by Penny Nickels, editor of the Bemidji Bugle
Hi friends! It’s 6:47 a.m. on a Monday morning in Bemidji, and I’m sitting at my kitchen table nursing my 4th cup of coffee, doomscrolling the news, and trying to keep from throwing my phone across the room. The headline that’s got me ready to commit a second act of violence, this time against Mr. Coffee, is this: “Idaho Woman Nearly Dies After Being Denied Emergency Abortion Care.”
This woman — let’s call her Sarah because that’s her actual friggin’ name — was having a miscarriage and at the hospital. Her fetus had no heartbeat. Sarah was septic. Her husband was in Stage 3 non-REM sleep in the chair next to her multiparameter patient monitor. A nurse came in, shook him awake, and informed him he would need to take his dying wife and their dead-baby-still-in-the-womb home. She then handed him an instruction sheet, which included a list of symptoms to watch for that indicated a life-threatening situation (all of which Sarah already had), which were followed by the statement “your wife’s condition is beyond our scope of care.” At the bottom: the phone number for the coroner. Just kidding about that last bit.
The hospital sent Sarah home because of Idaho’s total abortion ban, which went into effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. This new ban is so extreme it has given Idaho doctors pause about doing any emergency abortions, even when they are clearly needed. The law reads that medical service providers could face criminal charges and revocation of their medical license if they perform any elective and non-emergency abortions.
Whether a patient’s condition has fallen into the category of “life-threatening” could well be determined too late and by someone grossly unqualified to make a ruling on matters of this sort, namely a right-wing religious fanatic with the IQ of a banana slug and no medical training. Considering that the majority of Idahoans are MAGA-aligned, and that ultra-conservative Christian values strongly influence Idaho politics and public policy debates, there’s a real good chance a doctor performing a “necessary” abortion could end up in jail or be permanently barred from practicing.
So there it is: the reason many hospitals and doctors in Idaho simply refuse to do abortions, even when the mother’s life is potentially at stake. You hardcore MAGAs voted for this. So this is what you get.
Let’s take a not-so-quick look at all that MAGA policies have brought to women in Idaho, so y’all can appreciate how MEN in politics, making decisions about WOMEN’S BODIES, are hurting people. Oops, not people. WOMEN.
Keep in mind there are only 29 female legislators in Idaho and 105 dudes. Yep, the guys have it: a supermajority.
Here’s what’s up with reproductive and maternal care in Idaho since Roe v. Wade was overturned:
A near-total abortion ban with severe criminal and civil penalties for physicians. The only exception is if the procedure is to prevent the death of the mother, but not if it’s just to preserve her health.
Providers have gone bye-bye. The legal climate in Idaho is now so volatile for the medical profession that a significant number of OB/GYNs and maternal-fetal medicine specialists have left the state. That would be over 43% of them. GONE. Vamoose.
Idaho is now a state of maternity deserts, with roughly 30% of its counties lacking any obstetric provider or a hospital that is equipped for labor and delivery. Eighty-five percent of the remaining OB/GYNs are clustered in 7 counties. There are 44 counties in Idaho. The math is not good.
Public programs offer very little support. Programs like the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s Women’s Health Check provide free breast and cervical cancer screenings and diagnostic testing for qualifying low-income residents, but this program is only equipped to handle 10-15% of eligible individuals because REPUBLICANS refuse to expand the funding needed for these programs. The GOP can harp on and on about the importance of traditional families with stay-at-home mothers, but it is doing its damnedest to make programs that would support this scenario unavailable by making work a requirement for their programs. Guess what, girls? In many cases, being a stay-at-home mother does not qualify as “work” by the GOP.
Primary care doctors and pediatrician ratios per capita in Idaho consistently rank at the very bottom nationally. What is the GOP doing to bring much-needed doctors to the state? ZERO.
Approximately 1 in 8 women of childbearing age in Idaho have no health insurance whatsoever. The GOP response: “Whatever.”
Recently, Idaho’s Republican-led legislature has pushed for tighter Medicaid constraints and reimbursement rate reductions, which are exacerbating the financial instability of clinics throughout the state and at rural hospitals. Call me Captain Obvious, but farmers in Idaho who need medical clinics and hospitals voted Republican by huge margins. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot, then having nowhere to go to get it bandaged up. Duh.
Back to the anecdote about Sarah. After coming home from the ER, Sarah nearly died in her bathroom as her condition worsened and she waited for emergency medical services to arrive. Somehow, by the grace of God/god, she did survive. But barely.
Sadly, Sarah’s uterus did not. Perhaps it was God’s will that someone ignorant enough to vote Republican should not have children. As an atheist, I prefer to imagine this was simple Darwinism at work.
And you know what the kicker is? Sarah voted for Trump in 2020 — the man who appointed three Supreme Court justices he knew would overturn Roe v. Wade. She voted for a party of mostly men who have worked tirelessly to take away her right to control her body.
And when the chickens came home to roost, Sarah was shocked.
Sorry, Sarah, but you DO NOT get to be shocked.
I’m not shocked. Are you, readers? I am, however, furious. Both at Sarah-the-voter and at the mostly-male politicians and judges who put female patients and the medical professionals who care for them in a chokehold. I’ll tell you what… if even one of those politicians came into the emergency room because they couldn’t “get it up,” the doctors would be all over their ED like white on rice. They’d get priority treatment and would be walking out those wide-clearance emergency room doors in no time. With a huge woody, and just in time for their big date.
So here’s my question for all you women out there in Idaho, and you girls in Bemidji, too — in fact, I’m talking to all the women across the entire goddamn country who are still pulling the lever for Republicans: What the actual fuck are you thinking?
Seriously. I really want to understand this. Because from where I’m sitting it sure looks like you’re voting for MEN who don’t care one iota if you’re dead, poor, pregnant, have no healthcare or childcare, and can’t afford food for your family. If they have their way, you’re gonna have that child, come hell or high water. Period. End of story.
YOUR BODY, THEIR CHOICE
Let’s start with the obvious: Your reproductive rights are gone. Not “under threat.” Not “in danger.” Gone. As in, they no longer exist in thirteen states, and they are hanging by a thread in dozens more.
Here’s what the post-Dobbs landscape looks like for American women:
Thirteen states have enacted near-total abortion bans from the moment of conception. Idaho, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. In these states, if you are raped by your uncle, you must carry that pregnancy to term. If your fetus has a fatal abnormality and will die within minutes of birth, you must carry that pregnancy to term. If continuing the pregnancy will leave you infertile, you must carry that pregnancy to term. The “exceptions” for the life of the mother are so narrow and vaguely worded that doctors are terrified to act UNLESS YOU ARE TRULY DYING. Hello MAGA girls — are you understanding this? No treatment allowed unless you are literally dying, as in right then and there.
Often, the critical treatment comes too late.
C’est la vie. You fucking voted for this. Pardon my French.
Add several more states to the pileup — Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina —these states have passed six-week abortion bans. Six weeks. That’s before most women even know they’re pregnant. These are called “Heartbeat Bills,” which is medically inaccurate propaganda, because at six weeks, there is no heart. There is a cluster of cells with electrical activity, but not really a heart. Calling it an “Electrical Activity Bill” doesn’t tug at the heartstrings quite the way the forced-birth crowd needs it to, so they lie. They lie, and women die.
And it gets worse. Numerous red states (Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas) are working to pass laws that criminalize anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion. That means if you drive your friend to a clinic in another state where abortions are legal, you could be sued. If you mail abortion pills to your sister, you could be prosecuted. If you provide information about how to access abortion care, say in states where it is legal, you could be charged as an accomplice. To murder.
Republican lawmakers in all 10 of these states have actually introduced bills to amend state code so it would treat the destruction of an embryo or fetus as homicide. In essence, those who assist a woman in any way, shape, or form toward receiving an abortion would be subject to murder or manslaughter charges.
The GOP has turned women’s bodies into crime scenes and their friends and family into potential felons.
Let’s be super clear: none of this is about protecting life.
And let’s be clear about a few other things. If the GOP cared about life, they would support universal healthcare, paid family leave, affordable childcare, universal pre-K, free school lunches, gun control, and they would be working for a social safety net that ensures no child grows up in poverty and that all children have FOOD.
The GOP supports exactly none of those things. ZERO. ZIP.
Abortion bans are 100% about control. They are about ensuring that women remain economically dependent on men, that we cannot make decisions about our own futures, that we are punished for having sex. This is about a bunch of old White men in state legislatures and Congress who are terrified of women’s autonomy and have decided that the best way to keep us in line is to make sure we’re barefoot, pregnant, and too exhausted to fight back.
And here’s the thing that makes me want to scream into the void: women voted for this. Fifty-three percent of White women voted for Trump in 2016. Fifty-five percent voted for him in 2020. And in 2024, after Dobbs, after we saw what GOP MEN could do, and we heard of women dying in hospital parking lots because doctors were too afraid to treat them, you MAGA White women still turned out for Trump in droves.
Pourquoi?! S’il vous plaît?
I genuinely want to understand this. Is it because you think this won’t happen to you? Because I promise you this: Sarah in Idaho thought the same thing.
Is it because you’ve already had your kids and you don’t care what happens to your daughters? This I can promise you: your daughters are paying attention. Oh yes, they are.
Or are you OK with Republican policy because your evangelical pastor, who is likely male (95% are), told you that abortion is murder and you’ve never bothered to think critically about what that means in practice?
Or is it, sadly, because you’ve internalized the message that women’s bodies are the property of men, that our pain doesn’t matter, that our lives are worth less than a clump of cells?
Whatever the reason, I’m here to tell you: You are voting against your own interests and you are voting against the interests of your daughters, your sisters, and your mothers. And all other women in this country.
You are voting for a mostly-male political party that sees women as incubators, not as people. You are voting for men who think you’re incapable of making your own medical decisions. Or any decisions at all, truth be told.
Fuck you, MAGA bitches, if this is still what you would vote for.
FOLLOW THE MONEY OR LACK THEREOF
Let’s talk about money, because while the GOP is busy dicking around with your uterus, they’re also making damn sure you can’t afford to do anything about it.
Here are some fun facts about the gender wage gap in America:
Women earn roughly 82 cents for every dollar earned by men.
For Black women, make that 63 cents; for Latina women, it’s 55 cents.
Over a lifetime, this wage gap costs women an average of $400,000 in lost earnings — it’s kind of like they don’t get to retire unless they’re married to a man.
Mothers face the additional “motherhood penalty,” earning roughly 70 cents for every dollar earned by the fathers.
Now, you might think that a political party that claims to be “pro-family” and “pro-life” would be interested in closing this gap. You might think they’d support policies that make it easier for women to work and raise children. You’re probably imagining they’d champion paid family leave, affordable childcare, universal pre-K, and equal pay enforcement.
Yeah, well, you would be dead fucking wrong.
The GOP has consistently opposed every single policy that would economically empower women. Let me give you a quick rundown:
Paid Family Leave: The United States is the only developed nation in the world that does not guarantee paid maternity leave. Democrats have repeatedly introduced legislation to change this. Republicans have repeatedly blocked it. Their argument? It’s too expensive. Never mind that the GOP somehow found $1.5 trillion for tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and corporations.
Affordable Childcare: The average cost of childcare in the United States is over $10,000 per year per child, which is more than rent for many working families. Democrats have proposed subsidies and tax credits to make childcare affordable. Republicans have repeatedly blocked this legislation. Their argument? Providing tax credits for childcare is socialism. Never mind that the GOP’s subsidizing oil companies to the tune of $20 billion per year is apparently just good business.
Equal Pay Enforcement: The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963. Sixty-two years later, women still earn less than men for the same work. Democrats have introduced legislation to strengthen enforcement and to close loopholes. Republicans have repeatedly blocked it. Their argument? It’s unnecessary regulation. Never mind that, without regulation enforcement, companies have proven over and over again that they will not voluntarily pay women fairly.
Universal Pre-K: Study after study shows that universal pre-K improves educational outcomes, reduces poverty, and allows parents — especially mothers — to work. Democrats support it. Republicans oppose it. Their argument? Parents should be responsible for their own children’s pre-K education. Never mind that “being responsible” is a lot easier when you don’t have to choose between paying for pre-K programs and paying for groceries.
Do you see the pattern here? The GOP’s “pro-family” platform is a massive fucking lie.
What the GOP actually supports is a system in which women are economically dependent on men, a system in which women cannot afford to leave abusive relationships, in which they are forced to stay home with children whether they want to or not, and a system in which their labor is undervalued or unrecognized altogether (ex: stay-at-home mothers, long-term caregivers for family members, etc.).
Now let’s contrast this with what a few Blue states are actually doing for women:
California offers up to 8 weeks of paid family leave and has implemented some of the strongest equal pay laws in the country
New York offers 12 weeks of paid family leave and has invested billions in affordable childcare
Massachusetts offers 12 weeks of paid family leave, subsidized childcare, and universal pre-K
Washington offers 12 weeks of paid family leave and has closed the gender wage gap more than any other state through aggressive enforcement
These are not radical policies. These are basic supports that allow women to work, to support their families, and to have some measure of economic independence. And they are all Democratic initiatives, which have been opposed at every turn by Republicans.
So when you vote Republican, here’s what you’re voting for:
• A lifetime of earning less than your male colleagues
• No support when you have a child
• Childcare costs that could bankrupt you
• No legal recourse when your employer pays you less for being a woman
You voted for Trump? You voted Republican?
Got it!! You are down for being poor, men calling all the shots, and having zero control over your own body. And you love being disadvantaged at every turn. Sounds like trad wife material to me.
Alrighty then!
EMPTY CHAIRS: WHY THE GOP DOESN’T WANT YOU AT THE TABLE
Moving right along. Let’s talk about representation, because if you’re wondering why the GOP doesn’t give a shit about women, here’s the answer…
Of all the Republicans in the U.S. Congress, only 15-18% of them are women. That’s 230 men and 42 women. Holy shit. With numbers like those, men have no reason to listen to their female colleagues. And they don’t.
Let me say this again, louder for those of you in the back of the bleachers: In the Republican Party, fewer than one in five elected officials is a woman.
Compare that to the Democratic Party, where women make up 40-43% of the House caucus and 31-43% of the Senate caucus. The breakdown on Democrats: 110 women and 147 men. That still sucks, but not as much.
In other words, if you walk into a room full of Democratic legislators, nearly half of them will be women. If you walk into a room full of Republican legislators, you’ll be lucky to find someone to go to the ladies’ room with you.
And as regards legislation important for women and children, the effects of this disparity show. Big time. If you think, for a New York minute, that any male-dominated institution is going to vote on behalf of CHILDREN, you’re dumber than I thought. They simply do not. Unless pressed on the issue by WOMEN.
Who are the deciders in Congress, when it comes to making decisions about women’s healthcare? Men. Who’s been deciding whether women should have access to birth control? Men. Who was determining whether employers should be required to provide maternity leave? Men. Who was blocking funding for domestic violence prevention programs? Men. Who has cut funding for healthcare? Men. Who has slashed umteen programs for children? Men. Who is defunding SNAP and other food programs for families? Men. Who has bullDOGEd nearly every government agency that provides important social programs for all Americans? Men. Who is allowing gun violence to flourish? Men. Who is contributing most to the complete and utter destruction of the environment? Men.
I think we could add “White” in front of almost all of those responses. And about 40% of those responses, White Men could be further categorized as Geriatric White Men.
WAKE TF UP. All of you. WAKE TAF UP!!
The Republican Party is an old boys’ club, and they love it that way. They have no interest in elevating women to positions of power, because women in power tend to do inconvenient things like advocate for policies that benefit women, children, workers, minorities, and the environment. Women are into social programs. Women are into healthcare for all. We can’t have that! So let’s call them “communists” and “socialists.” OUCH! All this namecalling is so hurtful. NOT.
I can already hear some of you saying, “But Penny, what about Marjorie Taylor Greene? What about Elise Stefanik? What about Marsha Blackburn? The GOP has women in leadership. See!”
Sure. Let’s talk about them.
Marjorie Taylor Greene (now gone) was best known for promoting QAnon conspiracy theories, harassing school shooting survivors, and claiming that Jewish space lasers are causing wildfires. Her legislative priorities include banning transgender girls from playing sports and impeaching Joe Biden for reasons that change daily. She has done exactly nothing to advance the interests of women.
Lisa McClain and Shelley Moore Capito. Never hear much about these two. Apparently they are important Congresspeople. Do you know anything about them? Didn’t think so.
Elise Stefanik voted against the Violence Against Women Act, voted against paid family leave, and lent verbal support to Brett Kavanaugh during his 2018 confirmation process, as well as publicly criticizing the political atmosphere surrounding those contentious hearings. Stefanik went to bat for Kavanaugh despite the credible allegations of sexual assault put forth by psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford.
Stefanik is currently the third-highest-ranking Republican in the House, and she got there by being a loyal soldier for Trump and Congress’ male leadership. She has done exactly nothing to advance the interests of women. And she’s experienced so much bullying from male colleagues (namely Johnson and Trump) that she has decided not to run for re-election, though she claims it’s because she wants to spend more time with her family. Stefanik also canned her run for governor of New York, likely for similar reasons — lack of support from male colleagues.
Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. The two stooges, who posture and crab about everything, but consistently vote in line with their GOP colleagues. They typically only find the courage to depart from the ranks on legislation that’s going to pass even without their votes. They are complete and utter chickenshits.
Joni Ernst is best known for her government waste audits. That’s about it.
Marsha Blackburn has one of the most anti-woman voting records in the Senate. She voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act, against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, and against expanding access to birth control. She opposes abortion in all circumstances, including rape and incest. She has done exactly nothing to advance the interests of women. She is a complete bitch. Believe it, ladies.
All of these women are token GOP members with little to no power whatsoever. They are the rogue whiskers for a party that is fundamentally hostile to women’s equality. They parrot the party line, vote the way they’re told, and in exchange, get a seat at the table and perhaps some money from AIPAC. But make no mistake: they are not in Congress to represent women or children. Nope. Not one little bit.
Hey, let’s not forget all those “strong” GOP women Trump put into important leadership positions in his cabinet, as federal prosecutors, and in the White House. Kristi Noem, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. GONE. Pam Bondi, Attorney General. GONE. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Secretary of Labor. GONE. Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence. GONE. Lindsey Halligan, Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. GONE. Alina Habba, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. GONE. Jeanine Pirro, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. ALMOST GONE. Susie Wiles, White House Chief of Staff. HEADING OUT THE DOOR SOON.
Then there are all the women leaders in the military that Pete Hegseth has dismissed and replaced (and not with other women) or that he has blocked and removed from the promotion lists. Adm. Lisa Franchetti, first female Chief of Naval Operations and first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. GONE. Vice Adm. Yvette Davids, first female superintendent of the Naval Academy. GONE. Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, U.S. military representative to NATO. GONE. Rear Adm. Amy Bauernschmidt, first woman to command a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. REMOVED FROM PROMOTION. Vice Adm. Sara Joyner, first woman to lead a carrier air wing. REMOVED FROM PROMOTION. Multiple other female officers, including Army and Navy colonels and commanders whose identities have been classified so as to prevent scrutiny. REMOVED FROM PROMOTION.
Contrast all of this with the Democratic women who are actually fighting for you:
Gretchen Whitmer, governor of Michigan, who has made protecting abortion rights and expanding access to healthcare her top priorities.
Katie Hobbs, governor of Arizona, who vetoed multiple anti-abortion bills and is working to close the gender wage gap.
Kathy Hochul, governor of New York, who signed some of the strongest reproductive rights protections in the country.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has been a fierce advocate for paid family leave, universal childcare, and economic justice for women.
Rashida Tlaib, who has fought for reproductive rights, against domestic violence, and for policies that lift women out of poverty.
And then there is every other Democratic female congressperson, governor, attorney general, Secretary of State, etc., etc. They promote and protect women up the wazoo.
Democratic women are not tokens. As a rule, they are leaders in the party. And they will fight for you. Democratic men… well, that’s a mixed bag. Some have bigger balls than others. Chuck Schumer has been experiencing testicular atrophy since January of 2023 when Nancy Pelosi stepped down as Speaker of the House. I think we can all see that.
So here’s my question to all you MAGA gals: Why would you vote for a party that doesn’t want you in power? Why would you vote for a party where women make up less than 18% of elected officials? Why would you vote for a party that doesn’t see you as a person?
The Democratic Party is not perfect. But at least they let women in the room and give them a voice. In the Democratic Party, it’s socially unacceptable to ignore women and their inconvenient issues. And the men in the party who have done bad things to women are called to the carpet and pressured into leaving. Not the case with men behaving badly in the GOP ranks. Ya gotta wonder why the GOP is protecting the GOP’s bad boys. I’m talking the sexual predators. The pedophiles. The domestic abusers. Hmm.
RED PILLS & MAGA
The alternate title for this section: “How The GOP Came To Love The Manosphere and other Women-Haters and Then Started Considering Whether Women Should Get To Vote.”
Okay, buckle up, because we need to talk about this manosphere thing, as this is where it starts to get really dark. Darker than dark. They-want-to-take-away-your-right-to-vote dark. They-want-to-normalize-violence-toward-women dark.
For those of you who are blissfully unaware, the “manosphere” is a loose network of online communities, podcasts, and influencers who promote what they call “red pill” ideology. Time to get fucking up to speed, girls. The basic premise of this burgeoning movement: feminism has ruined society, women are hypergamous gold-diggers who only care about money and status, and men need to reclaim their dominance through psychological manipulation, coercion, and violence. In this alternate reality, sex crimes are just fine and typically well-deserved.
The GOP is, in essence, condoning violence toward women (and children) by doing nothing about these people — these evil influencers, like Andrew and Tristan Tate. They refuse to speak out against their hateful rhetoric. Why? Because these women-hating manosphere influencers are bringing millions of young men to the Republican Party. If this sounds vaguely like the Hitler Youth, you are on to something.
The manosphere is a world of pickup artists, alpha and sigma men, men’s rights activists, incels, and red pill and black pill followers. This is a world where women are not people; they are just “females.” In this world, dating is treated as a game, consent is just an obstacle to be overcome. This is a world where the phrase “Your body, my choice” is not just acceptable — it’s cheered on. Over, and over, and over. Enjoy getting to know these weirdos, ladies. In this political climate, they are flourishing in your community.
The Republican Party has embraced the manosphere with open arms (or splayed legs, as the case may be).
During the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump made a strategic decision to court young male voters by appearing on manosphere podcasts. He sat down with hosts who openly promote misogyny, some of whom, in their back rooms, mock the concept of consent, and teach their audiences how to manipulate women into sex. He validated their grievances. He told them they were right to be angry at women. He promised them a return to a world where men were in charge, and women knew their place.
And it worked. Trump won this particular group of young men by a significant margin, in large part because of this outreach. And here’s the impact of that outreach: a 4,600% spike in misogynistic rhetoric online. Yep, not a typo.
Here’s what I have to say: Fuck you, Donald Trump, and fuck you every Republican that backs him. And fuck you to every woman who voted Republican.
According to a report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, in the days following the 2024 election, phrases like “Your body, my choice” and “Repeal the 19th Amendment” exploded on social media. These weren’t fringe comments from anonymous trolls. These were mainstream talking points, amplified by influencers with millions of followers, celebrated by young men who saw Trump’s victory as permission to say the quiet part out loud.
For those of you ladies who were smoking or vaping in the bathroom during history class in high school, know that the 19th Amendment was the one that gave women the right to vote. Yeah, can you believe that?! Women didn’t have the right to vote until August 26, 1920, when that nifty little constitutional amendment was finally certified into law by U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby.
Show some fucking respect. This was a big, big deal.
And this misogynistic rhetoric that was appearing online didn’t stay online. Within weeks, school districts across the country were reporting incidents of boys chanting “Your body, my choice” at girls in hallways and classrooms. Teachers were filing reports of sexual harassment. Girls were coming home in tears, telling their parents that boys were telling them they had no rights, that they were property, that they should shut up and submit. Manosphere influencers fed these lines to these young men. These boys didn’t come up with this shit out of thin air.
This is what the GOP has unleashed. This is what they have encouraged. This is what they have profited from. The Republican Party stands for misogyny. It promotes it, legislates it, empowers it.
But wait — it gets worse. This is not just anonymous teenagers on the internet. This is not fringe podcasters with a few thousand followers. The call to repeal the 19th Amendment — the amendment that gave women the right to vote — is now coming from inside the GOP.
Let me introduce you to some people.
Pete Hegseth: Trump’s Secretary of Defense. His pastor, Doug Wilson, a senior figure in the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, has publicly stated that repealing the 19th Amendment is “a good idea.” Not a hypothetical. Not a thought experiment. A good idea. Hegseth has invited him to speak at the Pentagon. Enjoy this gals…
Doug Wilson is a prominent Christian nationalist theologian who has a massive following in evangelical circles. He has spent years advocating for what he calls “household voting” — a system whereby each “household” gets one vote, and the male head of household casts it. In his vision, married women don’t get to vote as individuals. Their husbands vote for them. And if there’s a disagreement? The husband gets the final say. Because, according to Wilson, the 19th Amendment “transformed male voters into mere individuals, and wound up disenfranchising the household.”
Let me translate that for you: giving women the right to vote was bad because it meant men could no longer control how their wives voted.
Abby Johnson is an anti-abortion activist who was featured at the 2020 Republican National Convention. She has openly advocated for a return to household voting, arguing that it would restore “traditional family values.” She frames it as empowering families. What she means is it disenfranchises women.
And this isn’t just talk. In Tennessee — the state that ratified the 19th Amendment and gave women the right to vote — GOP Christian nationalist groups are actively promoting household voting as a policy goal. They’re holding conferences. They’re writing position papers. They’re lobbying legislators.
Ladies, they are working, right now, to take away your right to vote.
Let that sink in. The same party that courted the manosphere, that gave a platform to men who think women are property, that celebrated Trump’s 2024 victory with a 4,600% spike in “Your body, my choice” rhetoric — that party, the GOP, is now aligned with Christian nationalists who want to strip you of your most fundamental right as a citizen. Your vote.
This is not a fringe position. This is not a few weirdos on the internet. This is the pastor of the Secretary of Defense. This is a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention. This is a movement with money, with organization, with political power.
And they are coming for your vote. Just like the Project 2025 people came to D.C. to make POTUS the King of Everything.
Here’s how it works. The GOP starts by normalizing these ideas. They frame them as “restoring traditional values,” “empowering families,” or “returning to the Founders’ vision.” They get pastors to preach it from the pulpit. They get influencers to promote it on social media. They get politicians to nod along and say, “Well, it’s an interesting idea.”
And then, once the idea is normalized, they start pushing legislation. Maybe it starts at the local level—school boards, city councils. Maybe it’s framed as a “pilot program” or an “experiment in civic engagement.” Maybe they don’t call it “household voting” — maybe they call it something else, something that sounds less threatening.
But the goal is the same: take away the individual right to vote for married women and give it to their husbands.
If for one minute you imagine this could never happen, I need you to remember this: five years ago, Roe v. Wade was settled law. It had been the law of the land for fifty years. And the people who wanted to overturn it were told, over and over again, that it would never happen. That it was too extreme. That the American people would never allow it.
Guess what? It was overturned.
Here’s the thing about the manosphere: it’s not just talk. It’s a pipeline to violence. It’s organized. It has money. It has followers. It is backed by the religious cult of evangelical Christianity. It’s backed by Republican politicians, the president, and even his youngest son. It’s popular with millions of young men — men who are emotionally immature and looking for easy answers to difficult questions.
Oh, yeah. It is time to be afraid. To get mad. And now, we have to figure out how to root this out and get rid of it.
Stay tuned.
BODY COUNT
Or: “The Women The GOP Doesn’t Want To Talk About: The Dead Ones.”
Let’s get down to it. Time to talk about the women who are dead, dying, or physically injured.
This is not the hypothetical women in thought experiments about abortion. It’s not the abstract women in political talking points. This is real women. Women with names, whose families and futures have been stolen from them.
Between 2019 and 2024, domestic homicides in the United States more than doubled, increasing from 1,065 to 2,339 annually. That’s an increase of 120% in five years. Let me put this another way: more than 2,300 women are murdered every year by their intimate partners. That’s more than six women every single day. That’s one woman every four hours.
According to the FBI, 74.5% of all domestic violence victims are women. According to the Council on Criminal Justice, domestic violence incidents increased by 8% during the pandemic and have remained elevated since. And sexual assaults are up 3% compared to the previous year.
Women are being killed in their homes, by the men who claim to love them, at rates we have not seen in decades. And the GOP is doing exactly nothing about it.
In fact, they’re making it worse.
In 2019, the Violence Against Women Act came up for reauthorization. This is a law that provides funding for domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, legal assistance for survivors, and training for law enforcement. It has been reauthorized multiple times with bipartisan support since it was first passed in 1994.
But in 2019, Republicans in the Senate refused to reauthorize it. Why? Because the updated version included provisions that would prevent abusers from purchasing firearms, and it extended protections to LGBTQ+ abuse survivors. The GOP made a decision: The right of abusers to own guns was more important than the lives of the women whom they would turn those guns on. The GOP also decided to exclude the LGBTQ community from this bill. An attempt to add LGBTQ+ non-discrimination language passed the Senate in 2012, but was blocked and voted down in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which delayed its inclusion.
Here’s exactly how the GOP voted on Bill H.R. 1620: 29 GOP members of Congress voted for the bill; 172 GOP members voted against the Violence Against Women Act. They refused to pass the bill until gun rights were restored to domestic abusers. The GOP caved to the NRA, an entity from whom many Republicans enjoy substantial kickbacks, ignoring in the process that more than half of intimate partner homicides in the United States are committed with firearms.
They voted against this legislation knowing that more than 50 women in the U.S. are shot to death by an abusive intimate partner every month, and that over the years these statistics have been tracked, nearly one million women have been shot to death, injured, shot at, or threatened with a gun by an abusive intimate partner. These stats had no impact on the GOP as related to the passage of Bill H.R. 1620. I repeat: one hundred and seventy-two GOP congresspeople refused to vote for this bill.
Don’t believe me? Well, check it out for yourself. Click through to the congressional voting records.
THE GOP DOES NOT CARE ABOUT WOMEN. Are you getting it?!
H.R. 1620 did eventually pass in 2022, but only after Democrats took control of Congress. The bill did not enjoy bipartisan support.
The big take-away: 172 Republicans in Congress voted against a long-standing law that protects women from domestic violence.
And it’s not just this one piece of legislation — the Violence Against Women Act. Republicans have consistently opposed funding for domestic violence prevention programs, opposed red flag laws that would prevent abusers from accessing firearms, opposed mandatory arrest policies for domestic violence calls, and opposed expanded legal protections for survivors. This on the state and federal level.
The GOP has done everything in its power to ensure that women have no recourse, no protection, and no way out. Over and over.
And then the GOP has the audacity to call themselves “pro-life.”
The truth: the GOP is not pro-life. They are pro-birth, but once you’re born, you’re on your own. And if you’re a woman in an abusive relationship, they will do everything they can to make sure you stay there.
Because leaving requires resources. It requires money for a security deposit on a new apartment. It requires access to legal assistance for a restraining order. It requires childcare so you can work. It requires healthcare for the injuries the abusive spouse has inflicted. It requires a social safety net to catch you when you fall.
And the GOP opposes all of that. They oppose funding for shelters. They oppose legal aid. They oppose childcare subsidies. They oppose universal healthcare.
The GOP has opposed every single policy that would make it possible for a woman to leave an abusive relationship and survive. So women stay. And they die.
And the GOP doesn’t care. They don’t talk about these women. They don’t mention them in their speeches. They don’t propose legislation to save them. They don’t even acknowledge that they exist. Because acknowledging them would require admitting that their policies are killing women. And they can’t do that. It would be bad for fundraising.
So instead, they talk about “protecting the unborn,” “defending traditional values,” and “supporting law and order.” They wrap themselves in the flag and the Bible and pretend that they give a shit about life.
But the body count tells a different story.
Remember this: 2,300 women are murdered by abusive partners every year. Thousands more are beaten, raped, and terrorized. Millions are trapped in abusive relationships with no way out.
That’s the GOP’s legacy. That’s what you’ve voted for, MAGA women. Shame on you for all of this. This is your greatest sin. Galatians 6:2 states: "Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." You have not done this.
Republican men don’t care if women die. Their primary concerns? Power, money, and control. Of you.
If you really want to wrap your head around these issues, be sure to watch the Netflix series, “Maid,” starring Margaret Qualley. This true story is about a woman trying to survive domestic violence and her challenges navigating the complicated and ever-changing social programs intended to protect women and children.
Brutal. Brutal. I'm aware of some of this stuff but I must confess the totality of how you lay all this out leaves me simply flat footed. Seriously you lay it out all so well and connect all the dots. How can we get something like this into the hands of the people that need to read it for the future of their own personal safety?
Thank you for laying this out and continuing to shine a light in dark places. My daughter sees things as they are, thankfully. This will take years to get back what we lost and start making net positive changes again. We will persevere!