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We Will Rise...


Who am I? I am a woman, a free and equal citizen, made from Adam’s rib. Now, the free and equal part is challenged again and the rib? That is a myth I never subscribed to. I don’t want his damned rib!


With the Supreme Court’s decision on June 24, 2022, a woman once again is considered unable to make her own decisions when it comes to her body or soul. I am a woman and my body is once again being regulated by men. By men who have been accused of abuse of women. Men who I believe are abusive. My body. My chair. My car. My woman. All possessions. I am not a possession! You will never possess me. I am sovereign in my body, sovereign in my soul.


Over the many years I have spent on this planet, I have worked with, loved and witnessed women struggling to raise children on their own, unsupported by the fathers who simply waltzed away. Women who are poor. That’s right, they were poor. They struggle every day to keep a roof over their head and food in the belly of their children. It’s said we always have choices, and we do, but their choices are so limited because they are poor. I was once there. Struggling to raise three beautiful children, on my own, with little support from the man I was lawfully wedded to, and divorced from, their father. These righteous right wing repugnants are so concerned about the unborn and don’t give a damn about those who are already here and suffering.


I rage that men still think they can have a say regarding what happens to my body. They are concerned about the unborn, yet those who are born, often into poverty, are suffering. What hypocrites! They embrace their guns along with the power they think they can wield over the bodies of women… who may be poor, or may not… but it has been pointed out that those who have resources certainly have more choices.


I don’t know why I was surprised, but I was. I am in a place of absolute rage and loathing. The Supreme Court reversed half a century of legal precedent this morning.

In a furious dissent, liberal Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor said the court “reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed.”


“Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today’s decision is certain: the curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens,” the justices added.

“With sorrow — for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection — we dissent.” The court’s liberal justices issue a blistering dissent to the overturning of Roe, concluding that the conservative majority has deemed that women are not deserving of equal protection under the law.


“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. 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 of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Alito wrote in the majority opinion, which was backed by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Interesting to me that two of these elite men have had allegations of sexual abuse leveled at them. Remember Anita Hill? Remember Dr. Christine Blasey Ford? How about Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick? Remember them? I do. Different times in history, the issue was the same, but I believe they were all credible.


“One of the darkest days for women’s rights in my lifetime,” Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, said in a tweet. “Obviously the immediate consequences will be suffered by women in the US — but this will embolden anti-abortion & anti-women forces in other countries too. Solidarity doesn’t feel enough right now — but it is necessary.” And one of the darkest days in my long lifetime. I feel it deeply and personally. What is next? Already there are whispers of legislation of same-sex marriages, birth control… and what else? Our right to vote? Oh yes, expect to see these things on the table and more in the future as these power wielding men make their mark.

I remember in 1967, after my first son was born, my OBGYN, William Joseph McDonald, would not write a prescription for birth control for me. My husband was in third year pre-med student and we were struggling financially. I was required to make another appointment with this esteemed physician, bring my husband in with me, to give his permission for me to take birth control. A chair, a car, a winter coat, a wife. I remember these days all too well.


Please understand, I like so many others, am not pro abortion. There are better ways to deal with unwanted pregnancies, like education and contraception. I am Pro Choice. Pro the choice that a woman has sovereignty over her own body and soul to decide.


The Rev. Al Sharpton, the longtime civil rights advocate, said Friday that Black women and poor women will be disproportionately affected by the court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

“The Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe vs Wade is a blatant attempt to bring us back to the dark ages,” Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, wrote in a tweet. “It will disproportionately impact Black women, and poor women. This must be resisted aggressively. States must enact laws to protect women.”


Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Friday was “one of the darkest days our country has ever seen. Millions upon millions of American women are having their rights taken from them by five unelected Justices on the extremist MAGA court.”


“Knowing this moment would come does not make it any less devastating,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said. “The Supreme Court has now officially given politicians permission to control what we do with our bodies, deciding that we can no longer be trusted to determine the course for our own lives.”


My chair. My car. My woman. We are still chattel. I find this quite unsettling. I am furious and my anger is justified. 75 years on this planet as a woman and I am still fighting for my rights to be equal and deserving of equal protection of the law. I will continue to fight until I breathe my last breath.


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