Vote! Your Reproductive Rights & Democracy Itself Are On The Midterm Ballot
HollywoodLife’s Editor-in-Chief, Bonnie Fuller, urges you to vote – it truly is the most important election of your lifetime.
Tomorrow — on Nov. 8th — is your chance to fight for your reproductive rights. It also could be your last chance to vote in a democratic election, with 300 Republican election deniers on the ballots around the country. You need to vote – your health and democracy itself depend on it.
At HollywoodLife, we have learned over the years that a majority of our readers are women. That’s why we feel so strongly that women must be equal citizens with equal rights here in America.
But unfortunately, since the Supreme Court overturned Roe. V. Wade, which guaranteed women the right to an abortion, at least half the women in this country are now living in states with stringent abortion bans, preventing them from accessing the procedure even if they have been raped, are victims of incest or have health issues which could make pregnancy dangerous for them.
They can no longer make their own reproductive health care decisions. Decisions about the most personal aspect of their lives. You, yourself may be living in one of those states. Do you think this is fair? Men can still decide whatever they want about their bodies and their healthcare.
Futrher more, Republicans were furious when they were supposed to wear masks to stop the spread of the deadly Covid virus. They very loudly protested that mask mandates were an invasion by the government of their freedom and their liberty.
But isn’t it a far, far greater invasion of your liberty to have state governments tell you that you HAVE to have a baby if you have an accidental pregnancy or are raped?
Nov. 8th gives you a chance to fight back by voting for Democratic candidates in your state who will work to get access to abortion back. Or who will protect your access, if abortion is still legal where you live. Only Democratic candidates for Governor and for state legislatures will do that. Republicans across the country at the state, local and federal level are fully committed to abortion bans.
Ask yourself these following questions and remember that you can be directly affected by abortion bans, even if you personally never thought you would want or need to get an abortion.
Do you want to make your own decision about whether you are ready to start a family? Do you want to get immediate medical care if you have a miscarriage? Do you want a doctor to act without delay if you are forced to have an abortion to save your life during a high-risk pregnancy or would you really prefer to have politicians decide these questions.
Do you really want to have to wait until you are close to death before you can get an abortion in a medical emergency ? That’s because most abortion bans only allow you to have the procedure if there is a very serious risk of you dying.
For example, take what happened to Amanda Zurawski. Amanda is a 35-year-old Texan who was happily 18 weeks pregnant after a year of fertility treatments. She was devastated when she learned that her pregnancy was no longer viable due to a condition in which her cervical tissue opened far too early and began leaking amniotic fluid. Without an immediate abortion, she was at high risk of developing a serious infection, except that she was in Texas and the unborn and unviable fetus’ heart was still beating.
Amanda was sent home by doctors to wait for 4 days until she was sick enough with a life threatening sepsis infection to legally be given an abortion in Texas. Texas only allows legal abortions, to save the life of the mother. By the time Amanda was finally admitted to the hospital for an abortion, she was incoherent and close to death from the infection.
Amanda spent a week in the ICU before finally recovering. But she still doesn’t know if she will be able to now have children due to scar tissue in her uterus, left by the infection.
“Amanda almost died. I’m just so scared for everyone else who this is going to happen to,” her husband Josh told The Today Show.
If you live in Texas, Idaho, Ohio, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, or many other GOP-led states, this could also happen to you. To protect your rights to your own needed healthcare you, bottom line, have to vote for the Democratic candidates running for Governor in red states. Vote for Nan Whaley in Ohio, Katie Hobbs in Arizona, Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, Tony Evers in Wisconsin, Stacey Abrams in Georgia, Beto O’Rourke in Texas, and Charlie Christ in Florida – they are all the Democratic candidates voting for Governor and they have all pledged to fight for your right to an abortion.
You need to also vote for Democrats to represent you in your state legislatures and to be your Senators and House of Representatives members in Congress. Even if you live in usually-blue New York state, there is a good chance that reproductive rights-supporting Governor Kathy Hochul could be defeated by Republican candidate Lee Zeldin, who has flip-flopped on his stance on abortion, per Politico. He is also an election denier, as reported by MSNBC.
So New York readers, your vote will very much count! Please vote!
No woman who cherishes the right to make her own reproductive decisions should sit out this election. If any of you want to have the option of conceiving through IVF because it could be your only chance to have a baby – you have to vote for Democrats.
Many Republican politicians who have already banned abortion in their states have indicated that they will consider banning certain popular methods of contraception like the IUD and The Pill if they are elected or re-elected.
Then, don’t forget that Senator Lindsey Graham has already introduced a bill into Congress for a NATIONAL ban on abortions after 15 week. If Republicans take the majority in the House Of Representatives and in the Senate during these mid term elections– and right now the odds are high that they will — that 15-week national abortion ban will pass. The only thing holding it back will be President Joe Biden vetoing it… for now.
Which brings us to 2024… If democracy itself is something that you care about, your ability to vote for who you want to lead your state and lead the country, that’s another reason you should vote for Democrats for every single office, including State Attorney General and your state’s Secretary of State. Candidates like Mallory McMorrow of the Michigan State Senate, Florida State Attorney candidate Allison Miller, and Florida House of Representatives candidate Ruwa Romman.
That’s because virtually all the Republican candidates have pledged to support Donald Trump’s Big Election Lie, about the 2022 election being stolen. It was NOT stolen. It was a free and fair election that Joe Biden won with 81 million votes versus Trump’s 74 million.
Nevertheless, Trump couldn’t accept that he was a loser and has now endorsed a full roster of election-denier candidates, like Kari Lake, running for Governor of Arizona, Doug Mastriano, running for Governor of Pennsylvania, Tudor Dixon, running for Governor of Michigan, and Tim Michels, running for Governor of Wisconsin. They all pledged that if elected, they will ensure that they will use their power to decide the results of further elections, as reported by the Washington Post. Republican candidates like Ron Johnson, running for Senate in Wisconsin, and Kari Lake have also refused to say they will accept the results of their own elections if they won’t win.
So, I have to ask you, do you want your votes in all future elections to be fairly counted? Or do you want election results in your state to be overturned by an election-denying Governor, Secretary of State or Attorney General?
It is a fact that only Republican candidates are suggesting they overturn results they don’t like. Only Republican candidates are saying they won’t accept election results if they lose. Just like Donald Trump.
That’s why democracy itself is on the ballot. Think about this: If your vote will not count in the future and only Republicans can win in your state because they control the Governorship and the gerrymandered state legislature , then you will be living in a dictatorship under one party . And if they can throw your state’s Electoral College votes to Donald Trump in 2024, no matter what the popular vote is, then you will be living in a dictatorshipl
Is that what you want? Economies and businesses do not thrive in dictatorships – so no, the economy will not be better under total Republican rule.
LGBTQ rights and minority rights are usually curtailed in dictatorships. The freedom to think and speak and to learn are all things that are curtailed in dictatorships. If you think the staggering numbers of books that are being banned from schools and public libraries now, is bad – just wait until you are living under a dictatorship.
Just think about what life is like for the people of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Talk about losing your freedom.
That may seem unimaginable to you today on Nov 7th, at this moment in this country that has been up until now, the greatest democracy in the world. But all that could change tomorrow if you don’t vote.
Tomorrow, vote for Democratic candidates who will protect your right to make your own healthcare decisions and your right to vote and have that vote counted in all elections in the future.
Nov. 8th is voting D-day — Do it! Vote for democracy.