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One of the things that I believe most people fail to realize about why conservatives are so fervent on pushing an anti-abortion justice is because abortion a litmus test for the way someone believes on all other issues and the politics around it stem from white supremacy.
The current anti-abortion movement grew out of the school segregation movement because they wanted to be able to continue to control families, poor folks, and anyone not like them, and saw abortion as a way to do so based in their Evangelical whiteness.
People who are anti-abortion are usually anti-trans, anti-immigrant, anti-Black, anti-worker, anti-sex, anti-queer, anti-environment, and don't want to support poor folks to have thriving lives. It all tracks.
The anti-abortion movement has always been steeped in the promotion of white supremacy, particularly during times of rising immigration and the power and growing reach of people of color. They're often concerned with being outnumbered, and know reproduction is a form of control.
During slavery, abortion was hated because it was a means that Black enslaved women used to save themselves and their families from the horrors of slavery and because the white human traffickers couldn't profit off of their children. Today, it's a way to determine our futures.
At the core, their stance on anti-abortion shows where they stand on most other issues—it shows that they do not believe people—particularly people of color—have the right to decide their own healthcare, childbearing & family size, changes to their bodies & economic situation.
Their anti-abortion stance empowers them to decide that the rest of us shouldn't have the ability to decide what's best for our situations—and they do based on outdated and irrelevant beliefs they hold for themselves. It allows them to criminalize us for making our own decisions.
This also tracks for other issues; most people who are anti-abortion also don't believe that immigrants, disabled people, queer and trans people, sex workers, and poor folks can decide what's best for their lives and futures, and enforce laws criminalize their bodies & existence.
All of this is based on race & class. We all know that laws can be circumvented by wealthy and white people. The laws are not applied in the same way, so the justices' anti-abortion stance is basically a restriction on those of us who do not have the wealth to ignore the law.
This also means that Black and Brown people, poor folks, immigrants, sex workers, queer and trans folks, will experience criminalization at astronomical levels because we are punished for the same "crimes" that white and wealthy people are able to do with impunity.
And once we're criminalized, we continue to be controlled—every aspect of our lives is: the ability to determine your own healthcare, earn a living, vote, where you can live, care for your families. Everything.
The criminalization of abortion & pregnancy is core to this.
The criminalization of abortion & pregnancy is core to this.
If the anti-abortion movement cared about people being able to have children why don't they say anything about ICE and jails snatching the uterus and miscarriages of incarcerated folks? Because it's about control of Black and Brown people, not actually about their lives.
People are already being criminalized for their pregnancy outcomes, for trying to care for their children in ways that the state doesn't approve of, and for trying to make sure families live free from harm. And it's mostly Black and Brown people experiencing it. It's not new.
It's not just about abortion—it's about determining whether or not we have the ability to choose what's best for our lives, in all aspects of our lives. If they can force you to stay pregnant, and throw you in jail if you don't continue that pregnancy, they can do a lot.
