Women vs Livestock

There is something wrong with Republican men, and since I have been a woman all of my life, I’ve had the time to think about it. These men consistently ask a question: should women even exist at all outside of sex and reproduction and caregiving?

Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, speaking at a town hall in Warren County, characterized many women as “single-issue voters” on abortion rights. He even suggested that older women shouldn’t care about abortion because we are too old to have children.

“It’s a little crazy, by the way — especially for women that are like past 50,” Mr. Moreno said, drawing laughter from the crowd. “I’m thinking to myself: I don’t think that’s an issue for you.”

I’m not laughing.

Weird to think that women of a certain age still need the care of the OBGYNs who flee states with abortion bans. Odd to think some women of a certain age have raised daughters who need abortion care. Odd to think women of a certain age just stop caring about others because they are of a certain age.

The reason some male politicians question aloud why women over 50 are concerned about abortion is because they never stop to consider anything about women over 50. They don’t think of us at all.

Women over 50? Invisible.

Moreno’s statement came on the heels of another I was in no mood to hear…

Since Trump put Ohio Senator JD Vance on his presidential ticket, Vance’s past statements about “childless cat ladies” who are “miserable,” his opposition to no-fault divorce, and his hostility to reproductive rights are getting renewed attention.

A few weeks back, I was minding my business and not thinking at all about JD Vance when I saw a tweet from Heartland Signal that caught my attention. It stated: In an interview from 2020, JD Vance agrees with a podcast host who says having grandmothers help raise children is “the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female.”

Excuse me? What’s that? Let me just grab my glasses so my postmenopausal female eyes can see to make sure I read that correctly.

I read the caption again and then did something dumb; I opened the link to the video and listened to it.

Oof.

The VP nominee for the Republican ticket has managed to claim that 57.4 million American women are only meant to be allowed on this Earth to watch grandchildren.

Here’s the thing, JD, many of us don’t have grandchildren. Many of us are still working full-time jobs. Many of us volunteer or take care of our elderly parents or — here’s a shocker — didn’t plan to be nannies in our 50s and beyond.

And, the statement begs the question, why are only the postmenopausal women supposed to be full-time caregivers to their grandchildren. Where are the pop pops in this situation?

Here is the real reason JD Vance went along with the quote about postmenopausal women being caregivers; the Trump administration has no plan to tackle the childcare crisis and childcare deserts. Just add it to the list of things women need to figure out on their own.

Postmenopausal women? Invisible.

I wasn’t thinking of either Moreno or Vance when I read a quote by Elizabeth Warren yesterday, but I will take you down a rabbit hole that led me to the same old space; women are invisible. Even young women. Even pregnant women.

Recently, Rolling Stone completed an investigation into private equity groups buying up veterinary practices and Sen Elizabeth Warren picked it up.

Warren expressed “concerns about the rapid consolidation of veterinary care in the United States,” and said that private equity firms, “have spent billions on buying up veterinary practices and then profiteering while reducing quality of care, increasing prices for pet owners, and making working conditions even harder for veterinarians.” 

This may seem unrelated to the topic at hand, but like many rabbit holes, it ended up coming back to the topic at hand.

I wrote about losing our dog, Duke, a few weeks ago. After his death, our mini-Aussie was heartbroken. She was losing weight and moping and depressed. We decided to get another dog to see if it would help.

We went to a local shelter adoption event looking for a specific dog, but when we met her, we realized she was not a good fit for our family. This dog had just recently had a litter of puppies — we adopted one of them. Her name is Teddy and she is some sort of terrier mix. We adore her, even when she carries off a shoe or two.

Teddy came home from the shelter sick and so I called up our vet who also tends to our livestock. He has been in practice for decades and makes house calls. I told him about Teddy’s symptoms and he said to come by the office for some antibiotics. The cost in total for the “tele-visit” and the meds? $2.50.

I was bragging about having access to such a good veterinarian and how private equity hasn’t snuck into my rural space and someone said, “Yeah, but do you have access to an OBGYN?”

Ope. There it is. I knew better than to make a smug comment. I started down the rabbit hole.

I live in HD1 in Northwest Missouri. It covers four counties and has almost 37,000 residents. We are rural, but we do have a few hospitals that haven’t closed. Yet.

Over a dozen rural hospitals have closed in Missouri due to our lawmakers not expanding Medicaid. We finally forced their hand a few years ago when we put Medicaid Expansion on the ballot and we won. It was too late for many rural spaces, though, and pregnant women have been victimized by these closures and even more so by the total abortion ban enacted by GOP lawmakers.

In my research, I found one doctor certified as an OBGYN practicing in my four county district. I thought that could not be true, so I called the local hospital to inquire. Sure enough…it’s true.

One OBGYN is serving all of the women in my district. This is called a maternity desert; in Missouri, 63% of counties have that designation.

In contrast, through a quick Google search, I found at least 10 veterinarians in the same exact district. Ten veterinarians serving livestock and pets in my district.

I mean, it stands to reason. The men in the Missouri GOP treat women very much as chattel. Livestock. Yet even the livestock have more access to medical care.

Pregnant women? Invisible.

I don’t mind the cloak of invisibility that I wear as an older woman when it comes to sexualization and harassment, but I very much mind it when it comes to off-hand comments and health care. I may not plan to reproduce, but I still need access to gynecological care.

And, as I pointed out, even the women who GOP lawmakers profess to care about — those carrying a fetus — don’t matter when it comes down to it. These lawmakers let our hospitals close and our doctors leave and have forced many other caregivers to flee because of a ban on reproductive care.

I don’t know what to do with all of this information except to put it onto the screen for others to read.

Scream. Cry. Protest.

Demand better.

Not only for ourselves, but for every invisible woman.

~Jess