Across the United States, Republican lawmakers are working hard to erode rights related to gender and sexuality. According to a new column, their goal appears to be achieving a double win for the Christian right and their champions and helpmates in the GOP: building Christian nationalist power as well as achieving their concrete goals to reduce or eliminate the life chances for women and LGBTQ people.
As reported by The New Republic, "Republicans in Alabama and Missouri are considering laws that would expand the Texas-style anti-abortion vigilantism of Senate Bill 8 (like Alabama House Bill 23 and Missouri Senate Bill 778), along with laws criminalizing the provision of hormones and puberty blockers to minors. An Alabama gender-affirming health care ban already has been passed by the state Senate. If it passes the House it is expected to be signed.
“Bills like this basically ask us to practice medicine in violation of professional standards of care,” a Missouri physician serving transgender youth said of the state’s proposed ban. Missouri is also considering a bill that would expand the vigilante-style measures to allow any member of the public to sue any Missouri resident who helps someone get an abortion out of state.
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Republican lawmakers, TNR writes, "continue to jockey for who can do the most damage on abortion, with near-total bans coming fast this year, along with laws meant to criminalize self-managed abortion."
As noted by Melissa Gira Grant of TNR, "The Christian right built a federal judiciary to remake a country in its image, not win a court case. They may want to control our bodies, but they also want to ensure we remain at their mercy. They must know that abortion, contraception, homosexuality, and gender transition can’t be legislated out of existence, but they can be—and they want them to be—burdened with the risk of losing one’s freedom."
