The American 'Freedom' Playbook: Exporting, Then Legislating, Misogyny
So, the state of Tennessee considers a bill calling for the death penalty against women who undergo abortions. This isn't just an extreme proposal; it’s a direct descendant of centuries of legislative efforts to control female reproductive freedom under the guise of morality and protection. One can almost hear the echoes of late 19th-century Comstock Laws, which criminalized not only abortion but
also information about contraception, effectively pushing medical care and knowledge underground. Anthony Comstock himself, a self-appointed 'purity crusader,' successfully lobbied Congress to pass the Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use in 1873. This current legislative overreach comes from a political class that frequently
champions "freedom" and "democracy" abroad, often with military might, while simultaneously eroding those very principles at home. The double standard is a classic. Countries in the Global South face sanctions and condemnation for perceived human rights abuses, yet a proposed law in a US state, if enacted, would put it in the company of a handful of nations with similarly brutal punishments for
women seeking healthcare. Iran, for instance, a frequent target of Western moralizing, has no such death penalty for abortion. Its current abortion laws, while restrictive, don't even approach this level of punitive state control. The hypocrisy is glaring. A nation that deploys its military under the banner of liberating oppressed populations, especially women, now sees its own lawmakers pushing