My
name is Toni Sutton, I am a third-generation Idahoan, and until last
year, had never attended a protest or rally of any kind. This is the
third rally I've spoken at this year. I always wondered if there was
anything that I felt passionately enough about to even attend a
protest. Thanks to the actions of the extremists of the Republican
party, I never found the level of outrage I would need to attend a
rally—we've gone FAR beyond that.
It
wasn't until 1965 that the Comstock bans against contraception for
married women were struck down by the Supreme Court, and it wasn't
until 1972 that the courts extended contraception rights to
nonmarried women. Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, finally giving
women the right to control their own bodies. As I was born in 1970,
that means that I had more legal control over my own body at the age
of 3 than I have now. It also means that, except for the few women
my age entering menopause early, we haven't even had ONE generation
of women who didn't have to fight for the right to make our own
reproductive choices. Not even ONE. In the past 2 months, women
have become sluts for taking birth control pills daily—as they're
actually supposed to be taken—and Republican legislators in Idaho
as well as nation-wide have declared that my taking birth control
pills for a medical condition, which is only partially covered by the
health insurance I pay $350 a month to even have—might somehow
violate the religious or moral beliefs of a man whom I have never
even MET who happens to own the company that employs my husband, so
it should be his right to dictate whether or not my prescription is
covered, not mine. Well then I am here today to represent my slut
Mother, slut Mother-in-Law, slut sisters-in-laws, slut aunts, and all
my slut friends to tell the GOP, if birth control pills violate your
religious or moral beliefs, DON'T TAKE THEM. I am fully willing to
respect anyone's religious beliefs, but only when they pertain to the
choices that person makes. Ancestors on both sides of my family fled
TO America to escape having religious beliefs they did not share
forced upon them. If they were willing to give up everything they
owned and everyone they ever knew to come here to build a new life
based on their OWN convictions and beliefs, you had better believe
that their great-great grand-daughter will NOT accept anything less.
My PERSONAL religious and moral beliefs are that it is wrong for an
elected official, whose health insurance is provided by taxpayer
dollars, to stand up and call taxpayer-funded healthcare “socialism”
when it helps others while keeping it for himself. As a taxpayer and
the employer of EVERY elected official in Idaho, does my belief
matter? It violates my moral and religious beliefs to have a
political party that ran an admitted adulterer and general toad like
Newt Gingrich tell me what is moral and “right.” Does my belief
matter? With men like Gingrich around, why aren't we fighting the
insurance coverage of VIAGRA instead of birth control? I certainly
know which one I find offensive.
The
so-called "Pro-Life" movement has been chipping away at Roe
Vs. Wade for years, and if it were really about the sanctity of life,
I think many of us might understand their concerns. NO ONE is truly
Pro-abortion: life is a very precious thing. But you are not
"Pro-Life" if you refuse to teach sex-education in order to
prevent unwanted pregnancies. You are not "Pro-Life" if
you also strip away access to birth control. You are not “Pro-Life”
when you restrict access to the “Morning After” pill, which keeps
an egg from ever being fertilized and is in no way an abortion and
is, in fact, one of the best methods for reducing the need FOR
abortions. You are not "Pro-Life" if you attack
institutions that provide low-cost prenatal care. You are not
"Pro-Life" if you cut the programs that benefit that child
once it is born. You are not "Pro-Life" if you ignore all
the children that are affected by cuts to Health and Welfare which
provides immunizations, child abuse and foster care services, mental
health services, special needs programs, and adoption services. You
are not "Pro-Life" when you cut 750 teachers who would have
provided an education for that child. You are not "pro-life"
when you refuse to participate in national health care programs
without providing any state options. You are not "Pro-life"
when you attack the rights of one-half the population to make our own
decisions regarding our bodies. You may be "Pro-fetus,"
but you are NOT "Pro-Life."
Like
many of you here today, I have watched with horror and disbelief as
hundreds and hundreds of bills targeted at women sweep the nation.
Across our so-called “land of the free,” since March of 2011,
Republicans have introduced 916 bills targeting women—restriction
of birth control, forced ultrasounds, restrictions or elimination of
sex education, and declaring single parenthood—the logical
conclusion of blocking abortion, sex ed and birth control access—an automatic factor of child abuse. All of this
while vilifying single mothers and working families that must rely on
public assistance to even scrape by as “welfare queens.” Women
are damned if we do, and damed if we don't. Women STILL earn less
than men, without Obamacare our health insurance is more expensive
than it is for men, we're feminazis if we choose not to HAVE
children, sluts if we take birth control pills, child abusers if we
end up as single parents, lazy if we have children without being able
to afford them, and bad mothers if we hold down jobs AND have
children in order to be able to afford them. Well, Republicans,
how is this NOT a “War on Women?” Actions speak louder than
words, and this is a full-out onslaught.
Idaho
was one of the first states to grant women the vote—more than a
hundred years after it was given to men. Idaho was one of the states
that ratified the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972. We weren't always
like this—and in fact, I believe that few Idahoans of either party
agree with the current extremism of the Republican Party. We have
been promised that the group behind the mandatory ultrasound bill
will be back next year, and I'm sure they will. If the Idaho
Legislature passes this bill, it will truly show that nothing about
the current Republican party is about small government or individual
rights. You can't be for small government AND mandate unnecessary
medical procedures. You can't say you are the party of individual
rights and start dictating whether or not a woman can have access to
birth control. Women are much more than just a uterus. We work.
We pay taxes. We volunteer. We serve in the military. And look out
Republican Party, because we also vote.
