Fascist Hellscape

There’s no better issue than abortion to remind us what America under a second MAGA Administration would become.

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks on the abortion front. Donald Trump, the man who often brags about his role in ending Roe, attempted to claim that he wouldn’t support a national abortion ban and that the issue should be left to the states. To put it another way, Trump lied about what his position on abortion actually is. At the same time, courts in Florida and Arizona issued rulings banning abortion in those states, an outcome of GOP activists seeking to take away reproductive freedoms and their focus on America’s courts.

One of my core beliefs is that most Americans don’t actually want to live in a fascist hellscape. Unfortunately, a growing number of Americans are already living in it. Marginalized communities are under increasing threat, especially in states where the Right has enshrined a majority through decades of voter suppression and gerrymandering. And then there’s the fall of Roe. A watershed moment. Where non-MAGA Americans, even the most privileged among us, saw the fascist hellscape up close. I’ve never seen such a seismic political shift before and I doubt I will again in my lifetime. 

Abortion will define this election cycle as it has ever since the Dobbs decision. Joe Biden knows it, which is why his campaign will hammer Republicans on in at every opportunity. Trump and the GOP know it, too. Which is why Trump lied about where he stands and why Republicans in Arizona are attempting to condemn their own abortion policy. And why Republicans are desperate to talk about anything else but abortion and the fact that their party is responsible where we are right now.

But it’s not enough to talk about abortion as a political and electoral issue. Dobbs immediately created a horrible new reality for much of America. Robin Marty, a longtime advocate for reproductive freedom who lives in Alabama and works at one of the few clinics in the state offering pregnancy care to the uninsured, was interviewed on The Cause this week. Marty offers a staggering picture of what’s happened in Alabama and other states since Roe fell. It’s bleak, but we should all beat witness. Excerpt: 

We have one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the nation, but we have the worst maternal mortality rate when it comes to Black women. One out of every 100 women that give birth are going to die in childbirth. That is a statistic from the Milken Institute who just did a big research project on this. So we know that. On the other hand, if you had read a report that came out of Pregnancy Justice a few months ago, they've been tracking people who are thrown in jail when they're pregnant. In Alabama, this happens a lot under the guise of chemical endangerment, which is often meth, sometimes pot and is predominantly white.

And so Alabama is responsible for half of the jailings for chemical endangerment. So here you have Black women that they're trying to get pregnant and they're most likely to die. And you have white women that they're trying to get pregnant and they're most likely to get jailed and also be able to have their babies taken away from them because now it's easier to adopt and get rid of parental rights.

And so you can see this in action when you look at our infant mortality rate. Because our infant mortality rate in the last year decreased, but our infant mortality rate only decreased for white babies. It increased for Black babies to a point in which it actually was larger, but just not large enough that it would take down the amount that they improved well being for white babies.

So this is about any baby can be adopted, but their prefer preference is obviously white babies, and if you just happen to kill the Black moms in the process, so be it. 

Roe’s fall has laid bare the America that Trump and the MAGA Right want, and how catastrophic a second Trump presidency would be for America. It’s one thing to know intellectually that losing reproductive freedoms goes hand in hand with a backsliding democracy, but quite another to live through it in your own community, as millions of people now are. I’m more hopeful than ever that Americans get it and will continue to show up at the ballot box to oppose the MAGA Right at every opportunity. But that awareness and action has come at a great incalculable cost to countless people in states where abortion and reproductive care are no longer accessible. 

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ICYMI

North Carolina Candidate for Governor Built His Brand Through Online Vitriol — Particularly Toward Black Women (19th News)

I keep meaning to write a post about Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is the Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina. But this article in the 19th covers what I would have. Everything from Robinson’s idealogy to his spreading hate, harassment, and harm of Black women to build his own political brand. If you read just one article about politics this week, it should be this one.

Elon Musk Didn’t Want His Latest Deposition Released. Here It Is. (Huffington Post)

Elon Musk is just as creepy as you think he is. But as this deposition shows he’s also smart enough not to perjure himself in court. 

The Public Interest Technology Field Must Embrace Blackness, Faith & Justice to Build a Liberatory Future for All in the Age of AI (Tech Policy Press)

Another brilliant op-ed and analysis from the folks at Tech Policy Press. My fear about AI is that it would just be another biased technology that helped it’s both it’s creators and users discriminate against marginalized communities. This piece from Dr. Fallon S. Wilson offers a blueprint to not fall into that same trap.

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Coda

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