What's a Mother To Do?

I’m all for motorcycle safety regulations. After all, I worked for the National Transportation Safety Board before I retired last year. I know how many motorcyclists die and suffer serious injuries each year.

But, I am not in favor of restricting a woman’s reproductive rights and that’s what Republican lawmakers did in North Carolina last summer. They slipped abortion restrictions into a measure on motorcycle safety.

As reported last July in the News & Observer, “The abortion legislation, Senate Bill 353, requires clinics that perform the procedure to meet standards similar to surgical centers. It also says health care providers can opt out of performing an abortion if it’s against their beliefs. And it would stop government insurance plans from paying for the procedure.”

North Carolina now has the dubious distinction of being recognized one of 2013’s nine worst states for reproductive rights.

Sen. Kay Hagan. V is for vote.

That’s not all that’s going on in North Carolina that affects women and families. When we moved to the Tar Heel State from Northern Virginia last summer, the drive seemed awfully short to be taking us all the way to Texas politics and sensibilities. (As a native Texan with a daughter living there, I pay attention.)

Let’s look at recent “accomplishments” in the North Carolina statehouse:

• Dramatically reduced funding for public education. How do you build a stronger future when you don’t invest in your children? In a state that used to be known for its commitment to public education, in less than six years state funding per student has dropped $653.
• Eliminated critical safety net programs. While 17 percent of North Carolinians live in poverty, more than one-third of households led by women live in poverty. As for single mothers with children under age five, that percentage jumps to more than half. And, yes, our state was one of 15 that refused Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
• Abolished the earned income tax credit, which provides crucial support to working mothers and families, not to mention making radical changes to voting rights.

As a woman (who happens to be way past childbearing age) and a mother of daughters, whom do I want between my daughters and their doctors?

Not Mike Huckabee. Not Thom Tillis. Not anyone.

What is it about some Republicans and women? Don’t these politicians have mothers, daughters, and sisters … or wives?

Why is it that they not only want to turn back the clock on women’s progress, they seem to be out to smash it?

This so-called “War on Women” has been accelerating for several years. 2013 was bad. 2011 was worse. As for 2014, the ACLU reports, “Legislators in 38 states have introduced more than 300 provisions seeking to limit women’s access to care this year.”

  

Here’s an important and frightening take on this "war" and women's health from one of the smartest and most articulate people I wish I knew:  Robert Reich. 

As for why all these attacks on the “fairer” sex, I have looked and looked.  Perhaps I am keying in the wrong search words in my Google quest, but I still don’t get it. Why all the legislation targeted against women, especially when, historically, more women vote than men?

And, gentle readers, if you understand or have any idea, please let me know. Write me or add a comment.

Here’s how Robert Reich explains it in a recent column about how the Republican Party is alienating Hispanics, women, and young people:

  

"How can a political party be so dumb as to piss off Hispanics, women, and young people? Because the core of its base is middle-aged white men – and it doesn’t seem to know how to satisfy its base without at the same time turning off everyone who’s not white, male, and middle-aged."

What’s a mother to do?

Vote.

Get involved.

If you need more inspiration, here’s what the late U.S. Senator from North Carolina, Jesse Helms, said, “I do not intend to be pushed around by discourteous, demanding women.”

Yet, we women have a long tradition of being demanding, courteous and even stylish. That's how we got the vote and so much more.