In the richest, most powerful country in the world, inequality touches every aspect of poor peoples’ lives. We all know that. But how many of us have stopped to think that 20 million American women, mainly Black and Latina, face an inequality that affects their right to control their bodies. That right, for one-quarter of women in the U.S. of child-bearing age, a little known but poisonous part of the US budgetary process has kept poor women from being able to afford an abortion. American women celebrated the passage of Roe v. Wade in 1973 making abortion obtainable. For three years it was also affordable. All that changed in 1976 when a bigot, Henry Hyde, slammed the abortion door shut on poor women. Forty-six years and four democratic presidents later, many of them blessed with democratic majority Congresses, the Hyde amendment continues to threaten the lives and prospects of poor women. Where is the voice of powerful women rights organizations like NARAL and Planned Parenthood? Enraged by a recent Supreme Court leaked draft opinion overturning Roe, these organizations and others mounted furious campaigns to express their displeasure and rake in oodles of money from women afraid their right to obtain an abortion will go away and leave them with the same choice (none) that poor women have had for forty-six years. On the Hyde Amendment, a chilling silence. Check out “What Happens If You’re Poor, Female and Black in the Richest Country in the World?” for all the dirty details.
