This week marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. After 100 years of having the vote, are women better off today?
The Left makes a good show of supporting women and women’s rights. Recall how inspiring it was supposed to be to see dozens of congresswomen dressed in white during the last State of the Union address—or, it was until they refused to stand for a 100-year-old Tuskegee Airman. Then recall Nancy Pelosi, one of the most powerful women in the country, tearing apart a speech that celebrated record employment numbers for women, the rescue of more than 300 women and girls from sex traffickers, and the first little girl born at 21 weeks to survive.
The truth is that the Left might put on an Oscar-worthy act of caring about women, but they don’t really care. The Left merely cares about its political agenda and when leftists encounter a woman whose notions of rights don’t align with that agenda, they push her aside.
This has become clear on numerous fronts of the culture war from the battle over abortion to criminal justice reform, and the attempt to abolish law enforcement.
Abortion Is the Sacred Cow of the Left
The Left cares more about the right to an abortion than it does about women. To the Left, abortion is a sacred human right. Anything that stands in its way must be sacrificed, even women’s health. This was made clear in June Medical Services v. Gee, a case about a Louisiana law mandating abortion clinics conform to the same medical standards as other healthcare facilities.
The law came about because Louisiana abortion clinics were known for subpar care, Alison Gudan with New Wave Feminist told me at a rally outside of the Supreme Court on the day the case was being heard. Jonathan Alexandre, Senior Counsel for Governmental Affairs at Liberty Counsel told pro-life supporters that expectant mothers should receive the same continuity of care as any other patient.
On the other side of the Supreme Court steps a cadre of leftist organizations from Planned Parenthood, the National Organization for Women, NARAL, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for Reproductive Rights gathered to oppose the Louisiana law. One of their main speakers was actress Busy Philipps, who told those assembled in front of the Supreme Court that she owes her success to the fact that she was allowed “bodily autonomy at 15.”
This echoed actress Michelle Williams, who said during her Golden Globe acceptance speech that she, too, owed her success to an abortion. She finished her speech saying, “Women, 18 to 118 when it is time to vote, please do so in your own self-interest, it is what men have been doing for years, which is why the world looks so much like them.”
Implicit in Williams’ exhortation is that abortion is always in a woman’s self-interest. But is this really the case?
Patrina Mosley with the Family Research Council said that the abortion industry continues to put profits over patients. She talked about women who have received abortions only to leave their surgery hemorrhaging and contracting infections. Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said,
The abortion industry needs this oversight, having shown no interest or ability to self-regulate and defend women from so-called doctors like Kermit Gosnell, James Pendergraft, Steven Chase Brigham, George Klopfer, and more . . . The protection of women and girls is worth more than the abortion industry’s profits.
Yet, to the Left, the health of these women cannot stand in the way of unrestricted access to abortion.
To progressive activists women’s rights often begin and end at the right to unfettered access to abortion. Other issues far more relevant to women’s everyday lives are either ignored or pushed aside. It is clear that they put political ideology over the lives of actual women and abortion is not the only case study worth examining.
Defunding the Police and Freeing Criminals
Two simultaneous movements on the Left have proved detrimental to the safety of women, defunding the police and misguided criminal justice reform.
While protestors on the streets shout “say their names” and then list all of the names of black men shot by police, whether or not that shooting was justified, no one is naming, chanting, or listing the names of the children who have lost their lives.
Take for instance Anisa Scott, an 11-year-old girl, who was shot in the head in Madison, Wisconsin by a gang member. Or the 8-year-old girl shot in Atlanta by radical protesters because her mom accidently drove into a blocked off area near where Rayshard Brooks was shot by police. These are only two of the dozens that have been killed since violence broke out over George Floyd’s death. According to the New York Times, between June 20 and July 5, nine children were killed in Chicago.
It is often those in minority communities who need police protection the most. As of July 2, 336 people in Chicago had been murdered, most of them minorities. On the night of August 15, police were so overwhelmed trying to manage violent protesters in Portland that 60 911 calls went unanswered, Fox News reported.
It’s Dangerous for a Woman to Dissent from the Left
How does the Left treat women who disagree with them? Carmen Best, Seattle’s first female black police chief was outspoken in her opposition to violence sparked by the death of George Floyd. She spoke out against the surrender of a police precinct to protestors as well as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest area.
The City Council decided to slash her department’s budget and cut her pay by 40 percent. Best told a local reporter that she believes personal animosity is at play.
Best was ignored by the City Council when she asked it to condemn “aggressive protesters” who were targeting her at home. As a result of her treatment, Best announced her retirement.
What the Left really Cares About
While police are busy trying to keep violent protestors and rioters at bay in cities across the country, other governmental officials are allowing violent criminals to go free.
For example, accused rapist Ibrahim Bouaichi was let out of jail due to concerns that he might be exposed in jail to the coronavirus. After his release he hunted down his accuser, Karla Dominguez, and then shot and killed her. Where are the #MeToo cries for Karla?
Treating crime with social workers instead of law enforcement isn’t a new fad. Recall the illegal immigrant Christopher Puente, who the Chicago Police Department refused to turn over to ICE after he was arrested for theft, even though he had several felony convictions on his record. Before ICE could track him down again Puente sexually assaulted a 3-year old girl in the stall of a McDonald’s restroom.
The Left shows who they really value in their offers of sanctuary. In this case their ideological commitment to limitless immigration blinded them to the danger Puente posed. Unfortunately, a little girl is the one who paid the consequence.
How many more women and children will pay the price for left-wing policies that kowtow to ideology instead of common sense? A hundred years after getting the vote, it’s great that a woman will be on the presidential ticket in 2020 and it’s great that we have a record number of female congresswomen. But these will be Pyrrhic victories if these women implement policies that put the average woman at risk.