Republican voters supported politicians who created laws and promoted judges to remove a woman’s right to make her own healthcare choices. In doing so, they opened a Pandora’s Box of possible futures. Futures they probably did not want, but voted for.
Republican legislatures have written laws defining any fertilized embryo as a person. Any fertilized embryo. The laws do not exclude those embryos created as part of the in vitro fertilization processes used by couples who may be unable to conceive otherwise. Some 60,000+ couples do this annually. Often the process results in multiple viable embryos. If only one embryo is implanted and carried to term that’s a great result for the couple. But what happens to the other embryos? By Republican law, it would be homicide to dispose of those. Who goes to jail for that? The doctor? The new parents? Is that what you voted for?
By creating laws that are purposely vague and unclear, Republican lawmakers cause doctors to postpone or outright refuse to treat women suffering miscarriage until their situation become so dire that more medical intervention is required. The doctors fear that acting in the best interest of their patient may now be criminal. Multiple women have been courageous enough to tell their stories of suffering through hours, sometimes days, of pain and blood loss, until they approach coma or worse. Then, and only then, do their doctors feel legally safe to act. Is that what you voted for?
In his concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas stated he felt it time to also revisit the decisions that allow women to opt for contraception. Do Republican women really want to forego the option to use contraception to plan their families? The right for you to make that choice may be removed by this same Supreme Court. Is that what you voted for? For those who claim “that can’t happen”, consider that few really believed the court would fully remove a Constitutional right women held for more than 5 decade - but the Supreme Court did remove that right.
If the legislators you voted for in the past are not acting as you wish, if they are not acting in your best interest, you will have the opportunity to vote them out in roughly 100 days (less for early voting).