#581 - Peace & Life: No Violence in Women's Rights / Slavery - October 1, 2021
The U.S. House of Representatives Legislates for Violence while Claiming “Women’s Rights”
September 23: The House’s version of the annual “defense” authorization bill has a provision to require women to register for the draft. This is backward: women now have a right not to be compelled to participate in war and its killing. Rather than taking away this right from women, this is clearly a right that should be extended to men.
Unfortunately, this is similar to what the U.S. Senate has already passed. So once the two chambers make a final bill, it’s likely to become law.
September 24: The “Women’s Health Protection Act” would establish abortion extremism, actually worse than the Roe and Casey court decisions did. Conscientious objector status is destroyed, and men who feel sexually entitled to women’s bodies are given a pass (see, for example, our blog posts on sexual autonomy, sexual harassment, violence against pregnant women, and outright rape ). This also feeds the world-wide practice of gendercide, with millions of unborn girls killed because they’re female.
Fortunately, this is currently highly unlikely to pass in the U.S. Senate and become law.
Finally Abolishing Slavery
California has a potential to join the states removing from their state constitution the prohibition on involuntary servitude’s exception for those convicted of a crime. They’re gathering signatures now to place this on the ballot. The Vermont legislature is considering a similar measure for them to place on the ballot. Tennessee’s legislature has already put this on the ballot for November, 2022.
These state constitutions followed the lead of the U.S. Constitution’s 13th Amendment. There’s movement in the U.S. Congress to rectify this, introduced Juneteenth of this year; for the proposal, see the Press Release from Senator Jeff Merkley.
We have a page on our Peace and Life Referendums website on how Finally Abolishing Slavery fits into the consistent life ethic.
Our Latest Blog Post
Rosalyn Mitchell, formerly an intern with us, shares her personal journey on abortion facility protests, reflecting on the stories of two counter-protesters, in 300 Roses.
Quotation of the Week
Tish Harrison Warren, Anglican priest
The New York Times, Sept. 26, 2021
“My body, my choice,” the rallying cry of the pro-choice movement, has been adopted by those opposing mask and vaccine mandates. . . .
Certainly, the complexities of abortion and Covid prevention are different . . . But the mutual slogan points to an underlying agreement between these warring factions . . .
Over the past year as we’ve asked people to go into lockdown . . . wear masks and get vaccinated, we are asking them to assume some level of financial and personal risk for the greater good — for strangers, for the elderly, for the immunocompromised, for the medical community. We can and should enact legislation like paid family leave, no-cost health care and other measures to support mothers, just as we support economic relief for those affected by Covid prevention . . .
But as a culture, we desperately need religious communities that do not parrot the predictable ethical arguments of the right or the left. We need a rooted and robust call to love our neighbors, our families and the marginalized, the needy, the weak and the afflicted among us.
Responses/News Tips/Questions to share are all welcome.
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