Protecting Our Daughters

Seniors are concerned about the future for girls and women. What rights will our daughter and granddaughters inherit?

The growing divide between Republicans and Democrats goes well beyond superficial differences. Republicans yearn for a return to a post-World War II American society where men were the primary breadwinners and women were subordinated to stereotypical, domesticated roles. The most glaring example of this new power shift was revealed in the Republican rejection of Roe v. Wade under the Dobbs decision. In 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) did the unthinkable.

It overturned 50 years of protections for women’s reproductive rights, including abortion. It stripped women of bodily autonomy, reducing women of childbearing age to their monthly cycles and capacity for procreation. Fighting back, in every state that held elections in 2022 (California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, and Vermont) where abortion was on the ballot, women challenged their state legislatures in “red” and “blue” states, beating the Right to Life movement that was thwarted in its efforts to restrict access to reproductive healthcare.

These are not pyrrhic victories, as women across America are suffering debilitating health outcomes and life-or-death consequences as a direct result of Dobbs. Moreover, the Republican pick for vice president, J.D. Vance, doubled down on his proposal for a nationwide ban on abortion with an equally detrimental proposal for a moratorium on “No Fault Divorce,” consigning women to bad (and even violent marriages with limited opportunity for divorce. In his most recent “about-face,” Vance has acknowledged the unpopularity of this position and has renounced a nationwide abortion ban. However, pro-choice skeptics find it challenging to accept this changed position as authentic.

Organizations like Planned Parenthood, the Brookings Institution, and Emily’s List can go far in advancing the cause to protect women’s freedoms, particularly as they relate to the development of healthcare and reproductive policy articulation. Like the Freedman’s Bureau that was formed after the end of slavery to advance the rights of the formerly enslaved, the Harris White House should consider commissioning a special task force that will investigate processes (legislative and judicial) that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in a bold act that ignored the will of the majority to prevent future encroachments.