Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
You’re not in Kansas anymore
So far I’m pleased with a couple of results from the primary elections on Tuesday. I am happy that a nurse from Missouri might be sent to Washington, DC, to heal the Senate. She’s a former hospice nurse so she’ll know how to treat the geriatric men who have lived in that chamber way too long, and who need to move on. Trudy Busch Valentine is partly running on name recognition – her pedigree is obvious. But she’s a mom and a nurse, and those skills are badly needed in the Senate.
However, even cooler than Trudy’s victory is the message that thousands of Kansans sent to their legislature: You will NOT amend the state constitution in order to legislate an all-out ban on abortion. I know that Kansas is a bright red state, so I am encouraged by those who support a woman’s right to choose her medical care. I am pleased to live next to a state that will not allow politicians to dictate what women do with their bodies. At least women in Missouri may find it easier to travel to Kansas for reproductive care. Oh, and on the other side of the Show Me State lies Illinois, another state with options for women.
I work across the street from Planned Parenthood, whose ability to provide safe medical abortions has been struck down. And yet there is still some old guy sitting in a lawn chair outside the gate with a sign that says “Ban abortions”. I smile as he sits in the sweltering heat of a Missouri August day. I’ll bet if he had a heat stroke the good people of Planned Parenthood would render him aid despite his politics.
Last night on MSNBC, Joy Reid, showed clips of Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito making jokes about his written decision on Roe v. Wade. He was in Rome at a conference on religious liberty sponsored by Notre Dame’s School of Law. He thought it amusing that a number of foreign leaders were criticizing the ruling for which he had written the majority consensus. His demeanor was that of a man in power proud of a decision that will adversely affect millions of women and men. There is nothing funny about what he authored.
His contempt for women’s reproductive rights is obvious in his 78 page opinion. I haven’t read it all, just some of the more shocking statements. For instance, he writes that abortion is a matter to be decided by states and the voters in the states. He also said that states have a right to regulate abortion to eliminate “gruesome and barbaric” medical procedures. He clearly forgot the history pre Roe v Wade that documents back alley abortions, and women dying from botched procedures. Effectively, he removed the option for safe medical interventions which prevent the loss of life.
So, thank you, Kansas, for keeping reproductive rights out of the legislature’s hands for the time being. Although the turn out for the primaries was only about 30% of Kansas’ total population, 65% of those who came forward to vote sent a message: keep your politics away from my right to choose!