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If you don't see the connection between felony disenfranchisement, the disenfranchisement of imprisoned people and these efforts to criminalize people who abort pregnancies or perform abortions, it's time to take a step back and examine how these issues are connected.
People talk about how we are living in The Handmaiden's Tale but most are not discussing criminalization as a means of imposing civil death. As @prisonculture has pointed out, the GOP can't *stop* abortions. But they can enact systemic violence on people who choose to abort.
This is why we have to discuss abortion rights w in a repro justice framework. Abortion prohibitions do not exist in a vacuum. They are one tentacle of a violent apparatus that negates our ability to live freely, to safely abort pregnancies AND to bear & raise children in safety.
The GOP doesn't need to put us in red cloaks & white hats if they can add ppl who choose to abort, or provide abortions, to the ranks of the imprisoned. Try walking thru the world with the branding of "felon" on your back & you will understand why they don't need the costumery.
But to really get our heads around this, we have to evaluate what criminalization already looks like. And if you start off by thinking of ppl seeking abortions as being different or better than other criminalized ppl, your attempt at systemic analysis has already failed.
We already have marginalized groups in this country who are routinely subjected to civil death. What the GOP is trying to do is extend that status to all pregnant ppl who might opt to abort in defiance of conservative edicts. Understand these connections and know your enemy.
I know there are many who will say that talking about the carceral state, police violence or environmental violence takes us off script when it comes to these abortion bans, but single-issue thinking has completely failed us, folks. Trust, the GOP has connective politics. Do you?
We didn't get here bc the GOP put everything they had into the fight to curtail abortion rights. Those efforts were part of a larger conservative project that also included environmental deregulation, carceral projects, corporate personhood, media & curriculum takeovers & more.
Your enemies have a complex vision and they are successfully enacting it. They will not be defeated by people who throw down over one issue, in one context. They will be defeated by a bold and relentless vision to transform society. So let's be bold and expansive in our demands.
If you live in Chicago and want to learn more about the intersection of reproductive justice and the criminal legal system, check out this teach in with @LoveProtectOrg Wednesday at 7pm @ 5733 S University Ave. facebook.com/events/6508996…
