In a sense, Donald Trump is correct that women who have abortions if the procedure is banned should face "some sort of punishment."
Before you misconstrue my opinion, please note that I have always been an advocate of pro-choice. In fact, on July 7, 2014, the Huffington Post published my article in response to the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision titled "Republicans Are Stripping Away Rights that Others Fought So Hard to Attain."
The following is an excerpt from that article:
For decades, I have been warning people that one of the most powerful things a President does is nominate Judges to the Supreme Court....
Since the Supreme Court issued its decision, many people have suggested boycotting Hobby Lobby and other such businesses. While I support such a decision, it misses the bigger issue. Although Hobby Lobby and other closely held corporations may have filed the lawsuit, it was the Republican appointed Justices who made this ruling. What do you think will happen if any of the Democratic appointed Justices or even the 'swing vote' is replaced by yet another Conservative Justice? I've been saying this for over a decade and women make up a majority of the population. In other words, ladies, you did this to yourselves every time you voted for a Republican President, as did those men who support women. Human rights are worth far more to me than money.
In my opinion, women, members of the LGBT community, and racial minorities who cast votes for Republican candidates believe that money is worth more than their human rights. As for those of you who claim to vote their 'faith,' it is your right to do so. However, don't complain when you lose rights you currently hold that others before you fought so hard to obtain....
Abigail Adams once said, 'Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies we are determined to forment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation.' Abigail Adams died on October 28, 1818, more than 100 years before the United States Federal Government granted women the right to vote. When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965, he said, 'the vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.' If you want to break down this injustice that has been building for quite some time, you must do so by exercising your voting rights and doing so in a more thoughtful manner. Anyone and everyone eligible to vote in the United States of America and who values human rights must stop voting for Republican candidates unless and until they start respecting human rights above the rights of corporate entities and an elite group of Christian Caucasian heterosexual males."
It bears mentioning that this article was written before the death of extremely conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. With the passing of Justice Scalia, the Christian Conservatives lost control of the Supreme Court and they are fighting tooth and nail to prevent his seat from being filled by President Obama.
Allow me to repeat myself: "One of the most powerful things a President does is nominate Judges to the Supreme Court."
In fact, allow me to repeat myself yet again: In a sense, Donald Trump is correct that women who have abortions if the procedure is banned should face "some sort of punishment." They sort of do, since they are the majority of the population and thus accountable for this situation. We get the elected officials we vote into office and the government we deserve. It's about time that people start taking responsibility for their actions and inactions, both of which are choices.
As a majority of the population, women essentially elect people or cause people to be elected who hold such beliefs.
If feminists of days gone by voted for modern day Republicans, they wouldn't have any of the rights they are now losing.
They don't realize that the antigay rhetoric that's causing them to vote Republican is creating this result.
You can't selectively numb, as Brene' Brown, Ph.D., LMSW says. By numbing, Dr. Brown is referring to one of the six most common strategies used to offload hurt. By numbing, Dr. Brown is referring to "taking the edge off." However, according to Dr. Brown, "We need the edge. The edge is where joy, love, intimacy and trust live. To dull the edge of hurt, you dull the edge of everything."
By the same token, you can't selectively decide that the government should be involved in a person's personal life and then get upset that doing so involves more than just the LGBT community. It's amazing how that works.
You can't have it both ways. If you want to deny the LGBT community their civil rights and right to equal dignity under the law, doing so requires electing politicians who are Christian Conservatives.
Interestingly enough, those individuals also happen to strip women of rights their predecessors fought so hard to obtain.
The choice is and has been entirely in the hands of women and they opted for discrimination against the LGBT community, without any thought of the consequences. I've been predicting this result for quite some time.
As Frank Bruni said in the closing of his article titled "The Republicans' Gay Freakout," if you want to make America great again, you can't waste time worrying about who's cutting the wedding cake." According to Mr. Bruni, "Republican efforts to push through so-called religious liberty laws and other legislation -- most egregiously in North Carolina -- that excuse and legitimize anti-gay discrimination are cynical distractions. Politically opportunistic sideshows."
Mr. Bruni is absolutely correct. In fact, the LGBT community long ago assessed what demographic caused Proposition 8 to pass in California, thereby stripping gays and lesbians of the right to marry. That demographic was "parents with children under 18 living at home -- many of them white Democrats." 687,000 people who voted in favor of Proposition 8 "supported same-sex marriage before the opposition peeled them away. Yes, they turned out to be susceptible to an appeal based on anti-gay prejudice. But they were frightened by misinformation...The lesson: It's not enough to make the case for same-sex marriage. It's also important to arm voters -- particularly parents -- against an inevitable propaganda attack. And it's crucial to rebut lies so parents don't panic."
Since we now have marriage equality in the United States, as do a great many other countries around the world, the misinformation currently spewed by Christian Conservatives involves transgender people and "the Big Bathroom Lie."
"As Bryan Cranston, who played Dalton Trumbo in the film 'Trumbo' said, 'fear is an enemy of freedom.'
While the politics of Ronald Reagan and Al Gore were very different, they both agreed that 'the intentional creation of false fears for political purposes is harmful to our democracy.'"
Outcomes are typically determined by the way in which the "game" is designed. If you don't like the way in which Christian Conservatives are designing the "game", stop electing them to office.