. I was like, really,
so you're gonna put the word potions in there, as
if it was a magic trike or But we have
to look at the fact that access to ending a
(34:44):
pregnancy has often relied upon herbal medicine or various chemical
substances known to some and provided. But many of those
really potions, if you want to call them that had
long term, lasting detrimental effects on the women who took them,
(35:11):
and so having a safe legal process for ending a
pregnancy preserves the help of the women and keeps them alive. Right,
And then you're right on that they were calling these
potions because they didn't know what else to call it,
(35:32):
and they are they didn't want to justify it as Hey,
this actually is something beyond that which, yes, can be dangerous,
and we should have that conversation about why this is dangerous.
Maybe we should look into safe precautions and protecting people.
But no, Um, Matthew Hell was actually known as actually
executing at least my record two women for witchcraft. Uh.
(35:55):
He's also known as to saying that marital rape, really
that's not a big deal. So you defended marital rape.
And it's believed that capital punishment should extend to those
as young as fourteen years old. So the fact that
he Alito decided to take his name and use it
makes it be like, did you really know anything about this, dude? Well,
(36:16):
he might have known and not cared, right, right, which
seems to be a fair standing of the entire process
and perhaps the fair statement of his mind set. Stale
pale yes. Here's some other quotes who want to include
(36:38):
the inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is
not deeply rooted in the nation's history and traditions. On
the contrary and unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain
of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of common
law until nineteen seventy three. And here's another one. Respondents
have no persuasive answers to the historical evidence. Neither Respondence
(36:58):
nor the Solicitor Daniel disputes the fact that by eighteen
sixty eight, the vast majority of states criminalized abortion at
all stages of pregnancy. So I think it was important
that we remember he's taking this context to eighteen sixty eight,
and it is not a time we want to go
back to. The treatment of women in that time period
(37:19):
is not something we want to go back to. Women
did not have the right to vote, my goodness, women
could get credit cards only in the seventies. The treatment
of women in in the times Justice Alito refers to
is not a place the majority of the nation's population
(37:40):
wishes to revisit. When they truly look at the full
consequences of such backwards steps, yeah, and I just keep
thinking like, it's a medical procedure and that's really not
in your business. Like I don't know what is the
crux of the matter. It is a medical procedure, it
(38:03):
is none of your business. I can't think of a
single male member of the Georgia General Assembly I would
want in the examining room between me and my doctor.
M right, And I just I know, it's like an
awful picture, right exactly, it is a very picture, but
that is where they are placing themselves. That where Alito
(38:25):
would put all women with the state looking over their
shoulder about their medical decisions and making them feel guilty
about it. And I just can't. I know it's it's
been said before, but I if there was something like
this that impacted men, if we were like, no, you
can't do that. What if every time a man wanted
(38:50):
a viagra prescription, they had to go to the doctor
in person, they had to subject themselves to something similar
to an ultrasound, and then they could only build a
prescription in person at the pharmacy, and then such prescriptions
were not available on college campuses, or let's put it
(39:13):
in the proper context, you couldn't get a prescription for
viagrah dispensed at your old age home. How quickly would
they change their minds? M h. You know, we can
also saw that was saying people with penises that should
have vasectomies, and that would help prevent it would help
prevent unwanted pregnancies, particularly those that occur as a result
(39:37):
of rape. And I've even seen a mean today that said,
have every eighteen year old man receive a vasectomy, and
when he has proven he is financially and emotionally secure
enough to father a child, he can have it reversed.
Some men who have seen the children would never have
had it reversed, in my humble opinion, agreed. Um. And yeah,
(40:02):
there's so many things to this because when we're talking
about and I don't think I explained it correctly, even
though I did talk about it, the fourteenth Amendment and
the due process clause, we're talking about the right to privacy.
We are talking about that on the level of that
this should be between the person who is going in
for whatever procedure and the doctor, point blank. Um. And
(40:22):
this could also go into the lines of in vitual fertilization,
like being able to be to have a child in
this process that they want to This also goes into
the process of not being sterilized. If they don't want
to be sterilized, if they don't want that process, can't
be forced to do that. That that's along those levels
that were it's not about again they're trying to put
(40:42):
this as they just want to kill off babies, which
is again a weaponized terms. Well they're talking about is
a freedom for a woman to choose, or freedom for
people to choose in general, not just women, but just
to have a choice, to be able to have that
choice when it comes to their own buddies point blank. Um.
And it's that overarching conversation that everybody's like, this is
(41:05):
dangerous for so many reasons, especially what he's talking about
national history and ordered uh liberties, that in itself is
dangerous language to become a fascist type of government. Yes,
that's not a place where we want to move right,
which is dangerous. Um. And within the we've only got
(41:26):
a couple of more because I was like, I can't
keep we can't keep doing this or it's never gonna end.
But it does say the court did not claim that
this broadly framed right is absolute and no such claim
would be plausible. While individuals are certainly free to think,
if free to say what they wish about quote existence
quote meaning the universe and the mystery of the human life, uh,
(41:46):
they are not always free to act in accordance with
those thoughts. UH. License to act on the basis of
such beliefs may correspond to one of the many understandings
of quote liberty, but it's certainly not again ordered liberty.
Who makes the order, who describes the liberty? That's what
it comes down to. The Court is hoping to describe
(42:12):
a liberty that is not in accordance with the will
of the majority of the people of the United States.
The Court is trying to impose the liberty described by
the minority of the population and not the majority based
on polling about Roe v. Wade and reproductive freedom. What
(42:34):
you want to that's perfect, all right, So here's your
last one for now. I'm sure we'll re visit this
in future. Arguments made that women have more freedom now
and are protected by law from discrimination, and that with
safe haven laws and adoption, that children are safe and
quote has a little reason to fear that the baby
will not find a suitable home, and that the abortion
(42:54):
supporters are fearful of losing autonomy and unable to compete
with been in the workplace and an other in depths,
and because each has good arguments, decisions should be left
to the states. The problem with leaving decisions to the
states is that the states will not have uniform laws.
(43:16):
There should be a national standard on this issue. And
we didn't leave civil rights to the states, we didn't
leave voting rights to the states. Sometimes an overarching national
priority is needed and necessary, and on the matter of
(43:39):
reproductive freedom and medical autonomy for women, that national overarching
standard was set by Roe v. Wade, And if the
court overturns Roe v. Wade, then national action is necessary
because the states have demonstrated time and again that some
(43:59):
of them will discriminate, and they're ready. They're ready, and
we've already seen what's happened in Alabama in which they
tried to charge a woman who did want her pregnancy,
got into an argument, got shot, laws a fetus, and
she got charged with murder we know, and it took
it to go to national headlines for her to be released.
(44:19):
There are so many sad ways to see this play
out with the kinds of reversive laws states are willing
to pass, and it's the Court is opening the nation
(44:40):
up to great tragedy if if they overturn Rovy Way.
And again, what's happened with Missouri stating that their laws
are ready to ban abortion and that anyone who leaves
the state to get it will be prosecuted as well.
There's so many things how this is not just about states. No,
(45:01):
this is about controlling women and turning back the clock.
And women have to be prepared to help each other.
We need to look at how many women serve in
elected office, how many women will be making the new
(45:24):
laws required by in some instances this new decision. In Georgia,
thirty three point nine percent of the legislators are women.
In state legislatures nationwide, the average is thirty one point
one percent, and in Congress there are twenty six point
(45:48):
nine percent women. Women have to band together and elect
other pro choice women if we are to have a
voice in the room where it happens and these laws
are crafted. And we've been very effective in Georgia by
electing women to the extent that our women Democratic women
(46:14):
legislators out number the Republican legislators three point two to one.
So when we say that Georgia abortion laws are crafted
by stale pale GOP majorities, we're talking about mostly men
who truly have no idea about how Most of them
(46:38):
have no idea about carrying a child term or the
complications of pregnancies unless their own wives have had complicated pregnancies,
and even then they still have no clue. They think
they have a little bit of an understanding, but they
still do not understand those overall trauma. We don't even
talk about postpartum stuff, which even more traumatics of the
(47:01):
mental health level is even less considered. On top of
that fact, absolutely in the state level, we have to
look about what is what they're trying to do and
how they're trying to do it. And even though US
two elections had the highest number of women running for
the first time and so long, it's still ridiculously the
low low number. Well that is true, But in Georgia
(47:24):
we have a record setting number of women candidates yet again,
and we also have the highest percentage of contested races
on the ballot in November yet again. And so at
least in Georgia and hopefully in other states, voters have
(47:44):
the option, and the way we have the opportunity to
flip legislative bodies is by turning out progressive voters in
numbers the Republicans can't ignore, and turning out progressive voters
in numbers that defeat the other side. So when our
(48:07):
turnout is several percentage points higher everywhere, it lifts the
entire statewide ticket, and it gives Democrats an opportunity two
flip seats that Republicans thought could not be flipped. So yes,
(48:30):
they've gerrymandered maps and they've made them as favorable as
they can. But Georgia is fast becoming a majority minority
state and those demographics favor pro choice Democrats. We have
to make our voter turnout efforts match the opportunity. I
(48:52):
love this, So we've been talking about the elections ever since.
I've been on everything ever since, and and I have
been hosting this because it's it's been record breaking and
changing so much, obviously for us in the state of Georgia. Uh,
it has been quite different and moving to the point
that people were so shocked that it did turn blue
when it came to the Senate, racist and very excited
(49:12):
about it um and having to kind of have people
recognize that Georgia is a battleground state and we need
to talk about this. But other states are slowly coming
to that forward too, and it's been because of the women.
It's been because of the marginalized communities really pushing this well.
And what I like to say, and I even have
a map at the state of Georgia that we use
(49:33):
on some of our materials that shows even in places
that vote Republican, the tide is turning, the percentage of
Democratic performance is increasing. So what I say is a
rising blue tide lifts all votes. And so to the
(49:54):
extent that we had women candidates who kept their ground
owned game in operation during December and early January to
be sure that their voters turned out for Senators us
off in Warnock. And doesn't that just sound wonderful rolling
(50:15):
off the tongue, to have two Democratic senators in the
US Senate representing the state of Georgia after so many
years of Republican control. But yes, it was the women
voters who gave them those margins. And it was the
places like North Georgia and certain parts of South Georgia
(50:38):
where women candidates had turned out the vote and energized
the base that turned out again to give them their
margins and victory. I'm gonna end this on a high note.
(51:04):
We're gonna talk about the good things that can come
through through this, because the one thing we know, when
women get angry, when marginalized communities get angry, things happen.
And we're gonna make things happen no matter what happens
in the Supreme Court that we can't see that they
don't want us to see, which is a question of
huh in itself, But whatever traditions right, what are some
(51:24):
of the things that we can do as uh, pro
choice seeking to just have autonomy, just understanding that this
is gonna greatly affect the rights of the marginalized community,
what can we do? The silver lining of this dark
cloud is the fact that we have a record setting
number of women candidates. These women, many of them, are
(51:47):
some of the highest quality candidates, the most energetic, the
best educated we've ever seen. So we have these wonderful
women candidates on the ballot. We have more women running
against Republicans in November than we've ever had before. Win
List has already endorsed the four statewide women and thirty
(52:11):
eight women in legislative seats. We have more than forty
racests to still look at for general election or runoff endorsements.
So the silver lining of this dark cloud is that
because we've been recruiting, because we've been training, because we've
been encouraging women to run for twenty two years, we
(52:34):
have a bumper crop of pro choice democratic women to
choose from in November. And this opinion, if it doesn't
make people mad enough to get out and vote and
bring a few friends with them to the polls in November,
nothing ever will. This is a time of opportunity and
we must seize the moment. Our friend Melity Brave shout
(52:56):
out to her who is running here in the state,
uh in in Georgia who are nectedt us with the
Melita to the friend of the show I think we
mentioned earlier. We got to watch her progress from I'm tired,
I gotta do something to from grassroots to you know what,
let me just go ahead and run because I'm done
and I'm about to make my voice heard. What can
we tell people and women out there, especially in those
(53:17):
in the marginalized communities, if they want to run what
should we tell them, Well, what we should tell them
is the best way to prepare yourself to run in
the future is to help a woman a woman run
this cycle. Learn about campaigning by helping a woman candidate,
learn about what it takes to be on the campaign
(53:38):
trail yourself by shadowing a woman candidate and helping her
get elected, and then you'll be prepared to be a
candidate in the future. And we need good, strong women candidates.
And this is an even year in Georgia, so it's
the state legislative seats, and we're going to need municipal
(54:02):
candidates in the odd year. School Board races are becoming
all the more important now because of book bands and
proposed changes to how history gets whitewashed to match the
whims of those who don't want to have children actually
learn the truth. And so there's gonna be plenty of
(54:25):
opportunities in the coming years for women to run for
office and even more large numbers. And the best way
to prepare yourself to be a candidate is to help
a current candidate and get involved in helping them get elected.
Because as women climb the ladder higher and higher, we
(54:46):
always need to have one arm down helping the next
person up that same ladder. Right, And you provided us
before we did this a lot of um fantastic resources. Uh.
And one is that a couple of years ago, some
interns working with you, right, found this actual statistical relationship
(55:09):
between women in government and pro choice. Yes, my, my
wonderful collagen turns back in twenty nineteen, when so many
of the states were passing um abortion bands, when the
Georgia six week ban passed, Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky, Louisiana, Alabama,
(55:31):
and Mississippi all also passed bans. Georgia, of all of
those states, had the closest abortion ban vote in the
one and eighty member House. The ban, the six week ban,
passed with only ninety two votes, one more than would
have been required, and that was because at the time
(55:52):
Georgia had a thirty point five women legislators. In the
other states where there were fewer women legislators, for example,
in Louisiana, there six week ban where only sixteen percent
of the legislators were women, passed by a seventy three
(56:13):
to twenty nine margin. In Alabama, where fifteen point seven
percent of the legislators were women, their total ban on
abortion passed with a vote of seventy four to three.
In Mississippi, the six week ban now an issue in
the Supreme Court, where thirteen point eight percent of the
(56:35):
women of the legislators are women. The vote was seventy
six to thirty seven in favor of the band. So
having more women in a legislative body matters, by contrast
to those Southern states. In Nevada, where fifty two point
(56:55):
four percent of the legislators are women, they're laws to
ease and make abortion access more available um passed by
overwhelming majorities. So your vote matters, and we have to
vote in numbers. Republicans can't ignore. And I used the
(57:20):
term Republicans and Democrats because in Georgia there are no
pro choice Republican women legislators. The last pro choice Republican
legislator was Kathy Ashe and she switched to the Democratic
Party many many years ago. She's no longer serving, but
(57:44):
she was the last pro choice Republican female legislator. Thank
you for clarifying that. I think that's something that needs
to be said because I know there's a whole conversation
of the left and right and what does that look like,
but Georgia, it is pretty clear. Well, in Georgia, it
is very clear. Well, thank you so much for coming
on and illuminating a lot of this, Melita. I know
(58:04):
a lot of our listeners and us are kind of
feeling a little panick and overwhelmed, and this is such
a helpful conversation. So thank you so much for coming on.
Where can the good listeners find you? They can follow
us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at g a w
I n l I s T. And our website is
(58:30):
w w W g A w I n l I
s T dot com. You can also find me on
Facebook with my name Melita Easters. And I am on
a public affairs television program Sunday mornings in Atlanta on
Channel five. It's a thirty minute show called The Georgia Gang,
(58:53):
and I'm one of the two Democrats who face off
against two Republicans every week on Sunday Mornings at night
thirty and a moderated discussion. Yes, that sounds intense. It's
very interesting. Well, listeners, if you have any thoughts about
what we talked about today, you can always email us.
(59:16):
You know, we love to hear from you. Our email
stuff Media Mom Stuff at ihart media dot com. You
can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast or
on Instagram as stuff I Never Told You. Thanks as
always to a super producer, Christina. Thank you, Christina, and
thanks to you for listening Stuff I Never Told You.
Re protection of I Heart Radio for more podcast on
my Heart Radio because the heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or revery listen to your favorite shows
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I welcome to Stephane
never told your production of ihear Radio. Yes, and welcome
to Oh my God, what's happening? We have to talk
about things because things are happening kind of segment um.
(00:26):
And if you've been paying attention to what is happening
in the United States, you know there's a lot happening
here and we are a bit stressed, to say the
very least. So before we begin, we want to time
stamp this because we know so many things are changing
and as you know, as you know, oftentimes before our
episodes even published, we are already out of date. But
(00:47):
just to go ahead and let you know we're trying
today is May five, twenty two, Andy, go ahead. We
always have to have a Star Wars plan if we
can have to. And recently political elated and a Supreme
Court brief which would overturn Roe v. Wade, which, by
the way, was the nineteen seventy three ruling that stated
(01:08):
unduly restricted state regulation of abortion is unconstitutional, which Justice
Harry A. Blackman wrote for a Texas hearing which against
states statutes are criminalizing abortion in most instances violated privacy,
which was guaranteed by the Fourteeth Amendment under the Due
Process Clause. We're gonna get into that a little more. So,
(01:30):
what exactly is this briefing that has so many people
on high alert? Well, we had to bring someone in
to talk to us about this, and today we have
executive director of a Georgia win List, Molina Easters. Welcome,
Thank you for pleasure to join you. Can you kind
of let the people know who you are and why
(01:53):
you're here to talk to us? Thanks well. I am
the founding chair of Georgia Winless. WHI is a twenty
two year old state based pact to elect pro choice
democratic women in Georgia, and we have helped elect seventies
six legislators, forty six of whom currently serve over our
twenty two year history. And so, because reproductive freedom is
(02:18):
the core of our mission and the lens we use
for endorsing women, this case and this opinion puts what
we do in the center of Georgia's political spotlight. Yeah,
so we needed to do something when it comes to
obviously reproductive rights. We are very loud about where we
stand on sminty and one of those things that we've
(02:41):
been talking about in the past what how long have
we been here any three years? Is that women in
UH political positions and leadership is important and impacts a
lot of these issues that we have been talking about
and now are very concerned about. UM. So yeah, before
we start into all of that, can we talk a
little bit about the briefing, UM, And can you kind
(03:02):
of tell us what you read through as because you
definitely have been talking about this out loud and I
know has been a center point as you are in
this UH political time because we are all in the
middle of the primaries. UM. What this briefing has for us,
well for for the Judge Alito to say Row was
(03:24):
egregiously wrong from the start is pretty devastating to the
entire pro choice movement. And it means that existing laws
like the Georgia six week ban, which is currently under
a stay by federal court order that law was passed
in ten would then immediately go into effect. And I've
(03:48):
read in one report today the fact that this leak
allows women who are currently pregnant who are thinking about
their options, it puts the time to able on them
to hurry up because many court decisions give a window
when the ruling will take effect. The draft by Justice
(04:12):
Alito does not give a window to ease in. So
this leaked decision does put all pregnant women on notice
that if you are are considering an abortion, you need
to go ahead and have it now because the state
laws that are regressive that have been stayed by federal courts,
(04:32):
that are awaiting court review, are that are awaiting a
Supreme Court opinion from this Mississippi case. The minute it's overturned,
you might not have the same options you had the
day before the decision goes into place. And you know what,
let me backtrack a little bit, because you actually have
some personal connections to the original Roe v. Wade. Can
(04:55):
you kind of talk about that decision and even talk
about what happened in Georgia as Yes, it is because
I've been at this work for so long and I'm
old enough to be a grandmother. Um. I have had
the pleasure of meeting both Sarah Weddington, who argued the
Roe v. Wade case in front of the Supreme Court
(05:15):
on several occasions, and I've met Marjorie Pitts Haynes. Both
of these ladies are now deceased, but Marjorie Pitts. Hams
argued the Dove Bolton case on the same day as
Roe v. Wade, and Dovie Bolton was a Georgia case
before the court on the same day, and and the
judges decided to hand down their ruling from the Texas case.
(05:40):
But not everybody in Georgia realizes that Georgia had a
long history for progressive abortion policies at the time the
Roe v. Wade decision was handed down. In fact, women
had greater access to reproductive services and abortion procedures back
then than in many states, including the Northeast. That is
(06:05):
something that is new to me, Like I learned it recently,
and I was kind of like, well have I never
heard about this? That the thing is Number one, both
of you are relatively young, and so you have never
lived in a time when contraceptive were not readily available
(06:26):
and when abortion was not safe and legal. It may
have been cumbersome to get an abortion, it may have
required some travel or some weight periods, but at least
it was safe and it was legal. And what we
forget sometimes is that the wide availability of the birth
control pill came at about the same time as the
(06:50):
Roe v. Wade decision. Both things happened at the same
time and and women did not have the same options
prior to the in And what people don't understand is
that abortions have always taken place, and abortions when they
are banned, then the wealthy men, the wives and girl
(07:15):
friends and mistresses and daughters of the wealthy will always
be able to travel somewhere where abortion is legal. But
it closes down the options for the poor and the
disenfranchised who don't have the money to travel and the
ability to to jump through the hoops that certain states require.
(07:40):
And so that means a lot more unwanted children. And
you know, the right to life crowd talks about, oh well,
adoptions and foster care. I don't know of a state
where foster care is not overburdened and um and in fact,
one of my daughters has adopted three children out of
(08:01):
foster care. That is a broken system. It is not
an option for all of the new unwanted pregnancies which
will happen as a result of greater bands on abortion
because of this decision. And there's so much to break
down into what you just said, because it definitely is
mentioned in the brief that we're going to get into
(08:23):
in a second, but before we do start, I find
it fascinating that, yes, as you just said, UH, this
is not going to stop abortion, no matter how moral
high ground that they think this is going to take,
and they being whoever is supporting of this briefing, it's
not going to stop it. It's just gonna stop safe abortions,
safe access to abortions, as well as it's not gonna
(08:44):
stop again those who are well off or in a
higher level of socioeconomic status and being able to get
as safe freely and quietly, because you know, everything's got
to be so hush hush for it in order to
get things done, to accomplish what they need to accomplish. Uh.
In general, and we also know that this conversation of
(09:05):
the late term abortion, which is often brought out a
majority of the time, and I'm not saying all the time,
so taking a majority of the time, these types of
abortions are not necessarily because they didn't want the children,
but because it's life and death. I've had so many
friends who went through this process, such a traumatic process.
Other people calling this anything but the word abortion, but
in medical field, hand insurance, it is considered an abortion
(09:28):
and oftentimes is not covered, and it's oftentimes costly and damaging.
So there's so many layers, the wait time, the additional
processes like an extra ultrasounder to all of those things
happened to women. The doctor and the woman know what's
necessary when there is this troubled, problematic, complicated pregnancy which
(09:53):
for the health of the mother must end. But insurance
companies off didn't require extra tests. Hospitals may require an
extra test so that everybody has covered there rear ends,
and that makes the patient's blood pressure increase. It puts
(10:17):
a woman at greater danger. And a wealthy woman might
be able to have leverage with her doctors or her
insurance company that the poor woman, the under insured woman,
the less sophisticated woman, will not have. And so when
we add these extra barriers for necessary medical procedures, because
(10:43):
abortion is a form of health care, then we will
lose lives. And the lives we lose our women of
color and women of lesser income where community are deeply
affected by these types of laws as well. And I
think this is a whole other conversation in what is
happening and what who are they really trying to come
(11:05):
after not a whole other conversation, It is a conversation. Well,
and this is the first step. Banning abortion is the
first step. Then there will be a push to ban
on contraception. Then there will be a push to ban
in vitro fertilization. Then there will be a push to
go back to the days when gay marriage was not legal.
(11:28):
We've already seen the attacks on young transgender athletes. It's
it's it's all out war on any group. The other
side can call other right right, absolutely, and that's kind
(11:48):
of what's infuriating in this language that we're going to
jump into. UM. Which was based out of Mississippi. So
this case brought was brought in the Supreme Court based
out of Mississippi, which is called Dobbs v. Jackson Women's
Health Organization, UM. And we're not gonna necessarily to dig
too deep into that, but it should be noted in
Mississippi is one of the trigger states, UM. And we're
(12:09):
talking trigger states that are ready to go with an
overall band abortion the minute this has turned over. So
Mississippi has brought it into play. They've been waiting for
this day we've had this conversation at least about what
was going to happen, and we're not going to go
into twenties sixteen because I might cry, but we did
want to talk specifics in the actual briefing, and y'all,
(12:32):
it's ninety eight pages, not including the appendix that goes
with it, and trying to read through it. I went
through most of it. I had to take breaks because
of the anger. Like I was sitting here yelling at
my computer screen as if I was arguing with an
actual person while reading this, because I was so infuriated.
(12:54):
So merely, if you don't mind, we're gonna kind of
read through it and just kind of discuss those little
parts and honestly, obviously they all connect and pretty much
say the same things repeatedly, but I still just want
to talk about what they are saying. Justice Alito begins
the statement with talking about how divisive this issue is
correct and is a quote profound moral issue, which I
(13:15):
know is always surrounded in talking about abortion laws. In
any of those laws, and honestly, any loss implicating marginalized communities,
people of color, queer people always a profound moral issue, right,
which again leads to the fact, perhaps politics shouldn't play
into it at all, because if it is this moral grounds,
how is this political? And yes, I would say that
(13:38):
it is conjecture for it to be on moral grounds.
And I am I making that up in my head
because morality is not defined as specific things other than
what people judge to be moral. True, and you know,
morals should be more governed by the Church and and
those whom people call on for moral authority. Frankly, abortion
(14:04):
and the autonomy of a woman to make her medical
decisions are really not a matter of morality. It's a
matter of a woman's right to the autonomy over her
own medical decisions. But by couching it in quote moral terms,
justice Alito wants to put down the idea that women
(14:27):
should have rights for bodily autonomy and the freedom to
choose their own medical decisions. So that just having it
based in that, everyone already knows where it's going. And
it's kind of like for me, it was high alert.
I was like, oh, oh, here we go. He continues on,
we hold that row in Casey, which they do talk
about the case which was planning parenthood versus Casey. I
(14:49):
don't know too much about that case, but it defines similarly,
at least at ninety nineties, that this came about. Yes,
it was a subsequent case that, after it was decided,
was was sort of the other defining case law about abortion.
(15:22):
The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such
right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the
one on which the defenders are Broke and Casey now
chiefly rely the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that
are not mentioned in the Constitution, and this is part
(15:43):
I highlighted. But any such must be quote deeply rooted
in this nation's history and tradition, and implicit in the
concept of ordered liberty. The things that come to mind
when I hear you read that section. Our first abortion
is also never mentioned in the Bible, which he as
(16:04):
a practicing Catholic whole sacred. The other thing is, we
have to remember who the founding fathers were. They were
rich white men, some of whom held slaves on their plantations.
They did not mention women in the Constitution. Women did
(16:27):
not have a right to vote, and they did not
believe in the sanctity of all life, they believed only
in the sanctity of their own and so to be
a strict constructionist in this day and age as he
is trying to be in his opinion is a rather
(16:49):
outdated notion. The the other thing to remember as we
hear this opinion is the fact that three of the
justices who are signing this opinion if the case goes
forward as the draft, are justices who were appointed by
(17:09):
presidents who were not elected by a popular vote, and
some of those justices were approved only by deeply disruptive
political maneuvering by the other side. And it's all part
of a federalist society plan. And further, the justices who
(17:32):
are now signing off on an opinion which repudiates roe v.
Wade said Roe v. Wade was the law of the
land at the time of their confirmation hearings. So there
are lots of layers of of fact and history to
(17:54):
contemplate when we read this opinion, And there are plenty
of reasons for you to want to throw things at
your computer screen or or cuss out loud as you
read it, because it makes all of us are angry.
The thing that we have to think about and remember
as we move forward is how to most efficiently and
(18:17):
effectively channel our anger in the direction that makes the
most good in the end. I love that. Yeah, I
have such a hard time in reading things like this,
and I know the Supreme Court hasn't really taken on
anything about critical race theory or the bands that are
(18:39):
happening in our schools right now, including just recently happened
in Georgia, um about not teaching some histories because they
don't want to have a bias quote unquote uh teachings
about race, which is hilarious in itself, how that's not
biased in itself, but the fact that they have the
audacity to talk about nation's history and tradition and talk
(19:00):
about history as if it's something to actually link up on,
but still want to ignore history as well. It's just
I know, I shouldn't be shocked. I'm not shocked. I'm
just irritated that this is a continued conversation that is
kind of that level of well once again, and I
know every side does it. I'm sure whatever whatnot picking
(19:22):
and choosing for their own purposes and this theme of
this ordered liberty, which, by the way, I'm very confused
on who gets to say what's ordered and orderly. That
is the that is the crux of the issue. That
is the the sword um they're raising. But they're raising
(19:45):
it from a position of power, and many people think
we're headed towards a fascism system of government. And it's
scary to think that it people like Aledo get to
decide what is orderly and what is not. He hardly
(20:07):
represents the majority of the will of the people. More
than seventy percent of the nation did not believe Rov
Wade should be overturned, and the figure for Georgia was
sixty eight percent. This will be a galvanizing and very
unpopular decision by the Court, and it heads our country
(20:31):
in the wrong direction. Some of the Court's previous unpopular
decisions during the Civil rights era headed our country in
a positive forward direction. This decision takes our country back.
It does, and I'm not gonna get too into it,
but it's very reminiscent of what's happening in Poland, including
(20:53):
the thing that this was leaked earlier than when it
was supposed to be so. But that's a whole different
conversation that we've been having. UM here's another quote we
wanted to include Rose. Defenders characterized the abortion as similar
to the rights recognized and past decisions involving matters such
as intimate sexual relations, contraception, and marriage. But abortion is
fundamentally different, as both Row and Casey acknowledge, because it
(21:15):
destroys what those decisions called fetal life and what the
law now before us describes as an unborn human being. Well,
this language in some ways is even inconsistent with the
biblical types of precedent for what begins life, because the
(21:38):
ability to breathe, the ability to maintain life outside the womb,
is what makes the fetus a person, and philosophers and
religious scholars can argue that frankly, they're opening the ability
for them to go back on all of those other
(22:00):
areas where the Court has ruled and turned the clock
back on other issues as well. We can no more
believe the assertions in this part of the opinion than
we believed the most recently confirmed justices when they said
(22:21):
Rovi Wade was the law of the land right. And
we're not gonna talk about Sennator Collins at this point,
But anger thoughts of anger in that one, Yeah, I
find a lot of of course, we knew coming in.
We know the rhetoric, and we know these type of
languages that come up in order to make sure that
those who truly see this as a life and death
(22:43):
case can can cling to that as a moral higher
stands and being able to say that you're talking about
murdering babies, okay, my family, um in which we have
to have this conversation of like, no, you're not You're
no longer talking about a pro life, especially right now
when we're talking about the fact that you're not helping
those who are actually born. When I was a social worker,
(23:06):
I watched many of kids die at a young age
because no one cared enough to help and blame the
death onto themselves, onto these children, and they didn't care.
So one of the big reasons I went from my
opinion of being pro life quote unquote. And I'm saying
this as in the old terms of what I saw
myself saying. And of course this has everything to do
(23:26):
with me being adopted and being told I should be
grateful that I'm alive and not aborted all through my
life up until recently. But all of those conversations leading
to the fact, like, yeah, but I see what's happening here.
I've seen the bigger picture and the narrative that that
narrative is a heart string pull type of thing that
(23:46):
you want to do. But it's misleading because what you're
talking about is just being pro birth and no longer
pro life, because what I have been told that I
should be grateful. So therefore that's what I'm doing, trying
to save lives that are out there. But I don't
have any help, any assistance, or any backing because people
really don't care. And it's typically those who are the
loudest about having birth children that don't care about those
(24:11):
children that have been birthed. As we would say, this
is very very true. The same forces who are so
ready to ban a worship are also equally and more
forcefully ready to cut social services to make sure that
there's no mental health provisions and funding. And and also
(24:36):
those people who my body, my choice about masks are
unwilling to um give women the same autonomy over a
far more serious, long term medical decision. And what's ironic
(24:57):
about all of that that conversation is how they will
weaponize these words so quickly to get their point. And
this is exactly what's happening in this brief that says
things like unborn humans, um and and life after a conception.
All of these things are very weapons, are weapons of
language in order to make someone be like, oh, yeah,
(25:18):
I'm definitely in the right if I believe the statute. Right, yeah, absolutely,
this is correct. A fetus which cannot sustain life is
not an unborn human. Even the premise of these quote
heartbeat bills are based on a false assumption that the
electrical synapses heard in an ultrasound are actually a heartbeat
(25:43):
when the heart has not yet formed at that time
point in the development of the fetal tissue. Oh, now
you're talking about science, so we we don't, we don't.
Just well, mean, science is tough to hear for certain
parts of the political spectrum, they selectively hear it, Yes
(26:05):
they do. Going on into the briefing, it says, talking
about the equal Protection Clause, they actually state quote which
established that a state's regulation of abortion is not sex
based classification, and it's thus not subject to the heightened
scrutiny that applies to such classifications. The regulation of a
medical procedure that only one sex can undergo does not
(26:27):
trigger heightened constitutional scrutiny unless the regulation is mere pretext
designed to affect an invidious discrimination against members of one
sex or the other and then list the cases and
as the Court has stated, the goal of preventing abortion
does not constitute and vidiously discriminatory animals against women, which
(26:48):
I'm like, really, well, I wish Ruth bader Ginsburg were
alive to cut him down to size on some of
that language. And I certainly hope that our other justice
is Sodomyer and Kagan will take the inspiration of Ruth
(27:09):
bader Ginsburg and channel her in their descent, which we
have yet to see, right, Yeah, we haven't seen that.
I really do wish uh Judge Jackson was a part
of this, which she was already on board right now, Well,
maybe maybe she can give them some hints from the sidelines.
(27:29):
Have a feeling it'd be a doozy um. But yeah,
that language in itself says a lot to automatically try
to take that away when obviously this is a healthcare issue,
especially when we talk about again what we were talking
about when it's hybridus pregnancies. Uh, being pregnant is traumatic
in itself. The level of I have a daughter expected
(27:51):
to deliver in July, and there are lots of ups
and downs on the roller coaster of pregnancy, and it's
daily to ship body. I mean, your body is also
hopefully if you have a healthy pregnancy, as in like
everything goes as you would hope, then maybe you can
bout that very quickly, but it's not always the case.
I remember having a friend who uh broke bones during
(28:16):
her pregny, during her labor as well as after the fact,
having a lot of problems due to her complicated pregnancy.
There's so many things that we don't even consider talk
about in the aftermath and the beginning, like how it
really changes a person's body to go through the process
of being pregnant. And other countries are so much more
(28:41):
aware of the needs of pregnant women and working mothers
and the state support needed for getting a baby a
new citizen off to a good start. Then we have
traditionally been in this country. Our postpartum healthcare, our work
(29:06):
leaf policies. So many of our policies are so far
behind other developed countries, and that disdain for women shows
through in the wording of this opinion. Yeah, I think
that's definitely been one of the things, all the conversations
(29:27):
I've heard, and those numbers you quoted earlier about you know,
seventies of Americans don't want revew weight overturns. I think
that shows how effective UM conservatives who are really backing
this have been, because I was kind of surprised. I'm like, oh,
I thought it was much more controversial than that, But
they've been so effective and making this sound like it's
(29:50):
much more popular than it is. And I think the
fact that it got leads and they were going to
do it on the last day of their session, like
it's really telling that that this is about controlling women's
bodies and and they're just trying to paint all this
moral stuff on it. But they know it's not popular,
but they've been very effective in their messaging that it is. Well,
(30:13):
the messaging around choice and reproductive freedom has been more
effectively wielded by those who oppose abortion and oppose contraception
and oppose a woman's right to her own medical decisions.
(30:33):
They have more effectively wielded the language throughout the last
five decades. And that is a sad thing to say,
because we have a lot of smart, effective communicators on
our side so we're going to continue with some quotes
(31:03):
from this this briefing. On occasion when the Court has
ignored the appropriate limits imposed by respect for the teachings
of history, it has fallen into the free willing judicial
policy making that characterized discredited decisions such as Lochner v.
New York. The Court must not fall prey to such
an unprincipled approach. Instead, guided by the history and tradition
(31:25):
that matt the essential components of our nation's concept of
ordered liberty, we must ask what the Fourteenth Amendment means
by the term liberty when we engage in that inquiry.
In the present case, the clear answer is that the
Fourteenth Amendment does not protect the right to an abortion. Honestly,
I'm still trying to figure out what it means by say, uh,
(31:46):
the clear answer right. It may will be the job
of our dissenting justices to provide the clear answer and
the opposite view, and I have no doubt they will
be l point and forceful in their descent and perhaps
(32:07):
sharpen the descent based on the outcry which has arisen
from the League draft. And there's a couple of things
We're gonna go ahead and put in there just because
I think it's important. It says Roe either ignored or
misstated this history, and Casey declined to reconsider rose faulty
historical analysis. It is therefore important to set the record straight.
(32:31):
It continues with talking about some of the historical contacts
that he wants to talk about, which it's so problematic
that I don't understand why he thought it wouldn't be
looked into. But he puts two treatises by Sir Matthew
Hall likewise described abortion of a quick child who died
in the womb as a quote great crime and great misprison. C. Mhill,
(32:53):
please of the relating which is the book that he's
talking about, and the histories are the pleas of the
crown and writing near time of the adoption for a constitution. Blackstone,
another historian, explained that abortion of a quick child was
by the ancient law homicide or manslaughter. By the way,
this was in seventy six UM and at least a
(33:14):
very heinous misdemeter. So I wanted to talk about these
two historical references for a second because they seem article.
By the way, again, this was in the early sixteen hundreds,
seventeen hundreds that this was done. These are things written
through the lens of white men which probably had never
(33:40):
been in a birthing room and certainly had never carried
a child to term in In in that era, women
often were sheltered away from society while they were pregnant.
They went away to a vacation home or a second home,
(34:00):
or they certainly weren't seen in public. And so to
go back to that history for a modern day court
opinion shows how out of touch justice Alito truly is. Right.
I mean, let's talk about the history of Sir Matthew
Hale of himself during this whole brief he writes, Alito
(34:22):
actually rights that Matthew Hall calls specific medicine medicines that
may have caused or had brought about an abortion potions,
so that in its term made me laugh. I was like, really,
so you're gonna put the word potions in there, as
if it was a magic trike or But we have
to look at the fact that access to ending a
(34:44):
pregnancy has often relied upon herbal medicine or various chemical
substances known to some and provided. But many of those
really potions, if you want to call them that had
long term, lasting detrimental effects on the women who took them,
(35:11):
and so having a safe legal process for ending a
pregnancy preserves the help of the women and keeps them alive. Right,
And then you're right on that they were calling these
potions because they didn't know what else to call it,
(35:32):
and they are they didn't want to justify it as Hey,
this actually is something beyond that which, yes, can be dangerous,
and we should have that conversation about why this is dangerous.
Maybe we should look into safe precautions and protecting people.
But no, Um, Matthew Hell was actually known as actually
executing at least my record two women for witchcraft. Uh.
(35:55):
He's also known as to saying that marital rape, really
that's not a big deal. So you defended marital rape.
And it's believed that capital punishment should extend to those
as young as fourteen years old. So the fact that
he Alito decided to take his name and use it
makes it be like, did you really know anything about this, dude? Well,
(36:16):
he might have known and not cared, right, right, which
seems to be a fair standing of the entire process
and perhaps the fair statement of his mind set. Stale
pale yes. Here's some other quotes who want to include
(36:38):
the inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is
not deeply rooted in the nation's history and traditions. On
the contrary and unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain
of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of common
law until nineteen seventy three. And here's another one. Respondents
have no persuasive answers to the historical evidence. Neither Respondence
(36:58):
nor the Solicitor Daniel disputes the fact that by eighteen
sixty eight, the vast majority of states criminalized abortion at
all stages of pregnancy. So I think it was important
that we remember he's taking this context to eighteen sixty eight,
and it is not a time we want to go
back to. The treatment of women in that time period
(37:19):
is not something we want to go back to. Women
did not have the right to vote, my goodness, women
could get credit cards only in the seventies. The treatment
of women in in the times Justice Alito refers to
is not a place the majority of the nation's population
(37:40):
wishes to revisit. When they truly look at the full
consequences of such backwards steps, yeah, and I just keep
thinking like, it's a medical procedure and that's really not
in your business. Like I don't know what is the
crux of the matter. It is a medical procedure, it
(38:03):
is none of your business. I can't think of a
single male member of the Georgia General Assembly I would
want in the examining room between me and my doctor.
M right, And I just I know, it's like an
awful picture, right exactly, it is a very picture, but
that is where they are placing themselves. That where Alito
(38:25):
would put all women with the state looking over their
shoulder about their medical decisions and making them feel guilty
about it. And I just can't. I know it's it's
been said before, but I if there was something like
this that impacted men, if we were like, no, you
can't do that. What if every time a man wanted
(38:50):
a viagra prescription, they had to go to the doctor
in person, they had to subject themselves to something similar
to an ultrasound, and then they could only build a
prescription in person at the pharmacy, and then such prescriptions
were not available on college campuses, or let's put it
(39:13):
in the proper context, you couldn't get a prescription for
viagrah dispensed at your old age home. How quickly would
they change their minds? M h. You know, we can
also saw that was saying people with penises that should
have vasectomies, and that would help prevent it would help
prevent unwanted pregnancies, particularly those that occur as a result
(39:37):
of rape. And I've even seen a mean today that said,
have every eighteen year old man receive a vasectomy, and
when he has proven he is financially and emotionally secure
enough to father a child, he can have it reversed.
Some men who have seen the children would never have
had it reversed, in my humble opinion, agreed. Um. And yeah,
(40:02):
there's so many things to this because when we're talking
about and I don't think I explained it correctly, even
though I did talk about it, the fourteenth Amendment and
the due process clause, we're talking about the right to privacy.
We are talking about that on the level of that
this should be between the person who is going in
for whatever procedure and the doctor, point blank. Um. And
(40:22):
this could also go into the lines of in vitual fertilization,
like being able to be to have a child in
this process that they want to This also goes into
the process of not being sterilized. If they don't want
to be sterilized, if they don't want that process, can't
be forced to do that. That that's along those levels
that were it's not about again they're trying to put
(40:42):
this as they just want to kill off babies, which
is again a weaponized terms. Well they're talking about is
a freedom for a woman to choose, or freedom for
people to choose in general, not just women, but just
to have a choice, to be able to have that
choice when it comes to their own buddies point blank. Um.
And it's that overarching conversation that everybody's like, this is
(41:05):
dangerous for so many reasons, especially what he's talking about
national history and ordered uh liberties, that in itself is
dangerous language to become a fascist type of government. Yes,
that's not a place where we want to move right,
which is dangerous. Um. And within the we've only got
(41:26):
a couple of more because I was like, I can't
keep we can't keep doing this or it's never gonna end.
But it does say the court did not claim that
this broadly framed right is absolute and no such claim
would be plausible. While individuals are certainly free to think,
if free to say what they wish about quote existence
quote meaning the universe and the mystery of the human life, uh,
(41:46):
they are not always free to act in accordance with
those thoughts. UH. License to act on the basis of
such beliefs may correspond to one of the many understandings
of quote liberty, but it's certainly not again ordered liberty.
Who makes the order, who describes the liberty? That's what
it comes down to. The Court is hoping to describe
(42:12):
a liberty that is not in accordance with the will
of the majority of the people of the United States.
The Court is trying to impose the liberty described by
the minority of the population and not the majority based
on polling about Roe v. Wade and reproductive freedom. What
(42:34):
you want to that's perfect, all right, So here's your
last one for now. I'm sure we'll re visit this
in future. Arguments made that women have more freedom now
and are protected by law from discrimination, and that with
safe haven laws and adoption, that children are safe and
quote has a little reason to fear that the baby
will not find a suitable home, and that the abortion
(42:54):
supporters are fearful of losing autonomy and unable to compete
with been in the workplace and an other in depths,
and because each has good arguments, decisions should be left
to the states. The problem with leaving decisions to the
states is that the states will not have uniform laws.
(43:16):
There should be a national standard on this issue. And
we didn't leave civil rights to the states, we didn't
leave voting rights to the states. Sometimes an overarching national
priority is needed and necessary, and on the matter of
(43:39):
reproductive freedom and medical autonomy for women, that national overarching
standard was set by Roe v. Wade, And if the
court overturns Roe v. Wade, then national action is necessary
because the states have demonstrated time and again that some
(43:59):
of them will discriminate, and they're ready. They're ready, and
we've already seen what's happened in Alabama in which they
tried to charge a woman who did want her pregnancy,
got into an argument, got shot, laws a fetus, and
she got charged with murder we know, and it took
it to go to national headlines for her to be released.
(44:19):
There are so many sad ways to see this play
out with the kinds of reversive laws states are willing
to pass, and it's the Court is opening the nation
(44:40):
up to great tragedy if if they overturn Rovy Way.
And again, what's happened with Missouri stating that their laws
are ready to ban abortion and that anyone who leaves
the state to get it will be prosecuted as well.
There's so many things how this is not just about states. No,
(45:01):
this is about controlling women and turning back the clock.
And women have to be prepared to help each other.
We need to look at how many women serve in
elected office, how many women will be making the new
(45:24):
laws required by in some instances this new decision. In Georgia,
thirty three point nine percent of the legislators are women.
In state legislatures nationwide, the average is thirty one point
one percent, and in Congress there are twenty six point
(45:48):
nine percent women. Women have to band together and elect
other pro choice women if we are to have a
voice in the room where it happens and these laws
are crafted. And we've been very effective in Georgia by
electing women to the extent that our women Democratic women
(46:14):
legislators out number the Republican legislators three point two to one.
So when we say that Georgia abortion laws are crafted
by stale pale GOP majorities, we're talking about mostly men
who truly have no idea about how Most of them
(46:38):
have no idea about carrying a child term or the
complications of pregnancies unless their own wives have had complicated pregnancies,
and even then they still have no clue. They think
they have a little bit of an understanding, but they
still do not understand those overall trauma. We don't even
talk about postpartum stuff, which even more traumatics of the
(47:01):
mental health level is even less considered. On top of
that fact, absolutely in the state level, we have to
look about what is what they're trying to do and
how they're trying to do it. And even though US
two elections had the highest number of women running for
the first time and so long, it's still ridiculously the
low low number. Well that is true, But in Georgia
(47:24):
we have a record setting number of women candidates yet again,
and we also have the highest percentage of contested races
on the ballot in November yet again. And so at
least in Georgia and hopefully in other states, voters have
(47:44):
the option, and the way we have the opportunity to
flip legislative bodies is by turning out progressive voters in
numbers the Republicans can't ignore, and turning out progressive voters
in numbers that defeat the other side. So when our
(48:07):
turnout is several percentage points higher everywhere, it lifts the
entire statewide ticket, and it gives Democrats an opportunity two
flip seats that Republicans thought could not be flipped. So yes,
(48:30):
they've gerrymandered maps and they've made them as favorable as
they can. But Georgia is fast becoming a majority minority
state and those demographics favor pro choice Democrats. We have
to make our voter turnout efforts match the opportunity. I
(48:52):
love this, So we've been talking about the elections ever since.
I've been on everything ever since, and and I have
been hosting this because it's it's been record breaking and
changing so much, obviously for us in the state of Georgia. Uh,
it has been quite different and moving to the point
that people were so shocked that it did turn blue
when it came to the Senate, racist and very excited
(49:12):
about it um and having to kind of have people
recognize that Georgia is a battleground state and we need
to talk about this. But other states are slowly coming
to that forward too, and it's been because of the women.
It's been because of the marginalized communities really pushing this well.
And what I like to say, and I even have
a map at the state of Georgia that we use
(49:33):
on some of our materials that shows even in places
that vote Republican, the tide is turning, the percentage of
Democratic performance is increasing. So what I say is a
rising blue tide lifts all votes. And so to the
(49:54):
extent that we had women candidates who kept their ground
owned game in operation during December and early January to
be sure that their voters turned out for Senators us
off in Warnock. And doesn't that just sound wonderful rolling
(50:15):
off the tongue, to have two Democratic senators in the
US Senate representing the state of Georgia after so many
years of Republican control. But yes, it was the women
voters who gave them those margins. And it was the
places like North Georgia and certain parts of South Georgia
(50:38):
where women candidates had turned out the vote and energized
the base that turned out again to give them their
margins and victory. I'm gonna end this on a high note.
(51:04):
We're gonna talk about the good things that can come
through through this, because the one thing we know, when
women get angry, when marginalized communities get angry, things happen.
And we're gonna make things happen no matter what happens
in the Supreme Court that we can't see that they
don't want us to see, which is a question of
huh in itself, But whatever traditions right, what are some
(51:24):
of the things that we can do as uh, pro
choice seeking to just have autonomy, just understanding that this
is gonna greatly affect the rights of the marginalized community,
what can we do? The silver lining of this dark
cloud is the fact that we have a record setting
number of women candidates. These women, many of them, are
(51:47):
some of the highest quality candidates, the most energetic, the
best educated we've ever seen. So we have these wonderful
women candidates on the ballot. We have more women running
against Republicans in November than we've ever had before. Win
List has already endorsed the four statewide women and thirty
(52:11):
eight women in legislative seats. We have more than forty
racests to still look at for general election or runoff endorsements.
So the silver lining of this dark cloud is that
because we've been recruiting, because we've been training, because we've
been encouraging women to run for twenty two years, we
(52:34):
have a bumper crop of pro choice democratic women to
choose from in November. And this opinion, if it doesn't
make people mad enough to get out and vote and
bring a few friends with them to the polls in November,
nothing ever will. This is a time of opportunity and
we must seize the moment. Our friend Melity Brave shout
(52:56):
out to her who is running here in the state,
uh in in Georgia who are nectedt us with the
Melita to the friend of the show I think we
mentioned earlier. We got to watch her progress from I'm tired,
I gotta do something to from grassroots to you know what,
let me just go ahead and run because I'm done
and I'm about to make my voice heard. What can
we tell people and women out there, especially in those
(53:17):
in the marginalized communities, if they want to run what
should we tell them, Well, what we should tell them
is the best way to prepare yourself to run in
the future is to help a woman a woman run
this cycle. Learn about campaigning by helping a woman candidate,
learn about what it takes to be on the campaign
(53:38):
trail yourself by shadowing a woman candidate and helping her
get elected, and then you'll be prepared to be a
candidate in the future. And we need good, strong women candidates.
And this is an even year in Georgia, so it's
the state legislative seats, and we're going to need municipal
(54:02):
candidates in the odd year. School Board races are becoming
all the more important now because of book bands and
proposed changes to how history gets whitewashed to match the
whims of those who don't want to have children actually
learn the truth. And so there's gonna be plenty of
(54:25):
opportunities in the coming years for women to run for
office and even more large numbers. And the best way
to prepare yourself to be a candidate is to help
a current candidate and get involved in helping them get elected.
Because as women climb the ladder higher and higher, we
(54:46):
always need to have one arm down helping the next
person up that same ladder. Right, And you provided us
before we did this a lot of um fantastic resources. Uh.
And one is that a couple of years ago, some
interns working with you, right, found this actual statistical relationship
(55:09):
between women in government and pro choice. Yes, my, my
wonderful collagen turns back in twenty nineteen, when so many
of the states were passing um abortion bands, when the
Georgia six week ban passed, Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky, Louisiana, Alabama,
(55:31):
and Mississippi all also passed bans. Georgia, of all of
those states, had the closest abortion ban vote in the
one and eighty member House. The ban, the six week ban,
passed with only ninety two votes, one more than would
have been required, and that was because at the time
(55:52):
Georgia had a thirty point five women legislators. In the
other states where there were fewer women legislators, for example,
in Louisiana, there six week ban where only sixteen percent
of the legislators were women, passed by a seventy three
(56:13):
to twenty nine margin. In Alabama, where fifteen point seven
percent of the legislators were women, their total ban on
abortion passed with a vote of seventy four to three.
In Mississippi, the six week ban now an issue in
the Supreme Court, where thirteen point eight percent of the
(56:35):
women of the legislators are women. The vote was seventy
six to thirty seven in favor of the band. So
having more women in a legislative body matters, by contrast
to those Southern states. In Nevada, where fifty two point
(56:55):
four percent of the legislators are women, they're laws to
ease and make abortion access more available um passed by
overwhelming majorities. So your vote matters, and we have to
vote in numbers. Republicans can't ignore. And I used the
(57:20):
term Republicans and Democrats because in Georgia there are no
pro choice Republican women legislators. The last pro choice Republican
legislator was Kathy Ashe and she switched to the Democratic
Party many many years ago. She's no longer serving, but
(57:44):
she was the last pro choice Republican female legislator. Thank
you for clarifying that. I think that's something that needs
to be said because I know there's a whole conversation
of the left and right and what does that look like,
but Georgia, it is pretty clear. Well, in Georgia, it
is very clear. Well, thank you so much for coming
on and illuminating a lot of this, Melita. I know
(58:04):
a lot of our listeners and us are kind of
feeling a little panick and overwhelmed, and this is such
a helpful conversation. So thank you so much for coming on.
Where can the good listeners find you? They can follow
us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at g a w
I n l I s T. And our website is
(58:30):
w w W g A w I n l I
s T dot com. You can also find me on
Facebook with my name Melita Easters. And I am on
a public affairs television program Sunday mornings in Atlanta on
Channel five. It's a thirty minute show called The Georgia Gang,
(58:53):
and I'm one of the two Democrats who face off
against two Republicans every week on Sunday Mornings at night
thirty and a moderated discussion. Yes, that sounds intense. It's
very interesting. Well, listeners, if you have any thoughts about
what we talked about today, you can always email us.
(59:16):
You know, we love to hear from you. Our email
stuff Media Mom Stuff at ihart media dot com. You
can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast or
on Instagram as stuff I Never Told You. Thanks as
always to a super producer, Christina. Thank you, Christina, and
thanks to you for listening Stuff I Never Told You.
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