Abortion is still safe and legal in Oregon. Too bad the streets of Portland aren’t.
That’s of little concern to state Sen. Akasha Lawrence Spence (D-Portland) who smilingly Tweeted a picture of herself carrying a protest sign. As if Portlanders need to be encouraged to take to the streets. As if abortion is in danger of being banned in Oregon. It isn’t.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade was an opportunity for political grandstanding – especially for the Oregon Legislature’s BIPOC caucus. One after another came a series of press releases from legislators who consider themselves black, indigenous, people of color denouncing the court’s decision.
Spence was particularly melodramatic: “For 49 years we have lived in a nation that supported people with a uterus’ right to choose, that nation is slowly disintegrating before our eyes.”
People with a uterus? She means females but is afraid to say so for fear of offending someone who doesn’t have a uterus but wants to be female. The U.S. has been slowly disintegrating for a few decades now – long before this recent court decision.
For more melodrama, coupled with condescension, there was state Sen. Kayse Jama (D-Portland): “This systematic and coordinated effort by Republicans to strip Americans of their bodily autonomy is disgusting and dangerous, and will undoubtedly impact the most vulnerable. This is a dark day in America. … This is a terrifying moment for millions of Americans whose fears have become reality.”
Those are strange words by a legislator who is from Somalia. There are terrifying moments going on right now in the lives of Somali girls and women. Abortion is strictly regulated in Somalia, and childbirth is dangerous. According to the Guttmacher Institute, Africa is the world region with the highest number of abortion-related deaths. Are Republicans to blame?
Like Spence, Jama urges protest over the Dobbs decision.
For bigotry there was the press release by Rep. Andrea Valderrama (D-Portland): “(F)ighting to make abortion care accessible to our most directly impacted pregnant people in Oregon and in neighboring states with active bans is a critical step towards dismantling systems of white supremacy and patriarchy.”
Patriarchy is something Valderrama would know about. She is Peruvian-American. The ancient Inca Empire in Peru was destroyed by Spanish conquistadors in 1532. Over the centuries, a patriarchal culture emerged and endured.
Abortion is illegal in Peru unless it is necessary to save the life of the mother.
“At the same time a woman can be imprisoned if she receives an illegal abortion,” according to one legal study. “Yet, despite its illegality and the threat of punishment, there are over 350,000 illegal and clandestine abortions performed each year in Peru and nearly 65,000 of these women are hospitalized due to complications. Peru has the second-highest maternal mortality rate in South America and unsafe abortions account for nearly one quarter of the deaths.”
Here in Oregon, a state allegedly founded by white supremacists seeking a white utopia (if you can believe what you hear and read in the mainstream media), Valderrama is serving in a female-majority state House of Representatives. She was appointed to the post last year by the all-female Multnomah County Board of Commissioners when her ex-boyfriend, Rep. Diego Hernandez, resigned after she and two other women accused him of improprieties.
Fascinating that a state allegedly founded by white supremacists has long had one of the most liberal abortion laws in the U.S.
It may not matter since both sides in the abortion war have, in their own way, harmed women and children. The strident anti-abortion faction has unwittingly promoted out-of-wedlock births and poverty by guilting females into having babies. The strident pro-choice faction also has unwittingly promoted babyhood by insisting there are no bad choices: Whatever you choose to do with your pregnancy and your body is fine. Throw raunch culture and drug abuse into the mix, and the babies come easily. If there’s no one to act as a responsible parent, the government will step in.
How did abortion become such a never-ending political issue? Like guns, it’s a moneymaker for both sides. Even Joe Biden has emailed me twice in the last few days pleading for $15. People I have never heard of from states I have never visited have emailed me asking for money.
“If you want to see more progress in the U.S. Senate, please split a donation today to my campaign and the DNC to help flip North Carolina and expand our majority,” begs Cheri Beasley.
I like progress, real progress, which is why I am pro-abortion. It’s a medical procedure that has advanced to where the first trimester of a pregnancy can often be ended safely with pills and no intrusive surgical procedure. This is progress, particularly with world population headed towards 8 billion people. Jama and Valderrama should spread the word in Somalia and Peru.
In America, we don’t need more babies, either. We need better parents.
“As a teacher at my old high school told me recently, ‘They want us to be shepherds to these kids. But no one wants to talk about the fact that many of them are raised by wolves.’”
That’s a quote from J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy,” a book about the dissolution of America’s white, working class. The book, published in 2016, was frequently cited by the media in trying to explain the election of Donald Trump.
Vance is now running as the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio. Sadly, he is 100 percent opposed to abortion. His Mamaw got pregnant at 13, and look how great her grandson turned out! When Vance offers platitudes about the need for more family support, he sounds like an Oregon progressive.
Reaction to the Dobbs decision will continue to be one of public outrage, fueled by politicians on the left and their friends in the media.
The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg almost predicted this back in 1992 before she was nominated to the court.
In an essay in The Atlantic, “How Roe Undermined Itself” David French said Ginsburg warned that when courts write laws, instead of just interpreting them, they should do so “slowly and cautiously,” otherwise the laws “may prove unstable.”
As an example, she used Roe v. Wade, a precedent that she called “breathtaking.” French writes that Ginsburg contrasted Roe v. Wade directly with the Court’s more cautious dispositions in cases involving questions of sex discrimination.
“She noted that the Roe Court did not have to rewrite all of the nation’s abortion laws at a stroke. There was a narrower path, and that narrower path may have been more prudent.”
Just as the Dobbs decision has led to disruption, so did the Roe ruling 50 years ago.
“It completely ruptured the prior legal regime, and our nation has been living with the fallout ever since,” French writes.
So now we have new fallout – and fresh graffiti scarring Portland: “Jane’s revenge” for Jane Roe, the name assigned to Norma McCorvey in her famous lawsuit. This past weekend brought familiar rioting and vandalism to some Portland businesses and shops.
Portland has yet to recover from the George Floyd riots of 2020. The city doesn’t need a rerun. There’s talk nationally of a new “underground railroad” – this one for women seeking abortions in safe states like Oregon.
Will that ignite the interests of the BIPOC caucus? It’s the kind of cause that could lead to the creation of a few more public agencies and nonprofits devoted to equity.
It would be a passionate issue with neatly defined sides. Much more exciting than the hard, boring work of fixing our infrastructure, our schools and restoring public safety.
IMO Oregon has gone too far with NO restrictions on abortion access. Having a niece who works in a NICU (Neonatal intensive care unit) she sees all types of mothers from just plain thoughtless/careless to those who have done all the proper care for their unborn child. I think abortion past 20 weeks, maybe even less than this, should be illegal. Returning this question back to the states is not a reason to think the sky is falling. So tired of "protests" that end up committing vandalism and other acts all because there is supposedly only one correct way to think.
Oregon: Number one state in Death Tourism