An Open Letter To Anyone That Plans On Voting Republican - Ever

Dear Future Potential Republican Voter:

You might not have caught this last night - which is forgivable, it's been a busy past couple days - but there was a major filibuster that took place in the Texas state legislature.  One Democratic senator, Wendy Davis, held the podium for 13 hours, and ended up killing a vote on State Bill 5.

You probably are thinking right now, "that must be one hell of a bill for someone to want to spend 13 hours on their feet trying to kill it".  So did I.  And we're both right; it is one hell of a bill.

SB5 would have imposed easily the toughest restrictions on abortion in the country.  It would have made abortion illegal after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and would have put in place regulations that would have ended up closing almost every clinic that could perform an abortion.

This shouldn't be too difficult to believe.  After all, the republican party membership has spent the last few years trying to force mothers that want to get an abortion to receive a transvaginal ultrasound or be subjected to doctoral shame and humiliation, dismiss concerns about pregnancy from rape because "the body just shuts that thing down" or "rape kits clean all of that out", or differentiate "forcible rape" from...umm...whatever "non-forcible rape" is.  They're trying to move towards removing the rape & incest exceptions that only the least humane among us would deny a woman.

(I could go on about how their attacks on Planned Parenthood - which only derives a small fraction of their business from abortion services - are going to have horribly detrimental effects on women's health, but that's another story for another day.)

People have all sorts of reasons for deciding to vote one way or the other.  But, if you're seriously considering voting republican in any election at the state level or above, you need to accept this:

The Republican party is going to do everything in their power to strip away a woman's right to choose.  This is not a threat; they are not screwing around.  If they end up becoming the majority party, this will be their top priority.  You might disagree with a Democratic candidate on their economic or foreign policy, their views on health care, the 2nd amendment...whatever they are, you're entitled to them.  But, if you vote for a Republican, you're going to be putting someone in office that will put in regulations that are going to directly affect you, your wife, your sister, your daughter, your girlfriend, or your best friend's right to choose.  And you had better be ok with that, because if they get the chance, they're going to do it, and you're not going to get a chance to take your vote back.

So, before you vote for a candidate with the R next to their name, just think about this and make sure you can accept the results.  And if you do, and then don't like the outcome...don't say I didn't warn you.

Respectfully,

A.B.