"Sacrifice the women so gas is cheaper?"
"Sacrifice the women so gas is cheaper?"
The unspoken message we're getting from far too many, including from those we love, is that our lives matter less.
Ryan Hamilton, a radio host in Texas, nearly lost his wife in May of this year. While miscarrying at nearly 13 weeks pregnant, his wife was not provided the necessary care she needed as a result of Texas’s inhumane abortion bans and the fear of prosecution that the bans instill in Texas doctors. After multiple trips to different hospitals over several days, Hamilton found his wife on the floor of their bathroom at their home, unconscious and bleeding to death. He described this experience in a recent op-ed:
My wife asks for a heated blanket and a pillow. She lies on the bathroom floor, her visage gray and her skin clammy. For the first time I catch myself thinking, Is she going to die?
As I check on our daughter, I look down at my phone and see a missed call. I race back to find my wife unconscious on the floor, a red trail running from the toilet into the pool of blood she’s lying in.
I’ll never forget lifting her cold, limp body off that bathroom floor, yelling, “Can you hear me?!”
On the first episode of his new podcast, CORRECT with Ryan Hamilton, he elucidated his feelings regarding current Republican vs. Democrat political discourses in this post-Roe election year season. Hamilton's words reach into the heart of what millions of people who are or who can become pregnant are feeling right now, in this moment.— Our lives matter less (often, even, to those we love and who are supposed to love us). Hamilton said:
They're talking about immigration, important issues, but the humanity inside of people in America seems to be gone - inside a lot of people, I should say. Because the women that we love, their lives seem to matter less when I hear these arguments about groceries being too expensive or gas being too expensive. I get that. I know that makes life hard. So, we sacrifice the women so gas is cheaper?
Our lives matter less than gas prices. Our lives matter less than the southern border. Our lives matter less than “owning the Libs.” Our lives matter less than someone's hatred of Democrats. Our lives matter less than disdain for Ukraine and its president. Our lives matter less than contempt for Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and pro-Palestinian protestors. Our lives matter less than the culture war. Our lives matter less than the pursuit of power and religio-cultural domination over a country of 330+ million people. Our lives matter less.
It's a lonely, demoralizing space in which to exist.
People speak about crime and safety while we are fighting to be safe in our own bodies.
People speak about “law and order” while we are fighting the government for control over our own bodies after being raped.
People speak about the importance of securing the southern border while we are fighting to be secure in our physical bodies, instead of being forced to undergo major operations that risk our lives or being forced to undergo vaginal probing by the government.
People speak about parental rights while we are fighting for the ability to make the decisions we believe are best when faced with devastating diagnoses of fatal fetal anomalies.
People speak about marriage while we are trying to wrest ourselves free from domestic, sexual, and reproductive abuse.
People speak about financial security while we are fighting to exercise autonomy in order to put food on the table for the children that we already have.
People speak about religious freedom while we are fighting to exercise our own faith and beliefs.
People speak about life being sacred while we are fighting for the right to receive emergency medical care and not just be left to die during catastrophic pregnancy complications.
People speak about liberty while we are fighting for the basic right to travel in order to receive medical care.
People speak about the birth rate while we are fighting to be able to safely be pregnant and give birth, and for the basic right to start a family.
But the unspoken message we're getting from far too many, including from those we love, is that our lives matter less. This is not okay.
For twenty years I've watched, baffled, as women and the concerns of women have been sidelined - election after election, year after year.
The blatant disregard for human rights and human dignity by the Republican Fascist Party is one reason I will be voting against them this November. My ballot will be blue in some places and bald in others. In my congressional district there is no one challenging the GOP candidate. They will not be getting my vote. I can only hope the Democratic candidate wins in district 2 in Alabama. I will be delighted to see 2 Democrats from Alabama occupy 2 house seats.