Corporations don’t care about human rights, part 1,000

A number of corporations have been catching headlines by making sure that their insurance plans cover not just abortion, but travel expenses related to it in the wake of the Dobbs decision. But it’s important to be skeptical of such moves because, as Jon Skolnik reports, a lot of those companies turn around and give money to the same GOP that is trying to ban abortion across the country. 

It’s not even subtle. A recent corporate GOP event that advertised it was raising money to “combat the Democrats' pro-abortion agenda” received big checks from supposedly pro-choice companies like Citigroup and Uber. They want you to believe that they care about female employees, but in the end, buying influence from authoritarians matters more. 

Anti-choice “activism”: A precursor to Jan. 6

One of the reasons that January 6 is a uniquely terrible event is that, even though it didn’t work, it represented a growing alliance between Republican government officials and domestic terrorists. Politicians working hand in glove with domestic terrorists to inflict an authoritarian agenda is a classic hallmark of fascism, going back to Hitler’s Brownshirts. 

But while an attempted coup is something new in the U.S., pro-choice activists and journalists have been sounding the alarm about the GOP’s use of the brownshirt strategy for decades.

Anti-choicers have been playing this inside/outside game to attack reproductive rights since the 80s. For instance, clinic harassers worked with a sleazy prosecutor in Kansas to legally persecute Dr. George Tiller in 2009. When that strategy failed to shutter his clinic, an anti-choicer murdered Dr. Tiller instead. In a precursor to the lawless overturn of Roe, the GOP-controlled Supreme Court even gave their blessing to people who show up to hurl abuse at and intimidate abortion patients, even as they whine about far less threatening protests of the justices when they go out to eat. 

Unsurprisingly, the inside/outside game of misogyny is ramping up in the wake of the Roe overturn. Upon finding out that she aborted the pregnancy of a 10-year-old rape victim — it’s very important to Republicans to force 4th graders to give birth! — the right swung into action to terrorize Dr. Caitlin Bernard of Indiana. Not only did conservative pundits falsely accuse her of lying, but her name and work address were put on what is an unsubtle hit list published for wannabe assassins.  

The civilian terrorizing of the good doctor has received official blessing from Republican politicians who amplified false allegations and promised to abuse their official powers to harass her. Oh yeah, and the “target these people” list circulated by anti-choicers was endorsed by Amy Coney Barrett, one of the justices who overturned Roe. 

Republicans have been building alliances between would-be terrorists and right-wing politicians for years. So really, it's no surprise the insurrectionists were ready to go when Trump called them to D.C. in his attempt to overthrow an election. 

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Yep, they’re coming for same-sex marriage

The same people who pooh-poohed warnings of a Roe overturn are now eagerly pooh-poohing fears that Republicans are coming for same-sex marriage next.

The contention that liberals are hysterical is, as always, immoveable in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It’s not even clear why these pooh-poohers think political popularity will protect Obergefell, the decision that legalized same-sex marriage. The percentage of Americans who support same-sex marriage has risen to 71%, sure. But polls show similar support for Roe, reaching recent highs like 73%. 

No wonder, since the anti-abortion people also hate same-sex marriage. The same minority that is imposing an anti-abortion regime on the majority will absolutely want to re-criminalize same-sex marriage against public will. 

As Heather “Digby” Parton reminds us, Republicans aren’t even subtle about it. Sen. Ted Cruz hosted a podcast over the weekend in which he reiterated his belief that Obergefell should be reversed. Sen. Josh Hawley recently declared “Obergefell was wrongly decided.” Yes, he tried to soften that stance by declaring it “settled law,” but that was also true of Roe until it wasn’t. Sen. John Cornyn even recently used the confirmation hearings of Ketanji Brown Jackson to unveil some strategies for overturning Obergefell. 

After all, Republicans are ramping up the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric to levels not even seen in the heyday of the gay marriage fight. Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis even signed a law banning teachers from acknowledging LGBTQ people, much less their marriages. Attempting to make same-sex marriage culturally taboo is a clear precursor to making it illegal again. A Trump judge over the weekend blocked the Biden administration from enforcing anti-discrimination laws on behalf of LGBTQ people. 

I understand the urge to pretend things aren’t as bad as they are, I really do. But the right wasn’t rioting at the Capitol to overturn democracy for the hell of it. They want to end democracy so they can impose religious dogma on an unwilling majority, and ending Roe is just a major battle in this ongoing war. 

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“Carry Anne” by Leikeli47

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