Childless cat ladies and post-menopausal grandmothers

While the right to an abortion is paramount in this election after the Dobbs decision, it's not just about abortion and child-bearing women.  It's about respecting all women's choices and women's health.

Michelle Obama gave a speech recently.  Joyce Vance wrote about it.

A lot of [...] misogyny has related to menstruation and menopause — health care topics that are still viewed as unserious or, worse, gross and unseemly. Ohio Republican Senate nominee Bernie Moreno remarked that it’s “a little crazy” that women past 50 would vote on the issue of reproductive rights. And puerile jokes denigrating Tim Walz’s push to provide free menstrual products in Minnesota public school restrooms resulted in chants of “Tampon Tim” filling Madison Square Garden at the Donald Trump rally on Sunday night.

[...]

While some in the media have (correctly) characterized Obama’s remarks as a “searing appeal to men” — a plea for awareness of what the women in their lives regularly endure and take pains to keep private — we saw something even more strategic. Yes, she was directly addressing husbands, fathers and sons. But for the women in the crowd, there was cathartic value as well. Obama wasn’t just recognizing these women; she was also connecting the dots from periods to pregnancy to post-menopause.

Here, finally, is the ultimate rejection of everything the GOP’s “Tampon Tim” insult represents. Our periods are not fodder for Republican punchlines, nor is anything else about the complexity of our reproductive lives. We know that if men endured what women go through when it comes to health care, choices would likely be wide open — and care much more freely available.

  MSNBC

This reminds me of the time I said to an ob/gyn that there would be more single child families if men were the ones to get pregnant. And he answered, "Or none if word got around."

[N]ow, a week until Election Day, we hope Michelle Obama has sparked a movement where the Harris campaign — and all of us — will be bolder and more forthright.

[...]

[W]e should all commit to speaking truth to power and not sanitizing our everyday existence. Let’s use words like “cramps” and “hot flashes” and “menopause.” Let’s find ways to show women, especially older women, that they are respected and valued in a culture that has spent too many decades trying to brush them aside. Rejecting the polite euphemisms used to gloss over real medical issues is a start.

[...]

Kamala Harris has committed to shining a spotlight on the voices of women and stories of families affected by abortion bans. While we appreciate the proactive approach and understand the need in a closely fought election to focus on persuadable voters, we hope Harris will not sidestep these other health care topics if she is the next president of the United States.

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By threading the needle between the bloody mechanics of our bodies and bloodier attacks on our bodily autonomy, we can expose the seam that connects those issues. For all women, no matter our age or life stage — and for “the men who love us” — abortion rights are already a national five-alarm fire. If women are forced to go backward, everyone suffers. That’s the real issue here.

Abortion is on the line, but the massive iceberg beneath it includes women’s individual and collective health and dignity. That’s something worth fighting for.

We're not going back.