The opening of the Amendment's text reads, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." [...]
The 19th Amendment emerged out of the Progressive Era in American politics, a period of increased social activism and economic reform during the first two decades of the 20th century. Suffragists like Jeannette Rankin, the first female member of the House of Representatives, brought greater attention to the rights of women. Certain states like California, Washington and Arizona passed their own legislation granting women either full or partial suffrage in the early 1910s. Wyoming was the first to do so in 1869, when it was still a territory.The effort by religious zealots to overturn the landmark 1974 Supreme Court decision Roe v Wade in a state-by-state campaign has raised the level of anxiety and will no doubt lead to massive political backlash very quickly.
Republicans nationwide are poised to hasten a new era of female leadership which will change society even more.
Abortion Bans: 9 States Have Passed Bills to Limit the Procedure This Year
But 2019 is different, advocates on both sides said. Abortion opponents saw the appointment of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh last year as tipping the balance of the court in their favor, and state legislators were energized to pass more aggresive anti-abortion legislation.
“The appointment of Kavanaugh focused legislators across the country on abortion,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. “It focused conservative legislators to pass abortion restrictions that they hope will be challenged and end up before the court, so the court can undermine or overturn abortion rights.”
“It is also focused progressive legislators like those in New York to pass laws that protect abortion rights in their own states,” she added. In January, New York enacted a measure that guarantees a “fundamental right” to abortion in the state.There no doubt will be more women running for office. However, far more (and their male allies) will take to the streets in protest.
For a poignant analogy, America's intervention in Vietnam was disastrous because we were fighting an opponent driven to defend its homeland. Similar dynamics are most certainly at play with the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
"Nevertheless, she persisted," -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in February 2017, after he shut down Sen. Elizabeth Warren when -- during debate on confirming Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III to the office of US Attorney General -- quoted Coretta Scott King from a letter the widow of MLK Jr wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1986,
Civil rights leaders, including my husband and Albert Turner, have fought long and hard to achieve free and unfettered access to the ballot box. Mr. SESSIONS has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve as a federal judge. This simply cannot be allowed to happen. Mr. SESSIONS' conduct as U.S. Attorney, from his politically-motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws, indicates that he lacks the temperament, fairness and judgment to be a federal judge.Sessions, in 1986, failed to be confirmed as a US District Court judge. And now Elizabeth Warren is running a very strong campaign to become the first woman to hold the office of President of the United States.
Isn't women's personal sovereignty a much more powerful force that will be fought for and defended than even what has been thus far encountered in military battle? Or perhaps in any political arena or courtroom? Stay tuned.
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