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Insights Into Tomorrow: Episode 17 ”Woman’s Rights are Human Rights”

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There has been a disturbing trend in recent years in the United States.  An assault has been waged on basic human rights.  Victims of this assault have been chosen by the color of their skin and their gender All are victims that have been targeted for generations and have fought for their equal, human rights.

In this episode of Insights Into Tomorrow we’re going to take a deeper look at the assault on women’s rights. We’ll take a look at this history of women’s rights through the years, we’ll examine the current state of women’s rights, we’ll explore the threats against those rights. Before we leave we’ll take a special look at the current issue of abortion and the impending supreme court decision that threatens to overturn Roe v. Wade 

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Show Notes

[INTRO THEME]

  • [INTRODUCTIONS] (3-5 minutes)
    • Show introduction:
      • Insights Into Tomorrow Episode 17: “Woman’s Rights are Human Rights”
    • Host introductions
      • I’m your host Joseph Whalen
      • And my special guest host this week is Michelle Whalen
  • [SUMMARY]
  • There has been a disturbing trend in recent years in the United States. 
  • An assault has been waged on basic human rights. 
  • Victims of this assault have been chosen by the color of their skin and their gender
  • All are victims that have been targeted for generations and have fought for their equal, human rights.
  • In this episode of Insights Into Tomorrow we’re going to take a deeper look at the assault on women’s rights.
  • We’ll take a look at this history of women’s rights through the years, we’ll examine the current state of women’s rights, we’ll explore the threats against those rights.
  • Before we leave we’ll take a special look at the current issue of abortion and the impending supreme court decision that threatens to overturn Roe v. Wade
  • But before we do that I’d like to take a moment to invite our listening and viewing audience to subscribe to the podcast

[Show Plugs] (2-3 minutes)

  • Subscriptions:
  • Google
  • Apple
  • Spotify
  • Stitcher
  • Amazon

Contact Info

[TRANSITION]

[SEGMENT 1:] (10-15 minutes)

  • All Women are entitled to human rights. 
    • These include the right to live free from violence and discrimination
    • To enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; to be educated; to own property; to vote; and to earn an equal wage.
  • Across the globe many women and girls still face discrimination on the basis of sex and gender. 
    • Gender inequality underpins many problems which disproportionately affect women and girls, such as domestic and sexual violence, lower pay, lack of access to education, and inadequate healthcare.
  • For many years women’s rights movements have fought hard to address this inequality, campaigning to change laws or taking to the streets to demand their rights are respected. 
    • And new movements have flourished in the digital age, such as the #MeToo campaign which highlights the prevalence of gender-based violence and sexual harassment.

A historic look at Woman’s Rights in the United States

  • No explicit provisions in the constitution for women’s right to anything
    • The constitution protected the “consent of the governed” which equated to white men only
    • The Bill of Rights did not protect everyone
      • Women were considered second-class citizens
      • Essentially property of their husbands
  • Woman started to organize as early as the Seneca Falls Convention in July of 1848
    • It planted the seeds for women’s suffrage
    • It pushed for equal rights for all people of all races and sexes
    • The end result was the signing of the Declaration of Sentiments by 100 men and woman, a document based on the Declaration of Independence
  • Women’s suffrage
    • Wyoming pass the first law granting women the right to vote in 1869 and was the first state to grant women the right to vote in all elections in 1890
    • It took until 1920 for the 19th Amendment to the Constitution allowing women the right to vote
  • Abortion and contraception
    • There were widespread anti-contraception laws on the books as late as 1918 before they were challenged starting with Margaret Sanger in New York
    • Abortion laws criminalizing the act of ending a pregnancy apart from saving a woman’s life were in place well into the 60’s before any challenges were raised
    • These culminated in the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that’s being drawn into question today
  • Employment and Equal Pay
    • The first minimum wage laws applied to woman didn’t come into effect until 1912
    • This was later superseded by the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act imposing a federal minimum wage regardless of gender
    • It wasn’t until 1963 with the Equal Pay Act that any attention was given to equitable wages for the same work performed by woman
    • It took until 1974 for Congress to include gender protection in fair housing and education as part of similar Civil Rights Acts
  • Leadership and Government
    • The first woman to serve in Congress, Jeannette Pickering Rankin didn’t take her seat until 1917
    • But it would take nearly 100 years for a woman to take on the leadership role of Speaker of the House when Nancy Pelosi assumed the role for the first time in 2007
    • We didn’t see our first female Supreme Court Justice until 1981 with Sandra Day O’Connor
    • Madeleine Albright was our first Secretary of State in 1997
    • And we got our first female Vice President in Kamala Harris in 2020

[AD 1]

[SEGMENT 2: (8-12 minutes)]

The Current State of Woman’s Rights

  • Women’s Suffrage
    • At the moment it’s safe to say that fight has been won
  • Abortion and Contraception
    • This had been won, but it looks like it might be a split decision with the much anticipated ruling from the majority Right Wing Supreme Court we have today
    • More on this later in the show
  • Employment and Pay
    • Legally on paper this was a win back 1963 with the Equal Pay Act
    • In practice…there’s a long fight ahead on this
    • Progress continues to be made, but not nearly enough to level the playing field
  • Leadership and Government
    • There was a surprising amount of progress early on this but it’s been painfully slow in coming in the modern time
    • Many parts of the country are progressive enough to make the progress needed
    • In other, less progressive, less evolved parts of the country politics is still an “old boys network”

[AD 2]

[SEGMENT 3: (10-15 minutes)]

Ongoing Threats and Obstacles to Women’s Rights in America

  • Women’s Suffrage
    • In the wake of the toxic 2020 elections there has been a wholesale attack on voting rights
    • These attacks, while not targeted specifically at woman are designed to make it harder for people to vote
    • 17 states of enacted 28 new laws to restrict access to voting
      • These target citizens with disabilities
      • Absentee voting
      • Provisional ballots
      • Require Voter ID
      • Target voter registration
      • Institute registration purging
      • Restrict student voting
      • Limits on polling places making it harder to vote
  • Abortion
    • Somehow, after nearly 50 years this is still a matter for debate
    • Instead of being an ideological discussion, anything to do with abortions has turned into a political discussion
    • Which generally means all logic is out the window with it
    • There is a real threat to women’s reproductive rights with the recent leaking of a draft opinion by the US Supreme Court that would indicate they are in favor of overturning Roe v Wade.
  • Employment and Pay
    • On average woman earn 82 cents for every dollar a man earns
    • In comparing salaries in over 350 jobs, women earn less in nearly all jobs
    • Women earn less than their same race and ethnicity counterpart at entry level of education attainment
    • The pandemic is estimated to have set women’s labor force participation back more than 30 years
  • Leadership and Government

[AD 3]

[SEGMENT 4: (10-15 minutes)]

Open discussion on Roe v. Wade and Abortion

[OUTRO AND CREDITS]

Transcription

00:00:01:17 – 00:00:44:09
Michelle
Insightful podcasts and informative host insights into things, a podcast network Welcome to Insights into Tomorrow, where we take a deeper look into how the issues of today will impact the world of tomorrow. From politics and world news to media and technology, we discuss how today’s headlines are becoming tomorrow’s reality.

00:00:52:15 – 00:01:17:04
Joseph
TV Welcome to INSIGHT into tomorrow. This is episode 17. Women’s rights are human rights. I’m your host, Joseph Whelan, and my special guest host this week from our Insights in Entertainment podcast. Michelle Whelan, how are you doing today, Michelle?

00:01:20:05 – 00:01:23:20
Michelle
Full of many, many emotions.

00:01:23:21 – 00:01:40:28
Joseph
I can imagine. We had actually planned on doing this podcast for a little while now. We’ve been working on putting it together and starting understanding that there was going to be an impending decision. And we. Today was the scheduled day that we were going to do this.

00:01:40:28 – 00:01:42:16
Michelle
Right. Not knowing not.

00:01:42:16 – 00:01:45:17
Joseph
Knowing that yesterday was going to be the day that the other shoe dropped.

00:01:46:01 – 00:01:46:12
Michelle
Right.

00:01:47:13 – 00:02:09:13
Joseph
So we’re going to continue to go through the material that we did planned. And we reserve the last segment to have an open discussion on the ground breaking rules, shattering country damaging decision. I think that came yesterday.

00:02:12:03 – 00:02:36:08
Joseph
So there’s been a disturbing trend in recent years in the United States. There’s been an assault on women’s. An assault has been waged on basic human rights. Victims of this assault have been chosen by color of their skin and their gender and various other things. All are victims that have been targeted for generations and have fought for their equal human rights.

00:02:36:27 – 00:03:06:19
Joseph
In this episode of Insights into Tomorrow, we’re going to take a deeper look at the assault specifically on women’s rights. We’ll take a look at the history of women’s rights through the years. We’ll examine the current state of women’s rights and we’ll explore the threats against those rights. Before we leave, we’ll take a special look at the current issue of abortion and the not so impending Supreme Court decision that threatens to overturn, which it did overturn Roe versus Wade.

00:03:07:24 – 00:03:31:05
Joseph
But before we do that, I’d like to take a moment to invite our listening and viewing audiences to subscribe to the podcast. You can find audio versions of this podcast listed as insights into tomorrow. You can find video and audio of all the networks podcast listed as insights into things. And you can pick those up anywhere. You can get a podcast these days with pretty much everywhere I would also invite you to writing.

00:03:31:05 – 00:03:48:03
Joseph
Give us your comments, give us your feedback, tell us how we’re doing. Email us or comments and insights into things dot com where you can find links to all of our social media on our official website and w WW dot insights into things dot com. Are we ready.

00:03:48:12 – 00:03:49:28
Michelle
As ready as we’ll ever be?

00:03:50:11 – 00:03:51:17
Joseph
Let’s get into it.

00:03:58:08 – 00:04:27:09
Michelle
So all women are entitled to human rights. These include the right to live free from violence and discrimination, to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health to be educated and to own property, to vote, and to earn an equal wage across the globe. Many women and girls still face discrimination on the basis of sex and gender.

00:04:28:02 – 00:05:15:23
Michelle
Gender inequality underpins many problems which disproportionately affect women and girls such as domestic and sexual violence, lower pay, lack of access, to education, and in and in inadequate health care. For many years, women’s rights movements have fought hard to address these inequalities. Campaigning to change laws or taking to the streets to demand their rights or respect it. And new movements have flourished in the digital age, such as the MeToo campaign, which highlights the prevalence of gender based violence and sexual harassment.

00:05:17:12 – 00:05:46:18
Joseph
So there has been a fairly long history of women’s fight for their rights in the United States, at least because when the country was formed, there was no explicit provisions in the Constitution and for women’s rights to anything. The Constitution project protected, quote, consent of the government, which I’m sorry. Consent of the governed. Which at the time meant white men, white landholding men only.

00:05:46:22 – 00:05:47:01
Michelle
Right.

00:05:47:15 – 00:05:55:11
Joseph
The Bill of Rights did not protect everyone either. Women were considered second class citizens. They were essentially property of their husbands.

00:05:56:11 – 00:06:24:14
Michelle
So women started to organize as early as the Seneca Falls Convention. In July of 1848. It planted the seeds for the women’s suffrage movement. It pushed for equal rights for all people of all races and sexes. The end result was the signing of the Declaration of Sentiments by 100 men and women. A document based on the Declaration of Independence.

00:06:25:24 – 00:06:54:11
Joseph
So we move into the women’s suffrage movement. This is really probably the the foundation for the first fight for women’s rights. Wyoming passed the first law granting women the right to vote in 1869 and was the first state to grant women the right to vote in all elections in 1890. But it took until 1920 for the 19th Amendment to the Constitution to allow women the right to vote across the country.

00:06:55:21 – 00:07:27:04
Michelle
So now let’s talk a little bit about abortion and contraception. So there were rights, widespread anti-contraception laws on the books as late as 1819 before they were challenged Starting with Margaret Sanger in New York. Abortion laws criminalize the act of ending a pregnancy apart from saving a woman’s life were in place and well into the sixties before any challenges were raised.

00:07:27:25 – 00:07:40:15
Michelle
These obviously culminated into the 1973 Roe versus Wade Supreme Court ruling that being drawn into question. Unfortunately as of yesterday yeah.

00:07:42:00 – 00:08:15:11
Joseph
So then we move on to women’s equal employment and equal pay. The first minimum wage laws applied to women didn’t come into effect until 1912. This was later superseded by the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act imposing a federal minimum age regardless of gender. It wasn’t until 1963 with the Equal Pay Act that any attention was given to equitable rages for wages well wages to move it but wages for the same work performed by men.

00:08:16:09 – 00:08:19:03
Joseph
It took until 1974.

00:08:19:21 – 00:08:19:27
Michelle
For.

00:08:19:27 – 00:08:42:08
Joseph
Congress to include gender protection in fair housing and education. As part of this as part of the civil rights Act now. It’s worth noting that even though these laws were on the books, they’re on the books today. They’re not observed. They’re not. There’s still discrimination today, despite the fact that we have these laws on the books.

00:08:42:08 – 00:09:28:07
Michelle
Right? Exactly. And finally, leadership in government. So the first woman to serve in Congress was Jeanette Pickering Rankin who didn’t take her seat until 1917. But it would take nearly 100 years for a woman to take on the leadership role of Speaker of the House. When Nancy Pelosi assumed that role for the first time in 2007 and we didn’t see our first Supreme Court justice until 1981 with Sandra Day O’Connor O’Connor and Madeleine Albright was our first secretary of State in 1997 and obviously our first female vice president Kamala Harris in 2020.

00:09:29:00 – 00:10:01:05
Joseph
So the disturbing trend that I see in this history here is there’s spurts of progress. There’s long periods where there’s no progress. Then you get a few exceptional people that just get mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore. And they do something about it. Yep. And the establishment throws a couple of crumbs out there and gives a little bit of rights to people And then there’s a long period of time until it happens again.

00:10:01:10 – 00:10:01:18
Michelle
Mm hmm.

00:10:02:19 – 00:10:13:08
Joseph
How do you, how do you think this compares to other fights? You know, civil rights, for instance, how do you think this compares to civil rights for African-Americans and minorities?

00:10:13:09 – 00:10:42:00
Michelle
It’s almost the same, really, when you think about it, unless you are a rich white male, you’re fighting every day, you know, and and maybe once in a while, something comes along that you you get something and, you know, and then, unfortunately, something else in the news is going to pop up where everybody’s mindset is on something else.

00:10:42:00 – 00:11:18:02
Michelle
And that fight still hasn’t been won. And until something happens with that fight again, everybody kind of forgets about it. Because, again, our you know, our our attention span you know, is, you know, you have short attention span theater, you know, of our minds, you know, look at, you know, not to get on a totally different tangent, but all of the school shootings, you know, it’s been how many weeks and none of that is in the news.

00:11:18:10 – 00:11:46:15
Michelle
You know, you have the gun reforms that are there trying to pass. But again, now that you have everything going on with Roe v Wade, that’s the main focus. But yet there’s other things that still need to be focused. Black Lives Matter still needs to be a focus because not you know, you had everything that went on with George Floyd and and all the other African-Americans who with the police issues, and things like that.

00:11:46:24 – 00:11:55:03
Michelle
And none of that was solved. But because something else came along. Oh, well, now our attention. We have to. But no, you have to go back and do all the other things.

00:11:55:05 – 00:12:15:21
Joseph
It’s it’s funny you mention that. What do you think is the cause? Is that a media issue? Is that a society issue? Is it a politics issue where politicians don’t want to deal with the issue so they distract with something else? Or is it is it media? Just trying to get ratings is dictating what our what our our issues are today?

00:12:15:25 – 00:12:44:04
Michelle
I don’t know. I think it’s a little bit of I think I think everybody’s a little bit to blame with all of that. Because obviously, media is is one aspect, you know, and when you kind of think back of, okay, well, why did it take so long? You know, so Wyoming you know it was the 1800s when you know Wyoming, but it wasn’t until the 1900s that it was actually.

00:12:44:20 – 00:13:13:28
Michelle
And you have to think back then. How long did it take for news to travel? How long? You know, you know, same thing with Juneteenth. You know, the, you know, it was signed into law that blacks were no longer slaves. But how many years did it take for the news to actually travel? You know, there was no quick way to do it where now we have that instant gratification.

00:13:13:28 – 00:13:37:23
Michelle
We can, you know, as soon as news broke yesterday of the Supreme Court’s decision. Everybody in the world knew about it. So I think a lot of it is the because we’re so hungry for information right now, what’s the next thing? What’s the next thing? What’s you know, what do I need to do? And also, we’re all so tired.

00:13:38:02 – 00:13:53:01
Michelle
We’re all so tired of having to stand up for everybody. And and and there’s just so much injustice. It’s like, well, where do I put my you know, my energy.

00:13:53:02 – 00:13:54:03
Joseph
Where’s my next fight?

00:13:54:13 – 00:14:19:02
Michelle
And it’s like, I have no more students to give my my jaw is empty because I’ve given, you know what you know, so much because there’s so much that’s needed, you know, from all of us. I think that’s, you know, where it where it comes to because there’s obviously thousands and thousands of organizations and different things that are in need.

00:14:19:02 – 00:14:26:09
Michelle
But it’s, you know, how much can the average person give before you have nothing left to give?

00:14:26:29 – 00:14:39:25
Joseph
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s historically, it’s it’s definitely been a problem. Let’s take a little break. We’ll come back and we’re gonna talk a little bit more detail about where we are right now with these specific women’s rights. We’ll be right back.

00:14:48:27 – 00:15:19:03
Joseph
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00:15:19:27 – 00:15:43:12
Joseph
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00:15:52:02 – 00:16:10:23
Michelle
So let’s talk about the current state of women’s rights. And we’ll talk first about women’s suffrage. At the moment, it’s safe to say that fight has been won. I guess kind of sort of in and in the general statement, yes.

00:16:11:02 – 00:16:17:12
Joseph
If nothing else, we can say that women are equally discriminated against with everyone else when it comes to your right to vote.

00:16:18:25 – 00:16:19:12
Michelle
Yes.

00:16:20:05 – 00:16:21:06
Joseph
Special discrimination.

00:16:21:17 – 00:16:46:14
Michelle
Okay. Okay. We can go with that. Abortion and contraception. Hmm. Well, this had been one, but it looks like it might be a split decision with the much anticipated ruling from the majority right wing Supreme Court that was held yesterday. And we’ll have more on this later on in the show.

00:16:47:19 – 00:17:19:12
Joseph
So we take a look at employment and pay. So legally on paper this was a win back in 1963 with the Equal Pay Act. Do you feel like this was a win No. And I think and I think most women would be of the same opinion in practice. There’s a long fight ahead of this one Progress continues to be made, but not nearly enough to level the playing field between men and women.

00:17:19:13 – 00:17:29:10
Joseph
Equal pay for equal work It’s a mess. And the fact that people are still getting away with it is frankly just disturbing that you can get away with it.

00:17:29:14 – 00:17:29:22
Michelle
Yup.

00:17:30:26 – 00:17:59:22
Joseph
Leadership in government. There was a surprising amount of progress early on this, but it’s been painfully slow in coming into the modern time since, you know, the eighties. 2000. We’ve seen some progress here. Many parts of the country are progressive enough to make the progress that’s needed. There are other parts in less progressive, less evolved parts of the country where politics is still an old boys network.

00:18:00:23 – 00:18:07:00
Joseph
But from a national standpoint, we’re seeing I mean, we have a female vice president.

00:18:07:03 – 00:18:07:12
Michelle
Mm hmm.

00:18:07:14 – 00:18:20:27
Joseph
Yeah. Huge. How do you think let’s test women’s suffrage, your ability to vote. Do you feel you have the ability to go out there and vote when you want for who you want, how you want?

00:18:20:29 – 00:18:57:02
Michelle
Absolutely. And that’s something I’ve never felt I wasn’t able to do. I’ve never felt that I wasn’t allowed, you know, even in high school, senior year was when I was I turned 18 and I had a history teacher who was very passionate about the women’s movement and made sure she had her little pamphlets in her desk drawer. And who’s turning 18 this month?

00:18:57:11 – 00:19:26:22
Michelle
Fill out your form so you can vote. And she said it doesn’t matter if it’s a presidential election, if it’s a governor election, even your little local election, you will vote every time because there are women that died doing this. It is your heritage. It is your responsibility to pass this on and make sure you vote.

00:19:27:14 – 00:19:41:17
Joseph
How do you think the they see this without getting hate mail? How do you think the outcome of the 20, 20 election and.

00:19:41:20 – 00:19:44:12
Michelle
Or the 2016 election we can even go.

00:19:44:13 – 00:20:19:15
Joseph
You could but specifically to the 2020 election in which there was an artificial stigma built up about the legitimacy of the election and voting and voter fraud and it it drew the entire country into that and now we’re seeing certain states that support a certain party are now imposing laws that if not discriminating against people from voting.

00:20:19:15 – 00:20:20:12
Michelle
Will make it harder.

00:20:20:12 – 00:20:21:08
Joseph
Making it much more.

00:20:21:08 – 00:20:22:23
Michelle
Resolutely. And that’s.

00:20:23:02 – 00:20:24:18
Joseph
Do you feel threatened by that?

00:20:25:14 – 00:21:12:16
Michelle
Fortunately, I don’t because at this point, we are in a very blue state, and I’ve never felt threatened going to our polling places. We don’t have far to travel. We usually never have more than 5 minutes to wait. If we even have a wait whenever we’ve gone. And I know that’s not the case for states right next to ours where people will wait in line hours to to cast their vote or have to travel, you know, an hour or two to get to their polling place.

00:21:12:17 – 00:21:33:05
Michelle
And I would probably feel intimidated if I had to go through all those measures you know, and almost jump through hoops to fulfill my civic duty. And it shouldn’t Nobody should have to feel that way to do that.

00:21:33:06 – 00:21:44:01
Joseph
Absolutely. Abortion and contraception. So for now, we’re going to put abortion aside because we already have a discussion on the last segment. Contraception.

00:21:44:08 – 00:21:47:12
Michelle
Mm hmm. Do you feel that.

00:21:48:16 – 00:22:05:12
Joseph
You can acquire the contraception that you want and that the health care that you need as far as women’s health is readily available to you? Do you think that’s a threat? Do you think progress need to be made on that front?

00:22:06:14 – 00:23:06:00
Michelle
So, again, being a white female, a middle class white female in a blue state, I don’t feel discriminated at all against any health care. I know that’s not the case for others of my gender. In other parts of our country, that that now that that is something that there are rumors about being taken away now you see all over social media, people saying if you’re on some sort of IUD if you’re on any sort of implant, get your get it replaced now.

00:23:06:19 – 00:23:37:06
Michelle
Anything that, you know, has a couple of years because we don’t know what’s coming down the pike and the fact that some male can make a decision, what I do with my body absolutely blows my mind and that, you know, whether or not I’m a married woman or a single woman should have nothing to do with it either.

00:23:38:07 – 00:24:12:18
Michelle
And that if I want to have a child by it should be by choice. I should not be forced. I am still of age where I could have a child. I am not at a point where I wouldn’t want to begin that process all over again. And I need to have that body autonomy that that’s my right to to decide that.

00:24:12:18 – 00:24:38:12
Michelle
And nobody else should decide it. I don’t make a decision for anybody if they want to be on Viagra or not or if they want to get, you know, reconstructive surgery or something. I don’t make that decision for anybody else. So nobody should be making a decision. Sure. For what I do to myself.

00:24:38:14 – 00:24:46:20
Joseph
And I agree. 110%, as long as you don’t expect the government to pay for it then. Right. You’re saying what you do. Mm hmm. I’m totally down to that.

00:24:46:22 – 00:24:47:00
Michelle
Mm hmm.

00:24:47:27 – 00:25:04:03
Joseph
Employment in pay. Where do we stand with this? Do you think there’s sufficient progress? Do you think you’re compensated fairly for what you do? And do you think that there is a threat to that looming?

00:25:05:28 – 00:25:46:25
Michelle
I don’t know. I you know, it’s one of those things because, of course, you know, at most places of employment, one of the rules is you don’t talk about how much you make So, you know, you don’t find out how much somebody else’s is making So that’s that’s a really hard. You know, I can I know or I shouldn’t say I assume within the company that I work in, there are people that work in the North Jersey facility that make much more money than the people in the South Jersey facility.

00:25:47:01 – 00:25:48:26
Joseph
And that’s because of you, right?

00:25:48:27 – 00:25:59:19
Michelle
Absolutely. But again, it shouldn’t matter where I’m physically located because I’m doing just as much work as well.

00:25:59:19 – 00:26:02:03
Joseph
There’s somebody factors like cost of living and stuff like that.

00:26:02:03 – 00:26:03:29
Michelle
Absolutely. Oh, totally.

00:26:03:29 – 00:26:10:24
Joseph
I totally Compensation wise, on a one to one ratio, are you being fairly compensated.

00:26:13:05 – 00:26:40:15
Michelle
I really don’t know, because it’s one of the things that probably bad on me is I kind of stopped paying attention because there’s always these websites you can go to and say, you know, how much does a person that does this job make? And the thing is, what I do for a living is kind of specific to my job, you know?

00:26:40:15 – 00:27:00:03
Michelle
So it’s kind of hard to say if I went someplace else where I could kind of try and figure it out. And I think I might be I know I’m probably underpaid for just one because I’m you know.

00:27:00:08 – 00:27:05:19
Joseph
Is it but but is it because you’re a woman or because you’re a one of a kind person doing what you do?

00:27:05:29 – 00:27:33:23
Michelle
I don’t know. It might be a combination of of both. We recently at my company had somebody who left the company who was a woman. I never asked her or found out how much she made. I knew she probably made more than I did, even though I’ve been with the company much longer than she had been. And we recently hired somebody who I knew was a grade level or a position higher than her.

00:27:34:15 – 00:27:47:01
Michelle
And I have a feeling probably started out making more than she did. Okay. So that’s another you know.

00:27:47:02 – 00:28:14:29
Joseph
So clearly we’re not where we need to be. No leadership in government. So my question to you here is clearly we’re seeing progress in on the certainly on the federal level, both states are making progress with women in leadership positions. You personally Do you think the doors opened for you if you wanted to get into state, local politics, do you think you have any obstacles with that?

00:28:14:29 – 00:28:17:28
Joseph
Do you think you’d be discriminated against because of your gender?

00:28:18:24 – 00:28:47:21
Michelle
You I don’t know. I think I think in a lot of cases, it’s still a boys club. When you come to you know, you’re you’re local, you know, but I’m sure there are some areas of the country where it’s not like that. I’ve never been interested in wanting to run for a government position. So it was never something that I thought about.

00:28:47:22 – 00:29:04:16
Michelle
But I could see where I wouldn’t, you know, again, where we live, where we are. I’m sure if it was something where I started volunteering or doing things, I could, you know, eventually see something.

00:29:06:00 – 00:29:18:10
Joseph
You know, it’s interesting is of the of the four fundamental rights we talked about three of these you attribute it to some level of political influence on how it impacts you.

00:29:18:18 – 00:29:18:29
Michelle
Mm hmm.

00:29:20:04 – 00:29:27:00
Joseph
That’s disturbing that that women’s rights are a matter of politics.

00:29:28:02 – 00:29:28:23
Michelle
And they shouldn’t.

00:29:28:23 – 00:29:38:23
Joseph
Be. No, they shouldn’t. And I think that is a highlight of where we are today. And it astounds me. And we’re not going to pull any punches here. Your obviously a Democratic supporter.

00:29:39:02 – 00:29:40:18
Michelle
I am. How did you.

00:29:40:18 – 00:30:14:00
Joseph
Know? What astounds me is your experience, I would say, is pretty typical for most women Democratic women and or Republican women. But there are so many staunch Republican women that support a party that has fought for over a century and policies that were contrary to women’s interests. And what is it about people like that who would support someone who wants to hold you down?

00:30:14:00 – 00:30:19:05
Joseph
Like, is it a I almost attribute it to like a beaten a wife syndrome type thing.

00:30:19:07 – 00:30:19:17
Michelle
Yeah.

00:30:19:29 – 00:30:25:13
Joseph
Where they just accept their place as a lesser citizen in society and.

00:30:29:22 – 00:31:01:18
Michelle
And you have to kind of think that, you know, there are still women that are, you know, young girls, women that are raised today to your only job in life is to raise the family and be and support your husband. And that’s that’s it. And and I’m not knocking anyone that that’s what they want to do in their life.

00:31:01:20 – 00:31:04:24
Joseph
That that’s what you aspire to do. Knock your socks off.

00:31:04:28 – 00:31:05:15
Michelle
Right.

00:31:05:21 – 00:31:06:26
Joseph
But don’t hold other people.

00:31:06:27 – 00:31:16:19
Michelle
Exactly. But don’t tell me that I can’t do more. Absolutely. Or tell my daughter that she can’t be more.

00:31:17:14 – 00:31:30:26
Joseph
Yeah. That’s my hang off about this whole thing. As much as I hate seeing how you are treated. It irks me to think that she’s got to face some of these same prejudices, and it. It really pisses me off.

00:31:30:26 – 00:31:31:00
Michelle
Mm.

00:31:31:21 – 00:31:35:24
Joseph
You know, and I want to do everything I can to make sure that she’s got every opportunity.

00:31:35:28 – 00:32:05:14
Michelle
And I’m. I’m so proud of. Of what she stands for and what she believes in. And, yes, a lot of it has to do with with us. But there’s a lot that, you know, it is her own, you know, and I’m so glad that we raised her and are still raising her to be so open minded to two things.

00:32:05:14 – 00:32:35:14
Michelle
And she, in so many cases, is more open minded than we will ever be. And and that gives me hope that, you know, she’s also surrounded you know, she surrounds herself with people that feel that way, too, and that that generation will hopefully make a difference and and bring about so much that more than we could ever hope for.

00:32:35:21 – 00:32:40:06
Joseph
I’m also very fortunate that she’s patiently she’s patient enough to help.

00:32:41:24 – 00:32:42:15
Michelle
Educate.

00:32:42:15 – 00:32:48:09
Joseph
Carry me along in that journey. Yes, I’ve learned a lot. Mm. I’ve learned a lot from her that I never thought I would.

00:32:48:09 – 00:32:48:28
Michelle
Learn Mm hmm.

00:32:50:17 – 00:32:58:23
Joseph
Let’s take another break. And when we come back, we’re going to take a look at what some of the obstacles and threats are to these rights. We’ll be right back.

00:33:06:26 – 00:33:25:16
Michelle
Insights into Teens. A podcast series exploring the issues and challenges of today’s youth. Talking to real teens about real teen problems explore issues from braces to puberty, social anxiety to financial responsibility.

00:33:27:23 – 00:33:41:18
Michelle
Each week we talk about the topics concerning today’s youth. We look at how the issues affect teens, how to cope with these issues, and how parents, friends and loved ones can help teens handle these challenges.

00:33:44:03 – 00:34:01:26
Michelle
Check out our video episodes on YouTube.com Backslash Insights into things Catch our audio versions on podcast. Insights into Teen XCOM or on the web at insights into things dot com.

00:34:10:03 – 00:34:33:20
Joseph
So threats and obstacles to women’s rights in America. And we’ll attack these rights as we’ve been doing in order. So the first one we’re going to talk about is women’s suffrage. So in the wake of the toxic 20, 20 elections, there’s been a wholesale attack on voting rights. These attacks aren’t targeted specifically at women and are designed to make it harder for people in general to vote.

00:34:33:21 – 00:34:38:12
Joseph
Not too much in general, but there are specific segments of the population targeting.

00:34:38:12 – 00:34:38:17
Michelle
Them.

00:34:40:14 – 00:35:02:26
Joseph
So some of the obstacles 17 states have enacted 28 new laws that restrict access to voting by targeting citizens with disabilities. You know, the fact that they’re not including accessibility, common accessibility, options to get into voting places that make it difficult for people with disabilities to vote.

00:35:02:29 – 00:35:03:07
Michelle
Mm hmm.

00:35:03:25 – 00:35:16:29
Joseph
They’re attacking absentee voting after the 20, 20 election We’re asking your bank when absentee voting was done because we were in the middle of a pandemic.

00:35:17:00 – 00:35:17:21
Michelle
Right. Right.

00:35:18:08 – 00:35:50:26
Joseph
A pandemic that the sitting president ignored for the first four months and downplayed and pretended it didn’t exist and created the crisis in the first place. Right. You’re attacking provisional ballots. You’re requiring voter I.D., which there’s nothing like they could drink as much. I hate even There’s nothing in the Constitution that says voter ID is required to cast your vote.

00:35:50:27 – 00:36:25:29
Joseph
Nowhere. So I don’t know where they’re coming up with that one. They’re targeting voter registration. They’re making it harder to register. They’re requiring different requirements and now register. They’re instituting registration, purging. So normally with registration purging, if you don’t vote in so many elections, they purge you from the voter registration roll. Well, that number of elections is usually like four, five, something like that presidential election Now they’re saying if you don’t vote the last one, you’re not registering.

00:36:26:09 – 00:36:27:04
Michelle
No, see, that’s.

00:36:27:10 – 00:36:40:20
Joseph
You need to register again to vote The restricting student voting, making it difficult for students because before they would make it accessible to students to vote during student hours and stuff like that to colleges are restricting that.

00:36:41:12 – 00:36:41:23
Michelle
And they’re.

00:36:41:23 – 00:37:03:20
Joseph
Limiting polling places to make it harder to vote. So people who are again, disabled, infirm, aged people that don’t drive, they’re making them drive, travel hours to get to a voting place to cast a vote, knowing that they won’t vote because they’re the people that they don’t want voting because they’re going to vote for the opposition.

00:37:03:20 – 00:37:04:10
Michelle
Right. Right.

00:37:05:05 – 00:37:11:20
Joseph
So that’s some of what we’re looking at here. Not specifically against women, but affecting everybody.

00:37:11:20 – 00:37:23:18
Michelle
Right. Right. And you figure it’s the lower income, more likely the people of color. Yeah, that’s the areas that the that they’re really targeting. Absolutely.

00:37:25:12 – 00:37:26:17
Joseph
So what’s your next one?

00:37:30:20 – 00:38:12:28
Michelle
Abortion somehow after nearly 50 years, This is still a matter of debate. Instead of being an ideological discussion, anything to do with abortions has turned into a political discussion, which generally means that all logic is out the window with it. There is a real threat to women’s reproductive rights. With the recent leaked draft of the opinion by the Supreme Court that now wasn’t just a leak because now it has come to fruition that they have now overturned Roe v Wade.

00:38:16:12 – 00:38:17:07
Joseph
More on that.

00:38:18:19 – 00:38:19:03
Michelle
Later.

00:38:19:03 – 00:38:25:05
Joseph
Later Deep cleansing breaths.

00:38:25:05 – 00:39:13:09
Michelle
Deep cleansing breaths. Okay. Let’s go back to employment and pay. So on average, women earn $0.82 for every dollar that a man earns in the comparing salaries over 350 jobs. Women actually earn less in nearly all jobs. Women earn less than their same race. And ethnicity. Their their counterparts at entry level positions of education attained as well. So the pandemic is estimated to have set the women’s labor force back more than 30 years.

00:39:13:20 – 00:39:15:22
Joseph
So there’s that risk that removing.

00:39:16:12 – 00:39:53:10
Michelle
That astonishes me that during the pandemic that that even happened. Finally, leadership in government, you know, again we now finally have a woman vice president. How many years did that take? You know, and then you even look back. How far was the you know, what the first vice president female vice president was in the eighties, eighties, late eighties.

00:39:53:27 – 00:39:54:17
Michelle
And then.

00:39:54:17 – 00:39:55:00
Joseph
Geraldine.

00:39:55:00 – 00:39:56:14
Michelle
Ferraro. Geraldine Ferraro.

00:39:56:24 – 00:39:57:08
Joseph
Nominated.

00:39:57:08 – 00:40:34:22
Michelle
Nomination, never elected. And then you even had Sarah Palin the second never elected. Right. So it took three women. But how many years, obviously, to get to that position? Another interesting thing. For the first time in our history as a government, there will be two female signatures posted on currency in our country because we will have the treasurer, we’ll has.

00:40:34:23 – 00:40:35:09
Joseph
Secretary.

00:40:35:09 – 00:40:53:08
Michelle
Of Treasury, Secretary of the Treasury. And what’s the other signature that’s on the bill? I can’t think of what it is, but that was something that came out in the news because of a newly appointed position. Top two women in money. Right.

00:40:54:19 – 00:41:10:22
Joseph
See, and I’ll tell you. So while that that’s nice that we’ve gotten to that point, what annoys me is every time the press takes the, oh, this is the first time a woman did this and this is the first time. Right. It annoys me that we’re saying that.

00:41:10:27 – 00:41:37:29
Michelle
Right? It’s annoying that we have to say, yeah. Anything like that. And when you look at obviously, there are other countries in the world that will never have women in government. But then there are other countries that have had women in leadership and had women in politics or so much longer. And they kind of look at us and go, how backwards are you?

00:41:38:00 – 00:41:47:10
Joseph
And these women were incredibly strong, competent women who overshadowed their previous male counterparts by a long shot.

00:41:47:11 – 00:42:03:07
Michelle
Right. So it just baffles me with as progressive as we say we are as a country, we’re so backwards then. So much more.

00:42:03:13 – 00:42:27:21
Joseph
Well, and the thing that annoys me when we say it’s the first woman to do this. That fact doesn’t annoy me. What annoys me is that attention that we draw to it being the first woman to do that is the same attention that the detractors use. Oh, well, you know, you have a first woman in the Treasury and look at what the economy is like as if it’s their fault.

00:42:27:22 – 00:42:31:11
Joseph
Right. And they use that fact that there are there are a woman.

00:42:31:14 – 00:42:31:18
Michelle
Right.

00:42:31:29 – 00:42:38:12
Joseph
As justification for how things are and the state of and annoys me that they do that.

00:42:38:23 – 00:42:52:02
Michelle
Right. And the other thing, too, is how many women had to do so many other things to get that person to lift that woman up? Absolutely. To do that. That’s that same thing.

00:42:52:07 – 00:42:54:08
Joseph
Standing on the shoulders of giants.

00:42:54:11 – 00:42:55:05
Michelle
Absolutely.

00:42:55:06 – 00:43:02:01
Joseph
And women like Kamala Harris was extremely complimentary and appreciative.

00:43:02:17 – 00:43:02:23
Michelle
Of.

00:43:02:23 – 00:43:08:12
Joseph
All the women that came before her that gave her the opportunity that that she has today.

00:43:08:13 – 00:43:09:22
Michelle
Yeah, absolutely.

00:43:11:11 – 00:43:15:07
Joseph
So a lot of a lot of obstacles out there.

00:43:15:26 – 00:43:19:25
Michelle
We’ve come far, but we haven’t come far enough.

00:43:19:25 – 00:43:29:02
Joseph
Right. And it’s almost like the old boys network. Their attitude is almost like, all right, well, we worry about not shut up and go away for a while. You’re fine.

00:43:29:04 – 00:43:29:13
Michelle
Mm hmm.

00:43:29:24 – 00:43:43:06
Joseph
Like they’re terrified of having an equal playing field. Mm hmm. And they think trickling little bits out here and there will keep the masses. Occupied and quiet them down when they get a little riled up.

00:43:43:08 – 00:43:43:18
Michelle
Mm hmm.

00:43:44:11 – 00:43:57:09
Joseph
Which is unfortunate. That’s why, you know, the one thing that I think might come out of this Supreme Court ruling is that a lot of rich white guys might not have a career in politics moving forward anymore.

00:43:57:21 – 00:43:58:21
Michelle
Let’s hope and pray.

00:43:59:11 – 00:43:59:26
Joseph
We’ll talk.

00:44:00:03 – 00:44:00:26
Michelle
Prayers and thoughts.

00:44:01:00 – 00:44:04:10
Joseph
We’re going to take our last break and we’ll talk about that when we come back.

00:44:13:00 – 00:44:18:25
Michelle
Insights into Entertainment, a podcast series taking a deeper look into entertainment and media.

00:44:21:01 – 00:45:07:12
Michelle
Our husband and wife team of pop culture fanatics are exploring all things from music and movies to television and fandom We’ll look at the interesting and obscure entertainment news of the week We’ll talk about theme park and pop culture news. We’ll give you the latest and greatest on pop culture conventions. We’ll give you a deep dove into Disney, Star Wars and much more Check out our video episodes at YouTube.com, Backslash Insights into things, our audio episodes and podcast insights into entertainment dot com or check us out on the web at Insights into Things, icon.

00:45:07:12 – 00:45:29:28
Joseph
Com So women’s rights are human rights damn skippy. And as of yesterday, I think we’ve seen a significant encroachment upon women’s rights.

00:45:30:20 – 00:45:31:08
Michelle
You think.

00:45:32:25 – 00:45:41:29
Joseph
So? This is our open discussion on Roe versus Wade and abortion in general. You have the floor, dear.

00:45:42:00 – 00:45:43:08
Michelle
I don’t even know where.

00:45:43:08 – 00:45:44:04
Joseph
I’d rip into it.

00:45:48:12 – 00:45:57:22
Joseph
How about we start with just the hypocrisy of the Supreme Court’s decision? Because the day before they had a very contradictory decision.

00:45:57:23 – 00:46:07:02
Michelle
Absolutely. They said that you could carry a gun, that it’s okay to to carry around a gun. Now, you don’t need to conceal it anymore.

00:46:07:09 – 00:46:12:11
Joseph
Right. So New York had had some very common sense gun safety laws.

00:46:12:14 – 00:46:14:01
Michelle
For over 100 years.

00:46:14:03 – 00:46:29:20
Joseph
Designed to save lives. Right. Which the Supreme Court decided that was a constitutional violation. Right. Where if you read the Constitution and the second amendment, nowhere in there doesn’t say anything about carrying concealed weapons by citizens.

00:46:29:20 – 00:46:30:01
Michelle
Right.

00:46:30:18 – 00:46:38:02
Joseph
It speaks entirely about pertaining to a well-regulated, regulated militia. Militia.

00:46:38:09 – 00:46:38:21
Michelle
Right.

00:46:39:10 – 00:46:42:18
Joseph
Which for some reason, everyone seems to want to ignore that. So.

00:46:42:21 – 00:46:47:06
Michelle
Right. So it’s all up for interpretation. That’s what that’s what it is.

00:46:47:07 – 00:46:56:16
Joseph
So the Supreme Court decides that we’re going to do away with common sense gun law to it because it’s against people’s constitutional rights.

00:46:56:20 – 00:46:56:28
Michelle
Mm hmm.

00:46:58:23 – 00:47:00:18
Joseph
But now you can’t get an abortion.

00:47:00:25 – 00:47:01:07
Michelle
Nope.

00:47:02:02 – 00:47:09:26
Joseph
So we’re preserving life on one side with overturning Roe versus Wade, but we really don’t give a damn about it because you can carry guns and shoot anybody you want.

00:47:09:27 – 00:47:23:03
Michelle
Right. So one of the means our government is bold enough to force you to have a kid but it’s too weak to ensure that they make it to recess alive.

00:47:23:15 – 00:47:23:26
Joseph
Yeah.

00:47:24:15 – 00:47:35:20
Michelle
That’s if that is not that’s profound. With with between the past two days of the Supreme Court. That how.

00:47:36:13 – 00:47:45:12
Joseph
Yeah, it’s it it highlights the ludicrous level of hypocrisy coming out of today’s Supreme Court.

00:47:45:13 – 00:48:20:28
Michelle
Right. The fact that church and state is supposed to be separate, but yet the church has more say over my body. And I’m not a member of a church. My religion, I’m Jewish. If you didn’t know my religion, state abortion is okay because my life is more important than what is in my body, what is in my womb.

00:48:21:06 – 00:48:33:27
Michelle
And until what is growing in my womb can live and take three breaths on its own, it doesn’t have a choice over me.

00:48:34:07 – 00:48:41:29
Joseph
Well, you could also interpret the two rulings to the Supreme Court. You can have it abortion as long as you don’t mind getting shot in the process.

00:48:42:00 – 00:49:28:21
Michelle
Right? Right. And unfortunately, there has been violence that has happened at clinics that aren’t even performing abortions. Because that’s the other thing is that everybody goes after Planned Parenthood. Oh, they’re you know, they’re doing all these abortions and they did it. That’s not even their main purpose. They are giving health care to two women and somebody’s going there just for a routine checkup is risking their life from these crazy psychopaths who are trying to save the unborn child, but yet are taking their gun to go kill people.

00:49:28:22 – 00:49:59:15
Joseph
Well, and to play devil’s advocate for a minute, there you have people who are pro abortion who are also attacking anti-abortion clinics as well. So you’ve got violence on both sides. You’ve got crimes being committed on both sides. But if nothing else, that should simply highlight the level of passion involved here that the decision that the Supreme Court made to overturn a previous supreme.

00:49:59:16 – 00:50:07:06
Joseph
Right, which honestly, that’s where I have my biggest problem is the Supreme Court has basically made itself useless.

00:50:07:09 – 00:50:07:22
Michelle
Right.

00:50:07:23 – 00:50:13:23
Joseph
They decided that no matter what we decide, it doesn’t matter because the guys five years from now can overturn Roe.

00:50:13:25 – 00:50:39:24
Michelle
And that’s where now. Okay. So everybody’s, you know, kind of you know, you have the people who are like, oh, well, it’s still at the state level and da da da da da. And now you can still travel to to get to the States, even though they were passing laws saying that you could in and that there were certain laws where, you know, if the doctor performed one, they were going to be jailed.

00:50:39:24 – 00:51:15:27
Michelle
And the woman who received it was going to be jailed and and all this other. But this isn’t where it’s going to stop. Right. That’s the thing that most people aren’t looking at is now that you’ve taken this away, now all these other rights rights of, you know, gay and lesbian couples, you now you’re seeing that there are people out there that are, you know, get a hold of a lawyer make sure everything is written and you have legal documentation.

00:51:15:27 – 00:51:55:14
Michelle
If you have children, make sure there is legal documentation. Make sure you have copies of your birth certificates and everything that both parents are listed. If you got married in a state that is in danger of overturning your marriage decision, I have various clergy friends that are now offering free to remarry you in a state that that is protecting you, you know, and so and the contraception, that’s another thing that now, you know, oh, thank God for Clarence Thomas, you know, for for everything.

00:51:55:19 – 00:52:10:27
Michelle
But, you know, what law he’s not going to overturn is loving because that affects him, because he’s married to a lovely white woman who but of all the recent things he’s he’s picking in, you know. Oh, well, I can’t do that one, but I can do this one.

00:52:11:04 – 00:52:34:17
Joseph
And this is the problem that I have is that our current Supreme Court has turned into an activist court. Mm hmm. And their job is to rule on the constitutionality of laws and situations. Right. It’s not to make new laws. It’s not to overturn laws. The Supreme Court should never be able to overturn a Supreme Court decision. Right.

00:52:34:24 – 00:52:37:27
Joseph
Because the Supreme Court is the Supreme Court.

00:52:37:27 – 00:52:39:14
Michelle
Right. It’s the law of the land. Right.

00:52:39:20 – 00:52:42:11
Joseph
If they can overturn their own decisions.

00:52:42:20 – 00:52:50:04
Michelle
Where do you go from there? Right. Exactly. And that’s the thing is now, what else is on the books that you can overturn?

00:52:50:08 – 00:52:58:11
Joseph
Right. The only way a Supreme Court decision should be overturned is with a constitutional amendment. That’s the only thing that should overturn.

00:52:58:12 – 00:52:58:19
Michelle
Right.

00:52:59:00 – 00:53:17:26
Joseph
So a couple of things that come out of this. One, you’re going to see an assault on other freedoms that the right wing nut jobs in the Supreme Court don’t agree with. That’s the number one concern Number two, you’re going to push decisions like this down to the state. So you’re going to have 50 different laws in 50 different states covering all these different things.

00:53:17:26 – 00:53:21:04
Michelle
We’re basically becoming 50 different countries at this point.

00:53:21:08 – 00:53:34:04
Joseph
Yep. The other problem that I have is now because you’re going to see the Supreme Court overturn in Supreme Court precedent, the only way to defend against that is a constitutional amendment.

00:53:34:08 – 00:53:34:16
Michelle
Mm hmm.

00:53:34:25 – 00:53:53:24
Joseph
And to think of our politics today and who held that razor sharp edge that we’re on right now between Republican and Democrat, the think that these idiots would contemplate doing amendments to the Constitution terrifies.

00:53:53:26 – 00:53:54:19
Michelle
Mm hmm. Yeah.

00:53:55:03 – 00:54:21:08
Joseph
I mean, we thought we were ripping the Constitution apart with the 2020 election. These these people are just itching to rewrite it in their favor. Mm hmm. And that’s what scares me more than anything else. Yes. The whole abortion thing is probably never should have gotten to the Supreme Court, because, really, it’s. It’s not. And at least it should have gotten there in the form that it did, because abortion is not a constitutionally protected right.

00:54:21:21 – 00:54:30:19
Joseph
Your health is your personal well-being. Is. And that’s how it should have been presented to the Supreme Court. And then you couldn’t overturn of the day.

00:54:30:21 – 00:54:31:08
Michelle
Right. Right.

00:54:32:16 – 00:54:54:00
Joseph
But things that go to the Supreme Court now don’t matter. Right. Because after a couple of years, you get a couple of justices retire, whoever happens to be president at the time, they’re going to switch it their way. Mm hmm. You know, there’s a real threat that Joe Biden might pack the Supreme Court now because of the situation that’s going on.

00:54:54:01 – 00:54:54:12
Michelle
Mm hmm.

00:54:54:29 – 00:55:14:17
Joseph
So then okay. So five years down the line, when we have a new president out there, what’s going to happen? They’re going to wind up with 50 Supreme Court justices because every time a new president comes in, they want to make sure that the courts operate in their favor. Like it’s this decision breaks the country.

00:55:14:21 – 00:55:17:11
Michelle
Mm. Hmm. In so many ways. Yeah.

00:55:20:02 – 00:55:21:09
Joseph
Do you feel threatened by this?

00:55:21:13 – 00:55:34:24
Michelle
Absolutely. Absolutely. And fortunately, again, I’m an older woman. Oh, that’s much better.

00:55:38:19 – 00:55:39:11
Michelle
Who?

00:55:43:07 – 00:56:09:02
Michelle
I know if again, something were to happen, I have the means. I have the ability to get the help that I would need no matter what. Because, again, we live in a state where it is still legal. And will probably always remain legal.

00:56:12:11 – 00:56:41:25
Michelle
I worry about women, girls, trans men, even who live in areas where they don’t have it accessible and can’t get the help that they need. Yeah, that’s that’s what makes me angry. And you know, I want to go fight.

00:56:43:23 – 00:56:59:01
Joseph
What do you think needs to happen to set this right? What? What does the government, the president, the Supreme Court, citizens, what do we have to do to fix this and and have it stay fixed because we thought it was fixed.

00:56:59:02 – 00:57:29:08
Michelle
Right. And that’s the thing, is there are certain states where it is fixed, no matter what the law of the land is. It’s you know, it was voted in And that’s I think what is so frustrating is that why does it even need to be that way? Why do people have to vote on it? You know, if I want to go and buy a pack of Cigarets, I can go and buy a pack of Cigarets.

00:57:29:09 – 00:57:47:11
Michelle
What what does it what does it matter if I want to, you know, do that? And and and I’ve never been a smoker. And, you know, I would never want to to smoke, but yet you can go in yet that’s what’s just so.

00:57:47:11 – 00:57:49:16
Joseph
For there being at your body, you can do what you want to do.

00:57:49:16 – 00:58:23:02
Michelle
Right? You know, and granted, I got into a discussion, a little bit of a debate with with a friend of mine that from high school where, you know, again, my body my choice and she’s anti-vax and you know, but very liberal in certain respects and conservative and you know she’s kind of like all over the board like she would never get a vaccine because she just doesn’t trust the government, you know, and when I you know, and I said, but, you know, I don’t have to do certain things or I can do certain things.

00:58:23:02 – 00:58:47:23
Michelle
And, you know, she said, well, you wore a mask when you were told to. I was like, I wore a mask because I was protecting myself. And guess what? I still wear a mask now, even though the majority of the people don’t. And yes, I am fully vaccinated and boosted and whatever. But I’m still wearing a mask because I don’t want to get sick.

00:58:48:01 – 00:59:27:22
Michelle
Yeah, but if you know, I think back to when I was in college and if I had gotten pregnant in college, I wasn’t ready to be a mother then, you know, so and then there are women that, you know, have other medical issues. You know, my, my best friend had to have a late term abortion because if she had carried her baby to term, she could have died.

00:59:27:26 – 00:59:28:07
Michelle
Right.

00:59:31:12 – 00:59:47:02
Michelle
So it shouldn’t be something that’s a law that you’re forced to do or not to do. It’s your body. It’s your choice.

00:59:47:25 – 01:00:10:17
Joseph
And the hypocrisy, again, we always seem to go back to the hypocrisy of this. So the Supreme Court ruled in a case where members of the armed forces sued the Army or whatever branch of the government branch of the military they were in when they were told that they had to get vaccinated. And the Supreme Court ruled they didn’t have to.

01:00:10:17 – 01:00:11:20
Joseph
They had a right to choose.

01:00:11:21 – 01:00:12:01
Michelle
Right.

01:00:12:23 – 01:00:22:20
Joseph
If you have a right to choose whether or not you take a vaccine, how do you not have a right to choose whether or not you carry a child to term?

01:00:22:28 – 01:00:23:07
Michelle
Right.

01:00:23:10 – 01:00:32:16
Joseph
Isn’t carrying that child the full term far more impactful than getting a vaccine? Right. Where you would think you would have that that option?

01:00:33:03 – 01:01:21:00
Michelle
And the hypocrisy of it, too, is if men had the ability to carry no. Granted, trans men can I don’t want to exclude them. But if these white cis men were were, you know, at risk of their their body harming them, you know, because think about it, you know, when when and you’ve mentioned it numerous times, you know, especially watching me go through childbirth and what happened there, I ended up having to have an emergency C-section because our daughter was was in distress.

01:01:21:11 – 01:01:47:03
Michelle
And and you got to see firsthand what my body went through. You’ve said time and time again, there’s no way in hell you would have been able to do that. Right. And I bet you if you polled, you know, the majority of men, would you be willing to go through childbirth? Would you be willing to do all these things?

01:01:47:28 – 01:02:08:00
Michelle
No. No, they wouldn’t. But yet you put your partner or your wife or your mistress you engage in an act and not have any thought process behind that. Yeah.

01:02:09:03 – 01:02:24:11
Joseph
The other interesting hypocrisy here is they’re forcing women to carry children to full term. Are they forcing the sperm donor to be a father, to be there to have any level of responsibility?

01:02:24:12 – 01:02:33:02
Michelle
And and that’s the thing, is that at the moment of conception, that’s when you should be paying child support. Right.

01:02:34:07 – 01:02:34:26
Joseph
Absolutely.

01:02:35:05 – 01:02:54:06
Michelle
And and you you don’t get to walk away now. Yep. That that is now. You know, there were a couple of means, like, Happy Father’s Day. You’re now going to be a dad because of that one. Night stand because you, you know, you decided, you know, you didn’t want to put a condom on. Right.

01:02:55:14 – 01:03:06:27
Joseph
We’re up against the clock here. But I did want to raise one more point. We had talked about it off the air. And I think it’s worthwhile mentioning because I think it’s a great example. Tell us about the adoption Oh.

01:03:07:08 – 01:03:10:20
Michelle
Yeah. Let me bring that one up. So this was this was an interesting.

01:03:10:21 – 01:03:12:03
Joseph
Because I thought this was very.

01:03:12:07 – 01:03:35:28
Michelle
Yes, this you know, this was recently posted and it’s something for the Supreme Court to consider. Can a 13 year old girl adopt a baby? If she wants to know? Obviously not. Are you nuts? What about a 15 year old girl? Can she adopt a baby if she feels like it? No, absolutely not. All right. How about an 18 year old girl?

01:03:35:28 – 01:04:02:13
Michelle
Surely she could adopt a baby right now? No. Still can’t. Well, what if she was 20? No longer a teenager? A 20 year old can definitely adopt a baby if she feels like it, right? Actually, no. Weird. Why not? There are over 400,000 children in foster care. So why can’t she adopt at least one of them? She just can’t.

01:04:02:13 – 01:04:31:27
Michelle
And you know why? Because you have to qualify to adopt a child. There are rigorous background checks, home visits, proof of financial and mental stability, etc.. It’s a whole thing. Right. But if she is 14 and gets impregnated by an abusive ex-boyfriend who shoved her out of his moving car and left her for dead, she must now carry to term, give birth.

01:04:32:20 – 01:05:15:27
Michelle
Just figure it out somehow. Yes, that is correct. But she’s only 14. She will figure it out. But she should also have been more careful and made better choices. So to punish her for her poor choices, we force her into motherhood, which we’ve established she’s totally unqualified for. And now we are suddenly comfortable with a young, traumatized girl caring for a vulnerable, little screaming human being that is wholly reliant on her for survival.

01:05:16:25 – 01:05:21:25
Michelle
Yes, absolutely. Such an unexpected blessing.

01:05:23:06 – 01:05:31:11
Joseph
And I think that right there sums up the problem. We have standards for what it means to be a qualified parent.

01:05:32:12 – 01:05:32:22
Michelle
Yep.

01:05:33:01 – 01:05:40:14
Joseph
We enforce them in one instance in adoption. We ignore them completely in every other instance.

01:05:40:24 – 01:05:41:05
Michelle
Mm hmm.

01:05:45:14 – 01:05:47:20
Joseph
Anything else to be said on the matter at this point.

01:05:48:24 – 01:05:54:05
Michelle
Though? Yep. Stay angry. Let your voice be heard.

01:05:54:08 – 01:06:25:29
Joseph
That is the only silver lining I see here, is that they’re forcing this onto the states, which means your elected leaders will now not be able to hide behind Supreme Court decision. They’re going to have to go on record on the voting roll call. On whether or not they support this. And unlike the Supreme Court justices, the three Supreme Court justices that Trump appointed who all said on the record that they would not overturn Roe versus Wade, and they did.

01:06:26:07 – 01:06:26:18
Michelle
Right.

01:06:26:28 – 01:06:30:18
Joseph
You can hold these politicians accountable by voting them out of office.

01:06:30:19 – 01:06:50:08
Michelle
Absolutely. The other thing, too, is I’ve seen people posting. I currently live in a red state. I need to move. I had another friend whose children are getting ready to go to college and have now changed which schools they’re considering now.

01:06:51:15 – 01:06:56:21
Joseph
If only we could impeach Supreme Court justices for perjuring themselves during their confirmation.

01:06:56:21 – 01:07:01:12
Michelle
Hearings. And that’s something that that’s that’s making the rounds.

01:07:01:24 – 01:07:26:26
Joseph
So So that’s all we had today. Do you have anything else before we go Resist. Resist. There you go. Before we do go, I did want to once again invite our listening and viewing audience to subscribe to the podcast You can find audio versions of this podcast listed as insights into tomorrow. Video and audio of all the networks.

01:07:26:26 – 01:07:44:21
Joseph
Podcasts can be found for those insights. Into things. We’re available on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or anywhere you get a podcast. And we would also ask you to read and give us your feedback. Also, we’re joined gives your topics you’d like us to discuss. You can email us your comments and insights into things dot com.

01:07:44:21 – 01:07:49:18
Michelle
You can find us on Twitter at Twitter.com. Backslash insights underscore things.

01:07:49:21 – 01:07:55:02
Joseph
We do stream five days a week on Twitch at Twitch, dot TV slash insights into things.

01:07:55:02 – 01:08:00:07
Michelle
You can find us on Facebook at Facebook.com, backslash insights into Things podcast.

01:08:00:10 – 01:08:06:22
Joseph
You can find high resolutions of all of our video on YouTube at YouTube.com, slash insights into things.

01:08:06:24 – 01:08:11:28
Michelle
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01:08:11:29 – 01:08:21:09
Joseph
You can find links to all this and more on our official website at WW that insights into things dot com. That’s it. Another one on the books.

01:08:21:09 – 01:08:23:14
Michelle
Have a good week everyone. Bye bye.