After Roe, we know what the Pa. GOP will do, says Rep. Fiedler

Just hours after the Supreme Court decision to strike down Roe v. Wade was announced, I gathered with thousands of Philadelphians outside City Hall. The sun beat down, but the crowd was undeterred. “When abortion rights are under attack, what do we do?” The unified answer from within the sea of people that flooded into the street: “Stand up, fight back!”

But when it comes to the rights of people to control their own health and bodies, it’s not just abortion that’s at stake.

Three years ago, a colleague and I drafted a bill requiring patients to be alerted that, while under anesthesia, a medical student might perform an invasive, unnecessary pelvic or rectal exam on their body. It may seem shocking, but these exams happen and often are never even documented. To be clear, the exam is not performed to diagnose a potential health concern for the patient — they are performed while a patient is unconscious, entirely for the training purposes of the medical student.

Patients have called these pelvic exams without explicit consent a “violation.” Even medical students say the practice is shameful.

After a constituent brought this ethically concerning issue to my attention, we worked with the Women’s Law Project and other experts to write and introduce clarifying legislation.

Despite dozens of cosponsors, including multiple Republicans, GOP House leaders have neglected for years to even bring this commonsense bill up for a vote. The refusal to ensure patient rights and bodily autonomy on such a basic level is both disturbing and a clear indication of what we can expect when it comes to abortion and all the privacy rights that may be stripped in the future.

In Pennsylvania, abortion remains safe and legal, for now. But none of us should count on the GOP majority in the state House to defend our rights or our bodies.

“None of us should count on the GOP majority in the state House to defend our rights or our bodies.”

For those of us who have never lived in a world before Roe, we have no personal touchstone from the past of what it will feel like to inhabit a world where a small group of judges have determined that everyone with a uterus should be required to stay pregnant, if they ever become pregnant. Six unelected individuals have inserted themselves into a health-care decision that should be made between a pregnant person and their doctor.

While Gov. Tom Wolf has (thankfully) publicly vowed to defend reproductive rights during his remaining months in office, the Pennsylvania GOP has already shown they will do no such thing. Just look at how Republican leadership, who holds majorities in the Pa. House and Senate, reacted to my bill, which offers much more limited (yet important) bodily protections for surgery patients. They wouldn’t even bring it to a vote.

» READ MORE: Why is Pennsylvania’s Democratic establishment so afraid of strong women? | Will Bunch

This is symptomatic of a larger failure of our society that the GOP refuses to address: the urgent need to support and value the lives, the bodies, and the work that’s primarily done by women. This is a problem in our society that has a human impact and could be remedied through investment and policy changes. The failures of the majority party in Harrisburg include a lack of robust paid family leave, a lack of high quality affordable childcare, a shortage of services for people living with intellectual disabilities and mental health concerns, ongoing gender pay inequity, the denial of a statewide fair workweek, and a total failure to fairly compensate people who do care work.

It takes hours of labor to care for a family and for a home, and that work is essential to our economy. Yet it is undervalued and either underpaid or not paid at all. Other work done disproportionately by women — such as teaching young children and caring for elders — is essential and demands physical skill, emotional intelligence, and often, college degrees, but offers workers low wages and almost nonexistent benefits.

At the same time, the price of groceries, baby formula, housing, and gas is rising; raising a family is becoming financially out of reach for many people. This is why we have pushed for paid family leave, affordable childcare, and more compensation for care work. It’s also one reason why we have always fought to let each woman decide if they are in the position to birth and care for a child. The GOP response is to force people to have children — and do nothing to support women and families after those children are born.

Together, let’s fight for the world we want: one in which reproductive rights, women’s rights, the rights of people of all genders, workers’ rights, union rights, and much more are valued in our society and in our state legislature.

Elizabeth Fiedler represents the 184th District, located in South Philadelphia, in the Pennsylvania House.