The restrictive abortion law that went into effect in Texas during the week has received a lot of pushback, albeit not from the Supreme Court. Companies, like Lyft and Uber, have vowed to cover all legal fees should their drivers get sued for driving women to clinics. Young people have found creative ways to clog snitching services run by anti-abortion groups. But Bette Midler has an even more simple solution: starve men from sex until the law is overturned.
I suggest that all women refuse to have sex with men until they are guaranteed the right to choose by Congress.
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) September 3, 2021
“I suggest that all women refuse to have sex with men until they are guaranteed the right to choose by Congress,” the legendary performer tweeted on Thursday, the day after the law went into effect.
The measure bans all abortions after only six weeks — before most women even realize they’re pregnant. It also allows people to sue those who perform or even aid abortions, such as gig economy car share drivers. After the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to do nothing, President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have promised to do what they can to upend the law, which violates Roe v. Wade (and which has been seen as the first volley in overturning that longstanding ruling).
Midler’s idea isn’t an original one. It’s the exact plot of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata, in which women refuse to have sex with their husbands and lovers until they end the Peloponnesian War. Six years ago, Spike Lee made an update to this, called Chi-Raq, in which women do the same thing in an attempt to end gang violence in Chicago. Alyssa Milano floated the same idea only two years back, after Georgia enacted its own anti-abortion law.
The abortion law isn’t the only thing that enraged Midler. “The cruelty of the #GOP is endless,” she tweeted on the same day. “We are suffering COVID-19, hurricanes, apocalyptic flooding, wildfires from hell, joblessness, homelessness, evictions, racial strife, and they pick this hideous time to pile on yet another shock to women, by taking away their right to choose.”
The cruelty of the #GOP is endless. We are suffering COVID-19, hurricanes, apocalyptic flooding, wildfires from hell, joblessness, homelessness, evictions, racial strife, and they pick this hideous time to pile on yet another shock to women, by taking away their right to choose.
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) September 2, 2021
(Via The Hill)