(AFP) – For feminist writer Jessica Valenti, what began as a personal effort to track the torrent of bans and horror stories after the US Supreme Court overturned long-standing abortion rights in 2022 has evolved into a bigger mission. Her Substack newsletter, “Abortion, Every Day,” quickly became more than just a way to organize the “chaos in my own brain.” It now serves as a daily chronicle of American women’s fight for reproductive freedom.
In an interview with AFP ahead of her latest book, “Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win,” the 45-year-old New Yorker urged progressives to go on the offensive, and she underscored the stakes for Americans as the next election looms. “If (Kamala) Harris loses, we’re absolutely looking at a national abortion ban, even if it’s not a formal one through Congress,” Valenti said from her Brooklyn home.
One of former president Donald Trump’s first moves, Valenti warned, could be to replace the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and restrict access to abortion pills, potentially by revoking rules that now allow them to be mailed. Conservative legal scholars go further, suggesting a future administration could interpret a 19th-century obscenity law to block access to all abortion-related supplies — not just pills. That would effectively end the procedure nationwide, even in states where it remains legal.
Does that sound far-fetched? Valenti recalls when feminists who warned that Roe could fall were dismissed as hysterical. “We’re being told again that it’s never going to happen,” she said. “The same pundits refuse to acknowledge we’ll probably be correct again.” Since the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, including three Trump appointees, issued its ruling, 22 states have banned or severely restricted abortion. Some states allowed exceptions for rape or to save a woman’s life, but these have proven widely inadequate, forcing some women to cross state lines for lifesaving care. None of this is accidental, Valenti argues — such exceptions were designed to make the bans appear less harsh, even while keeping abortion nearly unobtainable.
Her latest book comes as ProPublica reported on the deaths of two Black women in Georgia — deaths that might have been avoided if not for the state’s criminalization of the dilation and curettage (D&C) procedures commonly used in abortions.
“It’s impossible for them to credibly claim this is about saving lives and being ‘pro-life,'” Valenti said. She believes America’s anti-abortion movement is best understood as a misogynist, White Christian supremacist project that seeks to turn the clock back decades. For Valenti, as with many women, reproductive autonomy is not just political but deeply personal. She ended her first pregnancy three months before meeting her husband; they had a daughter two years later. Although she longed for another child, complications during a subsequent pregnancy gave her a 50 percent chance of developing a fatal illness. “Of course, there was no real decision,” she said. “I made a parent’s decision,” opting to terminate to ensure that her toddler not be left motherless.
While the media often focuses on “horror stories” of women losing fertility — or their lives — due to abortion bans, Valenti emphasized that “every abortion denied is a tragedy.” Sometimes people simply “don’t want to be pregnant, and that’s fine — that is vital to your freedom over your body, your life, and your future.”
Strategically, Valenti urges Democrats to move beyond advocating that abortion be “safe, legal and rare,” and instead focus on strengthening legal protections. “We’re in a moment where abortion is more popular than ever,” she said, citing polling that shows broad bipartisan support for keeping government out of the issue. Over the past two years, whether in midterms, ballot initiatives, or state court races, “any election where abortion has played a role, abortion rights have prevailed,” Valenti added.
With Kamala Harris, a pro-choice champion, leading the Democratic ticket, Valenti feels “more hopeful” than when Joe Biden, whose stance was more cautious, was running. However, Republican Trump “has been strategic in pretending he is more moderate on abortion, deliberately muddying his position,” Valenti warned. “I’m still concerned.”
– Issam AHMED
© 2024 AFP
