I have been experiencing a lot of wonderful changes so far this year. As a result, I am building new relationships. I am having fulfilling conversations, and finding connections in the strangest ways.
But I keep getting sucked into the dark by what’s happening around me, literally and figuratively. At the moment it’s the mifepristone court decisions. When has a court ever interfered with the availability of a medication? Never mind one that has been used safely for more than 20 years? The answer is never. When I searched, here is what came up: No results found for “class action lawsuits against mifepristone”. The closest similarity is heroin, which in 1914 became a regulated substance by the Harrison Narcotics Act which “stipulated that it had to be obtained from a doctor. In 1924 the drug was totally outlawed, even for medicinal purposes, as a result of the Anti-Heroin Act.”
Now, I am neither a scientist or a doctor, but even I can see that there is no comparison between these two drugs. Mifepristone has been used for two decades and is endorsed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists–not known to be lax in their oversight–as part of the “superior medication treatment regimen for miscarriage care.”
I have read that mifepristone is safer than Viagra when it comes to serious medical complications. And therein lies the rub, which most women well know. This court action has absolutely nothing to do with the safety of the medication. Not a blessed thing. It’s blessed “life” that the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, supposedly cares about. If only that were true. We know it’s not.
It’s us. We’re the problem, it’s us. Women.
I keep hearing that we are a nation divided, implying a 50/50 split. Two-thirds of us agree with each other. We elected Hillary Clinton and we elected democrats to a majority in the mid-terms and we elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
We believe that we are all created equal. All. We know that guns are the problem. We are concerned about the multiple and multilayered crises of mental health, homelessness, poverty. We want to do the right thing, always. And beyond voting, we don’t know what steps to take. We watched the protests in Israel and France and wonder why, when our issues are so much more of a threat to our democracy, we are not taking to the streets.
Millions of us turned out for the Women’s March. I was one. Let’s get loud. Again. Let’s get visible. Again. However we can. Let’s keep connecting in strange and wonderful ways.
Women are the solution. We are the solution. It’s us.
ADDENDUM: I attended the Girls’ Inc. Celebration after I wrote this and I am terrified, although the Alito decision tonight brings some small comfort.
