Women are under threat.
States are introducing and passing “heartbeat bills” that disproportionately affect poor women and women of color who do not have access to proper health care to begin with.
Our (mostly male) politicians are hiding behind the argument that they are caring for life with these bills.
If that is the case, where are the abundant SNAP benefits? Where are the funding and research to change the statistics that show black women at an exponentially higher risk of death during childbirth? Where are the mental health clinics and the expediting of rape kit backlogs? Where is the expansion of Medicare and free childcare and national maternity leave policy?
Those aren’t coming.
Because it’s not about life. It’s about control.
It is frightening to these men that women make life decisions they cannot control without regulating them.
I see no consequence or investigation of men. Forcing a woman to carry a child to term (even in the case of rape or incest) against her will is inhumane. Let’s see mandatory vasectomies for the men who impregnate women with children they aren’t ready for. That the women can’t afford. That they cannot have without harming themselves.
There will never be such legislation because the idea of legislation over a man’s body sounds absurd. It is absurd.
It’s time to ban “heartbeat bills.”
I urge Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Rep. Jan Schakowsky to protect Roe v. Wade.
Protect women.
Corrbette Pasko, Rogers Park
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Cardinal Cupich’s Farrakhan apology falls short
Cardinal Blase Cupich’s apology to the Jewish community after Louis Farrakhan was invited to speak at St. Sabina rings hollow.
How anyone could be surprised by Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism at this point is shocking.
Now I would like to hear how Father Michael Pfleger will use this opportunity to teach his community about the history and dangers of anti-Semitism.
If the apology was backed by action, this terrible decision could actually do some good.
Rabbi Debra Newman Kamin, president of the Rabbinical Assembly
Trenchant commentary
Thank you to the Rev. Jesse Jackson for his trenchant commentary on U.S. actions with respect to Venezuela (President Trump’s insatiable appetite for regime change, May 7).
Among his several salient points is the need for Congress to again assume its constitutional charge to declare war and approve all military interventions by our nation. The constitution granted this power to Congress precisely to prevent a rogue president from using war to his (or her) own particular political ends.
It is a power that the current president now claims is his prerogative.
U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif, has introduced H.R. 1274, calling for repeal of the 2001 Authorized Use of Military Force, and returning that authorization power to Congress.
We all should contact our congressional representatives either to thank them for co-sponsoring this bill or encourage them to do so, and to support the bill when it comes to a vote.
Ralph Strohl, Oak Park
