The threat of overthrow deer it’s what happens when women aren’t at the decision-making table. It’s time to act on strategies that can ensure fair representation in our lifetime.

On Monday, May 2, Politico uncovered an extraordinary story that threw the nation into disarray: an unprecedented leak of a proposed Supreme Court majority opinion to strike down Roe vs. Wade. The draft opinion maintains that it is not for the Court to pronounce on the legality of abortion and that “it is time to respect the Constitution and to refer the question of abortion to the elected representatives of the people. “.

There is a problem with this directive: it assumes that elected officials in state legislatures are representative, but they are not.

State legislatures are overwhelmingly white and male

On average, women hold only 31% of seats in state legislatures. There are only 15 women (11 Democrats and four Republicans) who are presidents or provisional presidents of state senates, and only six women (five Democrats, one Republican) are presidents of state houses.

RepresentWomen’s 2021 Gender Parity Index found that more than half of the states (30) receive a grade of D or worse for gender balance, meaning representation ranges between 0 and 25 percent for more than half of the country. Representation is even worse for women of color: Only 9% of state legislators are women of color.

The will of the people or strangulation by partisanship?

Abortion bans aren’t popular: 80% of Americans support abortion in all or most cases, and 65% of Americans think the Supreme Court should strike down Texas’ abortion law. This means that, although it has become an intense partisan issue, a significant number of conservatives support the right to choose. Conservative women know what it is like to face situations of rape and serious health risks during pregnancy, and the vast majority To do want their daughters and all women to have a choice.

A significant number of conservatives support the right to choose. Conservative women know what it is like to face situations of rape and serious health risks during pregnancy, and the vast majority want their daughters and all women to have a choice.

Despite this, more than half of the states are certain or likely to ban abortion without deer. Notably, as the map below shows, female representation rates are much lower in states that are likely to ban abortion if deer is overthrown. Women make up only 26% of lawmakers in states likely to ban abortion, compared to 37% of state officials in states unlikely to ban abortion. There is a clear relationship between representation rates and the likelihood of prohibiting abortion.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, the typical woman seeking an abortion is in her late 20s, single, already has children, and is poor. In fact, nearly half of these women earn less than $12,700 a year, with another quarter very close to that poverty line. This highlights much deeper systemic issues than can be captured with the phrase “unintended pregnancy”.

The under-representation of women in Congress and state legislatures makes the idea that “the elected representatives of the people” should decide the issue of abortion for these women an absolute farce.

“The greatest care must be taken in the constitution of this Representative Assembly,” said John Adams in 1776. “It must be in miniature, an exact portrait of the people as a whole. He should think, feel, reason and act like them. …Great care must be taken to effect this…”

We are clearly far from this vision of representation.

Invest in systemic strategies that ensure fair representation

Our state legislatures are predominantly white and male due to structural barriers built into our political system.

Serious electoral reform has been talked about for decades. Pundits have warned us of the dangers of a short-sighted focus on winning the next election. We are now faced with the reality of inaction. The threat of overthrow Roe vs. Wade is a great example of what can happen when women are not at the decision-making table. It is time to act on medium-term systemic strategies that ensure equitable representation.

The under-representation of women in Congress and state legislatures makes the idea that “the elected representatives of the people” should decide the issue of abortion for these women an absolute farce.

There are evidence-based solutions: Adopting gender-balanced funding targets and Equitable Representation Voting, which combines ranked ballots and multi-member ridings, are two viable and scalable solutions that will transform the demographics of our legislative bodies. In our lifes. These are proven strategies that realize John Adams’ dream of a legislature that thinks, feels, reasons and acts in a way that represents the will of the people and not extreme partisans.

We don’t have to work very hard to see the benefits of gender balance. Our team examined the policies adopted in the top 10 democracies ranked for gender balance, based on the Inter-Parliamentary Union database. Here is what we found:

Commit to doing the hard thing

The link between women’s representation and the results of gender-sensitive policies is clear. Organizations and individuals fighting for issues such as climate change, equal pay, paid leave, reproductive rights, etc., must also fight for structural reform that removes barriers that prevent women from running, winning, serving, and leading American politics.

The diverse gender balance in political representation is a structural catalyst for addressing the upstream inequalities that plague American politics, and we can no longer settle for snail’s pace progress. We must learn from our allies in countries around the world and commit to doing the hard work of changing rules and systems. More arrangement, more short-term thinking. It is now.

Sign and share Mrs. relaunched the “We had abortions” petition– whether you have had an abortion yourself or simply stand in solidarity with those who have – to let the Supreme Court, Congress and the White House know: we will not abandon the right to a safe abortion, legal and accessible.

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