Renting a moving truck from U-Haul to go from Alabama to Connecticut will cost somewhere between $600 to $800, depending on the size truck you need. Why did I look this information up? Because, if you’re in Alabama, you need to get out. As a public service, I’m giving you an idea on the cost.
Why did I pick Connecticut? Because some state officials in Connecticut have offered safe haven to Alabamians who wish to escape their state’s new restrictive abortion laws. Though the law isn’t actually legal yet despite the governor signing it, Alabama seeks to become the most restrictive state in regards to abortion. Connecticut, which has codified abortion, is the most progressive on the subject. Alabama wants to ban abortion entirely, even in the case of rape and incest. If this law becomes an actual law, a woman in Alabama impregnated from rape could face a stiffer prison sentence than her attacker.
But, if you’re from Alabama, even if you’re progressive, you’re probably not going to like Connecticut. It’s expensive and you’ll think Yankees talk funny. It’s also close to Boston, so you’ve been warned.
I do find the invitation extended to Alabamians from Connecticut ridiculous. Even though it seems like it’s Alabamistan, it’s not a foreign country. Alabama is in the same nation as Connecticut. You don’t need an invitation. You’re free to move about the country as you wish. So, if you want to escape Alabama, and I recommend that you do, you can choose whichever state you want. However, there are several states to avoid as they seek to legislate their religion to create women-punishing laws nearly as strict as Alabama’s. Which ones are they? Glad you asked because here we go.
Don’t go to Georgia. It’s a beautiful place and I lived there for three years when I was a teenager. I even went to high school with Amy Carter, daughter of former president Jimmy Carter. They have pecans, peaches, lots of red clay, and the Georgia Bulldogs. It was the home to Martin Luther King Jr. and is the base for Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a friend of mine and one of the nation’s best political cartoonists. But, in addition to banning abortions after six weeks, the state also suppresses votes from African-Americans. Don’t go to Georgia.
Missouri. They just passed a bill that bans abortions after a heartbeat is detected, and it allows exceptions for medical emergencies but not for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. Plus, it’s Missouri.
Ohio. Another one of those “heartbeat” bills and the governor signed it. On top of that, Cleveland is in Ohio.
Mississippi. I started my career in the state and lived in Batesville, Brookhaven, Gulfport, and Jackson. The state has given us some of America’s greatest authors from Eudora Welty (my college was across the street from her house. I never saw her), Willie Morris, John Grisham, and of course, William Faulkner. They have the best barbecue and a new abortion bill that they call, wait for it…the “heartbeat” bill.
Kentucky. Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell (yet, they shoot lame race horses) and…you guessed it, a “heartbeat” bill. Don’t go to Kentucky.
Louisiana, where I spent the majority of my youth against my will. “Heartbeat” bill.
I’ll just mention the rest for the sake of brevity. Texas, Utah, West Virginia, South Carolina, Iowa, and Florida. Basically, avoid any state that voted for Trump.
Today, a trial is set to begin in a lawsuit filed by women’s health groups seeking to overturn restrictions on abortion providers in Virginia, my state. One of those restrictions is that a woman must get an ultrasound before an abortion. I’m surprised they don’t make her name the fetus first.
These laws are not about life. They’re about control and religious fundamentalism. The governor of Alabama made that clear when she said the law “stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious and that every life is a sacred gift from God.” These people don’t even believe in separation of church and state. They don’t believe in the Constitution. These lawmakers are pushing the issue hoping their state is the one that finally gets the Supreme Court to strike down Roe v. Wade.
This is a war on women. Make no mistake about it. If they actually succeed in banning abortion nationwide, what will they go after next? Remember how elections have consequences? Two of those consequences are named “Neil Gorsuch” and “Brett Kavanaugh.” Liberals need to vote with SCOTUS in mind, just like conservatives do.
If conservatives, Republicans, religious yahoos, and Trump cultists get their way, moving to Connecticut or any progressive state won’t be an escape for anyone. It’s time to stop running. It’s time to take a stand. We have to stop allowing these people from legislating their morality onto the rest of us.
Chains or change. It’s up to you.
Be Complicit
You can purchase a signed print of this cartoon.
Watch the video.
CLAYTOONZ 
Well said. Elections are super important, ESPECIALLY local elections! Never skip out on voting for your local representatives; judges, sheriffs, treasurer… because all the terrible people at the top of the federal government running this country into the ground got their start in these lowly positions.
LikeLiked by 3 people
This will be a long, highly personal and “triggering” post.
My father began touching me when I was 11. I had started my period. That wasn’t why he started then though. He’d tried to hurt my sister (his step-daughter when she was 4). Yes I told my mom. She had warned me that he might try something because she’d caught him watching me sleep. I didn’t understand then what she meant. Now I realize he was self-pleasuring. Anyway I told her he was naked around me. I was too embarrassed to say he’s touched me. She told him to knock it off or she’d tell the army. We were active duty at the time. Ironically enough I had been in the hospital for over a week with pneumonia earlier that year. They had a social worker come in to talk to me about all my bruises. I wasn’t being hurt then. Those were from my anemia and being a kid who was adventurous. After mom talked to him Leroy said that we couldn’t have “fun” anymore like he did with my sister. I worshiped her. I’d learn later that he’d waited to start on me after she married & moved away. All I had was him saying this so we continued having “fun”. I lost my virginity when I was 12. There was never contraception. When he’d started on me I didn’t know what semen was. There was a dirty magazine & I asked him why was the man peeing on the lady. That’s how I found out about that portion. Before then I thought we were like dogs and if we were on our periods (in heat) we’d get pregnant. Starting at 13 I’d started oral so I wouldn’t get pregnant. A month after my 14 birthday I had a mental breakdown. I walked in the rain to a guy I knew from the feed store. I told him what had been happening to me. His answer was to have sex! He was 25. Again I was 14. I looked to be in my late 20s though-without makeup. When I was walking some cops had driven by and I lied and told them I was walking home. They had driven me the rest of the way. When my mom got of work at 3am & found me missing she called the cops. They remembered me and Leroy came and picked me up. I was in the backseat screaming at him that I knew it was wrong. When we got home mom was in the living room. I just collapsed and said-he never stopped. She knew what I meant. She sent me to my room. I don’t know what happened. Between being up all night and the tears I fell asleep. I woke up to find the police there. The roommate of the guy who I had told had heard what I said and called the police. Finally something would happen to him! Nope. By this time he was retired and we were living in Oklahoma. The abused spanned 3 states-Texas, Indiana, and Oklahoma. He had left before the cops came. Mom had thrown him out. The police took me to the hospital to have a rape kit done. I tried to tell them he hadn’t touched me in over a week. He never did anything when I was on my period. Didn’t matter. Again I’m 14, but 5’7″ with curves. So instead of seeing a child who’d been raped, they saw a woman who didn’t have any marks of an attack. The MALE doctor who did the exam had me so ashamed. The female nurse didn’t look at me. I wasn’t allowed to go home until someone else could be in the house with Mom & me. Thankfully a family friend let me stay there. My sister came home from Germany. Then I found out how much a victim’s voice is worth. The D.A. declined to press charges since it would be my word against Leroy’s. I learned as an adult that on before their first date Leroy had a court appearance for indecent exposure outside a school. That was in 1965. Then an MP stopped my the NCO club where my mom was a waitress and said they had got a call about a peeping tom in a complex. The babysitter refused to sit anymore. All of this happened BEFORE I was born. Anyway the way this relates to abortion is the only reason I didn’t wind up pregnant is because of figuring out that he preferred the other anyway. No ONE should have to worry about having a horrific act compounded by punishment by the state.
LikeLiked by 3 people
This will be a long, highly personal and “triggering” post. part 2
This one deal specifically with having to have an abortion. When I was pregnant with my younger daughter I began bleeding in my 16th week. I had a normal pregnancy with her sister. No problems-even did a Volksmarch in my 7th month. We went to the hospital. At first they thought I was having a miscarriage (which btw in technically a spontaneous abortion). Once they ruled that out I was put on bed rest and began having ultrasounds every week. They thought she had a cystic hygroma. Very bad condition. If she lived she’d be in pain and never “live”. Most don’t make it past a few weeks. I’m one of those weird agnostics that believes in souls. I believe when we die the energy goes back to the universe and sent back to a new vessel. If I had to abort her I knew her soul would still be out there. Amniocentesis would have proved it one way or the other, but the docs were worried I was already too compromised. So we watched the cyst. Week after week. In Colorado abortion at the time was allowed up until the 24 week. She finally moved in the 22 week and the cyst didn’t. That’s when we found out it was just a placental cyst. It was on the uterine lining causing it to tear away. Dangerous, but manageable. I was given the option to do what was best for HER not some politician who has never had to make any choice.
Having all those ultrasounds when I’d heard about states requiring them I didn’t think it was a big deal. I do believe in informed consent. The my oldest daughter was raped. So-called date rape. She didn’t want to upset me when it happened otherwise we would have gotten her the plan b pill. She was on birth control, but had been sick and screwed up the schedule. She was waiting for her period to start to began a new regime. A long time friend of her 5+ years and her were messing around. She always has condoms. I drilled into the girls to come to me when they wanted to have relations and we’d get them on the pill but to ALWAYS use condoms. Growing up in the age of AIDS I didn’t sugarcoat it. She tried to get him to put one on and squirmed out from under him when he didn’t and ran. He hadn’t finished so she thought she’d be OK. I told the girls preseminal fluid can have active sperm so no playing without protection. Anyway she missed her period. She was in university and coming home on the weekends to work. It wound up being 7 weeks when I was informed. Denial is so strong. We went to Planned Parenthood. That’s when I found out what is meant by trans-vaginal ultrasound. Because the fetus is so small regular ultrasounds can’t used. I’m sorry but if you can’t see it with that then it is NOT a “baby”. Anyway she wanted me with her, so I held her hand while the -thankfully- female doctor inserted what was essentially a white plastic penis into my daughter who had been raped to prove to the state that she knew she had been raped and was now carrying a spawn of her rapist. She had to come back after 48 hours in order to get the pills. I remember her lying on the bathroom floor in pain.
Please unless you’ve been in the position where it was something that would affect you personally do NOT try and tell other women what should or should not be dome with their bodies.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I’m sorry you and your sister and daughter went through all that garbage. Nobody should make those decisions except the woman or girl involved, with as much advice and help as she wants.
There are a lot of nasty bastards out there….
LikeLiked by 4 people
“Two of those consequences are named “Neil Gorsuch” and “Brett Kavanaugh.” ”
Interesting coincidence (?).
Just finished binging the Fourth (and Final?) Season of ‘Lucifer’ on Netflix where demons come to Earth to ‘persuade’ Lucifer to return to Hell. One of the demons is named ‘Squee’.
Hmmm… Squee… Squee… Where have I heard that name before?
Paraphrasing Dana Carvey’s Church Lady,
“Could it be… ‘Kavanaugh’???!!!”
LikeLiked by 2 people
On the bright side, if such a thing exists, Atheism is up and growing.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Reblogged this on Writing Radiation and commented:
If & when I figure out how to contact Supreme Court justices to share our objections, – not that it’ll do a whole heckuva lotta good – I’ll let you all know. 😥
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hey guys, I was wondering what the “A” in the women’s stomach represented?
LikeLike