I can hardly look.
Right now, I’m holding my breath. Like anybody else who understands what’s at stake in the US election, today. (And let’s be honest based on the lawsuits that will come, at least for the rest of the week.) We’re feeling equal parts hope and dread. Because this election will determine if women are real people in America.
I used to report on American elections, arrange phone banks for candidates, attend watch parties in ballrooms or living rooms as this state or that county reported results. That was when I worried about things like whether the patrician New Englander who claimed to be Texan wouldn’t be as good “my guy”. Or if people would really turn out to vote for a woman.
This time it’s not just an artificial fear of the drop. Not the phoney screams and emotion as we go over the top of the rollercoaster then swoop down, rattle into a turn and return to start. “Next time,” we’d say to each other. “We’ll get them next time.”
This time it’s the plunge over the waterfall, full-on horror. We can’t see the rocks below but we know full well they’re there and we could be dashed upon them.
What the US election really means this time
Coverage of the US election has been relentless, but as an American who’s lived in the UK for more than 2 decades, these past few weeks have entirely missed the point.
At base this election is about whether in America we continue to let demagoguery stop women from running their own lives. It’s about whether we’ll actually let the government kill women in the name of knowing what’s best for them.
Since Trump’s term in office, it’s a fact of life that millions of pregnancies can unnecessarily end in sepsis, infertility, derailment of lives, financial ruin, the destruction of existing families. Or that spontaneous miscarriages can lead to jail time for the women experiencing them.
Michelle Obama had it right
At a rally two weeks ago, Michelle Obama said, “This choice isn’t even close.”
She was talking about “the incompetence, corruption and chaos” of Trump’s presidency.
Yes.
But as a Brit and an American – with a daughter who is British and American as well – I’ll be waiting to see if my home nation is a safe place for her to live.
If her healthcare would be decided by doctors and nurses in scrubs rather than a lawyer in a sharp suit.
If she could even get birth control (which Republicans are trying to restrict access to).
If she could live in my home state of Texas. There, an ectopic pregnancy or a missed miscarriage could not just accidentally kill her but could *be allowed* to kill her.
If the country where I was born believes that her life and all her potential is worth as much an embryo.
If during pregnancy and childbirth – one of the most dangerous moments of a woman’s life – the people looking after her would be thinking about legislators instead of her.
What will happen to women if Trump wins
Make no mistake, if the Republicans win the presidency:
Trump will sign an abortion ban.
Republicans will continue to rollback healthcare for women (while sanctimoniously pontificating on their religious beliefs and trying to sell it as “healthcare”)
And women will have fewer rights than not only the fetuses they carry but clumps of cells that are not yet a fetus.
It’s a cliché to say any election is about “the soul of the country”.
This one is about much more about that. It’s about every girl and woman of every age … and whether the government will allow them to be full-fledged people.
