(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

In Iowa - America’s so-called heartland - Republican politicians made a heartless choice when it comes to protecting the health of every woman of child-bearing age against rape.

The state will no longer pay for emergency contraception…a method of birth control you can use if you have sex without using birth control or if your birth control method failed. Emergency contraception pills are not abortion pills. If you are already pregnant, emergency contraception pills do not stop or harm your pregnancy.

Iowa Republican Attorney General, Brenna Bird, ruled abortions are illegal even in the event of rape. Despite consistent polling that shows 61 percent to 65 percent of Iowans support abortions, in general, and overwhelmingly in cases of rape…Republicans went against the wishes of the state’s majority.

States where Republicans have gerrymandered voting districts - like Iowa, Tennessee, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Texas, West Virginia and Idaho - have super-majorities and pass bills that run counter to the wills of voters. Republicans being Republicans…they are doing what they do best…bully. 

They look after the special interests of the loud minority…Far Right Wing extremists, racists and white supremicists, Trump and MAGA folks, narrow-minded religious people, conspiracy theorists, and those who are anti-immigrant, anti-democratic, anti-Jew and misogynists.

Iowa’s decision to suspend payments for emergency contraception and abortions comes as access to the most commonly used method of abortion in the U.S. plunged into uncertainty following conflicting court rulings last month over the use of the abortion medication mifepristone. The Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone in 2000, and according to medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies, it is safer then Tylenol when used as directed.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, ordered a hold on federal approval of mifepristone. Within 20 minutes, another U.S. District Judge in Washington state, Thomas O. Rice, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, essentially ordered the opposite.

The competing rulings are apt to lead to a showdown in the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned Roe v. Wade and curtailed access to abortion across the country almost a year ago, again, despite the wishes of the majority of Americans.

Other Republican states are going against not only the will of the people but common sense. Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed into law a bill earlier this month that makes it illegal to help a minor get an abortion without parental permission. Also, the law restricts any Idaho resident from helping others travel to other states for abortion services. ..what Republicans call "abortion trafficking."

Gov. Jay Inslee of neighbouring Washington in a letter to Gov. Little said he feared "that our residents, in particular the women and girls of Washington, will be in grave danger if they travel to your state and find themselves in need of urgent reproductive health care services."

Further, Gov. Inslee said Idaho's health care providers are welcome in Washington, adding a warning: "make no mistake, Governor Little, the laws of another state that seek to punish anyone in Washington for lawful actions taken in Washington will not stand.”

Health care professionals nationwide and Planned Parenthood called the new law “despicable” and objected to the use of the word “trafficking.”

Ever since the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, in the state of Washington lawmakers have safeguarded women’s rights to abortion. For example, the state patrol cannot assist any out-of-state investigations into people seeking abortion care. Washington voters legalized abortion in 1970, but lawmakers are considering a state constitutional amendment to provide further protections.

Republican legislatures in 24 states have passed laws further banning abortions. Michigan and South Carolina were expected to join these states, but Michigan voters approved a constitutional amendment in Nov. 2022, and the South Carolina Supreme Court struck down that ban this past January, holding that the right to privacy in the state’s constitution includes the right to an abortion.

The Republican National committee in its Winter meeting in January urged states “to pass the strongest pro-life legislation possible.” But the results on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election on April 7 indicate considerable backlash that Republicans have yet to recognize. 

Consider that Republicans are on the wrong side - opposite the majority of Americans - not only on abortion…but on legislation to combat climate change, efforts to roll back LGBTQ rights and target transgender Americans, and better gun control legislation to combat record numbers of mass shootings.

Mass shootings are up 10 percent over last year…146 in the first 100 days. In addition, nearly 5,000 people have died from gunfire this year, and nearly 9,000 have been injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Hundreds of children under age 11 have died from gunshots, along with more than a thousand teenagers. If only Republicans controlled guns with the same zeal as they do women’s bodies.

Increasingly, Americans see the Republican Party as the repository of “haters” and hypocrites…people with little empathy for others. Conservative Talk Radio, Fox News, NewsMax, OAN, among others, have become the propaganda arm of the Right Wing, and actually position white folks as the most dispossessed Americans.

Venomous Right Wing behaviour and lies, like Fox News’ known falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and Republicans’ willingness to double-down on such outrageous lies, is even turning off what used to be called moderate Republicans. 

More importantly, millions more Democrats and Independents - weary of what they view as Republican undermining of American Democracy - continue to register in record numbers. Meanwhile, Republicans continue to hate…projecting every ill, every flaw they suffer…on everyone else. 

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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