Pink champagne lined a wall of the Citizen Hotel’s ballroom in downtown Sacramento, Shania Twain blasted over the speakers, Proposition 1 supporters wore matching hot pink suits and the room was lit with pink spotlights. Californians had overwhelmingly voted to pass Prop. 1 and to enshrine the right to abortion and contraception in the state constitution — and it was ladies’ night.
After the emotional fluidity of the last five months since Roe vs. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in June, it was nice to take a night to celebrate the victory of Californians choosing to support reproductive rights. Michigan and Vermont, too, consecrated the right Tuesday evening into their own state constitutions. But now it’s time to go further.
In the past, Americans have been able to discuss reproductive rights solely as a woman’s issue, but that time is over. California could lead the nation in the fight for reproductive rights — but this time, it can’t be all about women. The California Democratic Party must purposefully include transgender people in its policies and language.
The growing awareness of the term “pregnant people” or any term similar, represents the inclusivity that young, progressive voters are seeking from their representatives’ rhetoric. We know that not everyone who can get pregnant is a woman, and not all women can get pregnant. Why don’t our politicians?
Surveys from both the Nevada and Florida Civic Engagement Narrative Change project show that 18-29-year-olds favor inclusive, progressive policies at a higher rate than the general population. But they are missing older voters’ faith that “the system” will permit the type of change they envision, according to the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley.
Accordingly, the Democratic Party’s discourse around reproductive rights has remained frustratingly stagnant. In Michigan, Proposition 3 was touted as “(ensuring) women will have access to a broad range of reproductive health care services.”
In California, Assembly member Adam Gray said “all women have the right to control their own bodies and to make their own medical decisions.”
“For nearly half a century, Roe v. Wade has guaranteed countless women the freedom to make decisions for their own bodies and futures,” said California U.S. Senator Alex Padilla. And California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks said that “in the last 50 years, women across the country relied on Roe for reproductive freedom. It was a safeguard that declared definitively women had the right to make their own decisions about their own bodies.”
The way we speak reflects how we feel, and our language around abortion rights shapes the discussion about our reproductive freedoms. In the same way that women fought to be recognized as a Miss, Mrs. or Ms., it’s time now to include gender-neutral options in our policies.
Reproductive rights have been, arguably, hampered precisely because they are viewed as a woman’s issue. But for years, activists have argued that it is an issue that affects both men and women. We must now recognize this is an issue that affects everyone.
And now, with the passage of Prop. 1, California voters have shown there is no better place in America than the nation’s most liberal, most future-looking state to change the narrative.
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