Make Feminism Venomous Again: first Roe v. Wade, next lesbian and gay rights

On the 24th of June, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion just short of the 50th anniversary of Roe v Wade. As of April 7, 2022, of the 9 justices of the Supreme Court, 6 were appointed by a Republican president and 3 were appointed by a Democratic president.

WE NEED RUTH BADER GINSBURG BACK FROM THE GRAVE. You would think we are in a dystopian novel. Perhaps Margaret Atwood was a tad clairvoyant when she wrote The Handmaid’s Tale. 

Former President Donald Trump, who nominated three of the justices who voted to abolish Roe v. Wade, gave himself credit for the overturning of Roe, calling it “the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation.”

“[The decision] will transform American life, reshape the nation’s politics and lead to all but total bans on the procedure in about half of the states,” Adam Liptak wrote for the New York Times. 

As the Supreme Court’s reversal of abortion rights made news, protestors and joyful anti-abortion misogynists took to Washington. Tensions grew. Anti-abortion crowds celebrated the destruction of women’s rights.

“All these males out here who are chanting against abortion and are enthused and happy — smiling, singing songs and laughing — it’s just really disgusting,” Victoria Larsen, a protester, said, trying to contain her emotions as an anti-abortion group chanted around her.

Women who remember before Roe v Wade speak about what it was like:

Elizabeth Stone recounts the abortion she had before Roe v Wade, for The Atlantic:

“On a freezing Monday morning just before dawn, I was standing by myself on a street corner in Rahway, New Jersey. In my pocket was a white envelope filled with five $100 bills that my parents had willingly given me to pay for an abortion. I kept checking to make sure the envelope was still there, as I waited for a stranger to pick me up and take me someplace—who knew where?—for the abortion I’d scheduled the Friday before.

The person I had made the appointment with warned me that the driver would not stop if he thought he could be followed, so Mark was parked out of sight around the corner, waiting for me to return. The person on the phone also told me that I would likely lose blood and that I would need red meat. At home, my mother was waiting to cook me a steak.

That is, I thought, if I got home. Would anyone ever see me alive again? A day earlier, I’d read a story in the paper about a woman named Rita Shea. She’d been found dead in her car, which had been left parked in front of her home. She was the victim of a botched abortion performed in an airport motel near JFK. The medical student who had performed the abortion had been arrested. Would I be taken to an airport motel too?”

Women are now urging others to delete their menstrual tracking applications. Since Roe v Wade was introduced, we’ve started to use our phones as an extension of ourselves. Internet surveillance has become a new battle that we cannot take lightly.

Right now, and I mean this instant, delete every digital trace of any menstrual tracking. Please.

— Prof Gina Neff (@ginasue) June 24, 2022

I spoke to Scarlet Hilliard, a 70-year-old lesbian, who remembers the venomous feminist movement in the 1960s and 70s that fought for rulings like Roe v Wade: 

“We walked through a very redneck rural town and told everyone to kiss our asses,” she said. “Then confronting any man who got in our faces. Most women in the rural towns agreed with us. Plus, women back then ran the household.” 

“The incest was one of the biggest problems. It took until the late 70s to early 80s to get that into the papers. We also had a lot of men who tried to beat us into silence. That didn’t work. We stood up inside our churches and talked. There were many good men who loved their wives and daughters who were a large support. We just never let up. I have never stopped fighting for justice for everyone, nor shall I now.”

Lesbian and gay rights are next

First Roe v Wade, next contraception and lesbian and gay rights. CNBC reported that “Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said landmark high court rulings that established gay rights and contraception rights should be reconsidered now that the federal right to abortion has been revoked.”

“The cases he mentioned are Griswold vs. Connecticut, the 1965 ruling in which the Supreme Court said married couples have the right to obtain contraceptives; Lawrence v. Texas, which in 2003 established the right to engage in private sexual acts; and the 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which said there is a right to same-sex marriage.”

Yep, the U.S. has a Republican-leaning Supreme Court and if they can take away Roe v Wade, they can take away the right for lesbian and gay people to have sex, let alone get married.

While many contemporary recounts of second-wave feminism–when Roe v Wade was instated–omit the lesbian’s role in it, we were trailblazers – the vanguards of feminism. We need to lead the way to a new feminist movement that is even more venomous than those of the past. Gay men also need to see the abolishment of Roe v Wade as one step closer to the elimination of their sexual orientation-based rights. Because it’s coming if you don’t speak up.

Women need to stop fighting each other and start fighting male supremacy. We need to foster a culture of class consciousness so women, especially young women, are made aware of their subjugation. We need to improve on past feminist movements – listen to women of colour, disabled women, lesbian women, poor women, mentally unwell women this time. But, at the same time, we must unite despite our differences with militant power. It is possible to achieve both.

Make feminism venomous again or else we will be taken down by the king cobra that is patriarchy.

I’ll leave you with a Ruth Bader Ginsburg quote:

“I am optimistic in the long run. A great man once said the true symbol of the United States is not the bald eagle, it’s the pendulum, and when the pendulum swings too far in one direction, it will go back.”

– Speaking to the BBC in 2017

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