By Andra Watkins
Liberals use words like misogyny and patriarchy to describe the right’s general subjugation of women. While those words are true, they don’t consider the extreme religious zealotry that is truly a denial of what I’m calling female personhood. It’s easier to say “Republicans are cruel” than it is to dig into what makes people fanatics hellbent on denying personhood to half the American population.
Christian Nationalists interpret the Bible literally. In Genesis, it says God created Adam first and crafted Eve from his rib. This is not a metaphor or an allegory to Christian Nationalists. They believe God’s design makes Eve (females) part (and property of) Adam (males).
And because Eve ate the forbidden fruit first and convinced Adam to fall with her, females will always be weak, inferior temptresses who must be reminded of their rightful place: One whose personhood (or lack thereof) is defined by men.
In red states, we’ve already seen how Project 2025’s goal to protect life from conception to natural death does not apply to women. Women with unviable pregnancies are forced to carry to term regardless of the risk to their own life or health. To advance the right’s priority on the fetus, women are sent to the parking lot to bleed out. Or they die of sepsis. Or they’re forced to endure a cesarean section when a simple D&C would’ve been safer and less traumatic.
We’ve watched women be charged with crimes for miscarriages. They’ve been denied life-saving medical treatments and have been incarcerated for taking doctor-prescribed medications for illnesses.
Many conservative voters shrug and say Don’t exaggerate! Project 2025 doesn’t say anything about taking away women’s right to vote or own property or exit an abusive marriage. But red states show what the framers of Project 2025 intend to inflict upon females around the country if Republicans win in November.
Red states have forced women to be evacuated by helicopter to neighboring jurisdictions for basic healthcare, even as they (Idaho) falsely deny this is happening in the nation’s highest court. They’ve threatened women’s healthcare providers with steep fines and jail time (Texas, Florida, and many other red states) and tried to restrict women’s free state-to-state movement (most notably in Alabama.)
But red state Republicans have denied female personhood in other ways.
In Oklahoma, a state representative (and Christian Nationalist minister) proposed legislation to outlaw no-fault divorce. They believe the Bible says adultery is the only cause for divorce, locking women and children in abusive marriages and untenable controlling situations.
In Texas, the state made a change to property databases that lists all property as being owned by the first name on the deed, usually a man, which could be used to deprive women and children of property rights (reported by Texan Kelley Smoot on Substack.) They have also promoted voting-by-household, where one person (the man) would cast a vote for every eligible voter living under his roof.
Republicans continually refuse to protect our right to contraception and IVF.
They roll their eyes and gaslight us by claiming it’s hysterical to think these things need legal protection, while taking billions from far-right anti-abortion groups that classify hormonal birth control as an abortifacient and call for an end to IVF.
Outlawing hormonal contraception would severely limit women’s ability to choose to delay pregnancy, thus missing out on things like a college education, advanced degrees, and career opportunities. IVF also makes it possible for women to choose to have a family in balance with other personal and professional goals.
The House of Representatives recently tried to force the SAVE Act into government funding legislation. A critical component of this voting legislation was a requirement that one’s name match a legal document like a birth certificate to prove citizenship. Because many women take their husbands’ names, millions of women could have been disenfranchised weeks before the November election, yet another open attack on female personhood and our corresponding right to vote.
We all know about the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v Wade. But Clarence Thomas also noted that he wants to revisit Griswold, which guaranteed the right of married persons to use birth control. His mention is not accidental. Conservative justices have increasingly used opinions to instruct their Federalist Society underlings on how to bring them far-right cases.
We also watched them kick the can down the road on mifepristone and EMTALA, in hopes that an administration change will give them the ability to further erode female personhood. In the former case, both Alito and Thomas name-checked the Comstock Act, their tool to outlaw abortion nationally, even in states where it is constitutionally protected. And since Comstock outlaws ALL abortifacients, this is how they would make most contraception illegal, too.
Whether you identify as female or you love a female or several, a vote for Republicans is a vote to strip women of female personhood. This is what it means when we say We aren’t going back.
