Voting, Abortion and Democracy
By Theresa Palmquist for The Canna Mom Show
Theresa Palmquist is a rising senior at the University of Arizona, a native of St. Louis, a lapsed Catholic and an aspiring journalist. She is also the newest member of The Canna Mom Show social media marketing team and today she is sharing her thoughts on the SCOTUS Dobbs ruling.
In Joyce’s most recent blog, Rage Is Our Currency, she wrote about the Roe v. Wade overturn leak and what that would mean for the country and more specifically for women. The leak turned out to be a flood that washed away thirty-years of fight put up by our moms and grandmas. It cannot be said enough that abortion is healthcare and having that choice is a human right; it’s a woman’s right. The overturn on June 24, 2022 opened the floodgates for the Supreme Court, now dominated by conservative Christian and Catholic values, to reevaluate other human rights like birth control and contraceptives, gay and interracial marriage, and voting rights.
As a young woman who lives between two states that didn’t skip a beat in criminalizing abortion, it makes me sad and scared, but it does not discourage me. In fact, it fuels the fight instilled in me by the women who came before me and who fought for me. It fuels me to fight for them. Revoking our right to abortion will not stop abortions from happening, we know this because we’ve seen it. Revoking rights creates a revolution. It happened with guns and it continues to happen in women’s healthcare. It’s an eerie feeling to feel like guns have more rights than I do.
America is supposed to be an example for other countries, one that advocates for democracy, equality and liberty. Yet we are the leading developed country in gun violence and police brutality. These are human right issues, just like abortion, and they have fallen under the unfortunate religiously-skewed political scope. Six of the nine SCOTUS members are Catholic and four of the five members who supported the overturn are Catholic. You cannot tell me their morals don’t infringe on my rights. You cannot tell me that this is a proper separation of church and state.
It’s hard for me to understand how a woman can be opposed to abortion, but I will leave her room to speak because I know where I stand shouts louder. However, it is absolutely unfathomable to me how a man can be so concerned about abortion. What is it that they are so disgusted by? Do they even know what they are protesting against, or is it the all too familiar phenomenon of conformity that draws them in?
The reversal of Roe is part of a backward momentum that our country seems to be in as we approach the 2024 presidential election. The precarious situation we find ourselves in now could be reversed if more young people engaged in our democracy. The largest demographic of non-voters are people my age and the only way democracy works is when people participate. We see how democracy plays out when only certain demographics are controlling the polls.
I will be taking on the challenge in Arizona to encourage more young voters and I encourage you to be the change you wish to see in the world and do so by exercising your privilege to vote.