Acting Against Our Own Best Interests
How to support creating a theocracy and lose your rights:
Persist in ignoring the “Religious Freedom” legislation that gives Christian nationalist organizations the right to discriminate against and disenfranchise the LBGTQ community and other groups.
Keep believing the Capitol attack on January 6, 2020, was nothing more than “Legitimate political discourse.”
Convince yourself that Roe vs. Wade is no longer needed.
Continue to elect and reelect Republican Party candidates and incumbents.
You’ll get the government you deserve.
For myriad reasons, people consistently act against their own best interests. From dropping out of school, to who we marry, to making investments without proper research, to who we elect to public office, we sometimes counter our past success with decisions that ensure our future failure. Although studies on this matter are voluminous and numerous, researchers have not reached a consensus that satisfactorily explains the behavior.
Personally, I think that beneath our facade of responsible decision-making, we’re all a bit nuts!
But hey, that’s just me. Still, what else explains why people voted for Donald Trump and reelected the senators who acquitted him?
Today, what has the left side of America’s politics up in arms is the strong possibility that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe vs. Wade. The 1973 Landmark ruling that America has held as the law of the land for fifty years. Though most legal scholars think Roe vs. Wade should be “settled law,” it seems that the court is on the cusp of making another boneheaded decision that will probably cause more harm than good. (Think Dred Scott decision, Plessy vs. Ferguson, and Hanging Chads)
Before the 1973 ruling on Roe vs. Wade, many women seeking an abortion, which was illegal, died because of poorly performed procedures, unsanitary conditions that promoted sepsis, and various other complications.
How many? No one really knows. The statistics on how many women died from illegal abortions pre-Roe vs. Wade are mostly guesswork.
However, Erica Sackin of Planned Parenthood addressed the lack of accurate and provable data on the matter with the following statement:
“While stigma, fear, and poor tracking mean we can never know the exact number who suffered before Roe v Wade was decided, what we do know is that even one woman’s death from abortion before it was legal is one too many. Abortion is health care, and it is one of the safest medical procedures there is — there is no reason anyone’s health or life should be endangered by politicians hell-bent on keeping people from accessing this basic health care. Yet far too many politicians seem determined to take us back to the days before Roe was decided — where abortion was virtually inaccessible, and all those who could become pregnant paid the price.”
Well, there it is. With women’s health, the primary concern, the question now is, what will the American people do? Have a collective moment of acting against our own best interests, accept the end of Roe vs. Wade, and return to the situation before 1973? Or show our displeasure and demand that Congress write abortion protections into federal law?
We'd like to know your thoughts on the matter. Take a moment. And let us know what you think in the comments section.
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