Let me dissect the following for just a moment.



Let me be frank before I continue: I support access to safe pregnancy termination. I support access to contraception. I support maternity leave. I support health care for all. Just so there are no illusions before I take a shit all over this stupidity presented here.



No abortion. The last time I check, Roe v. Wade has not been overturned. There are regulations on late-term abortion, because at a certain point, the pregnancy isn’t just a clump of cells. If you think that conservatives are against abortion because they hate women, you’re just willfully in denial. It’s completely rational that when they believe it’s the murder of a baby, they see it as a moral issue that needs to be spoken up about. I can reasonably understand their feelings, while still concluding that they’re wrong. But seriously - abortion has not been taken away.



No birth control. Contraception has not been banned. You can still get it. You’re just merely back to having to expend for a co-pay to get it. It sucks. I’m against the rollback of the mandate. The mandate was only based on the co-pay though. The prescription itself was only free based on your insurance plan. If you were covered before, you still are. Birth control has not been taken away.



No maternity leave. While it’s an easily verifiable fact that the U.S. has one of the worst maternity leave mandates in the first world, FMLA has not been repealed in over 20 years. You are allowed 12 weeks unpaid leave. It’s absolutely ridiculous, especially in this country. But 12 weeks unpaid leave is 12 weeks longer than no maternity leave - which makes this particular one an outright lie. Maternity leave has not been taken away.

No health care for your kids. I’m really not sure what this has to do with a supposed war on women. Do only women raise kids all of a sudden? Also, what law has been put on the books that takes away health care for kids? The ACA hasn’t even been repealed yet. You’re in no different of a position for health care today than you were 5 years ago. Health care for your kids hasn’t been taken away.



No health care for you. Now, I’m going to play devil’s advocate and guess this has to do with the Republican’s attack against Planned Parenthood in just the last year alone. I’m vehemently against it. Planned Parenthood isn’t some chop shop for fetuses. They provide necessary preventative care at an affordable rate for women, care that is much needed, such as testing for different cancers that are more prone for women. Last time I checked, Planned Parenthood was still around. You can still get that sort of health care from them if you need it, even if they don’t have the support of federal dollars. Your insurance should otherwise cover you now, there is a preventative care mandate in the ACA. Health care for women hasn’t been taken away.



The supposed “War on Women” is one of the most intangible things connected to third/fourth-wave feminism; it’s undoubtedly a gross over-exaggeration. It’s like when Fox News likes to complain about the “War on Christmas” every winter (wait for it, we’re a couple months away right now). There’s no real evidence that anyone is actually engaging in any sort of culture war of this magnitude, but everyone wants to be victimized by something, and some of those people need to victimize themselves to extreme degrees. Any time we talk about a war on anything, it’s without rationality. Whether we’re engaging a war on something (drugs, terrorism, etc) and ultimately just make the problem worse, or otherwise never see any real results other than wasted money, effort, and lives are thrown in the garbage; or we’re projecting that a war is being directed at us (women, Christmas, etc), it’s always improperly calculated.



Seriously, there’s not a “war” on women. There are certain things women get a bad shake for still, I’m not going to deny that. There are a great many things men, in particular, get a bad shake for. You certainly don’t hear a cascading narrative that there’s a “War on Men” though. You just get a movement put in place where men talk about those very things, and ultimately become villainized by people who literally believe there’s a war on women.



Sometimes things just suck for people, and maybe part of the problem is that people think only their problems matter. Maybe not. Who knows. But I would conclude that until abortion is made completely illegal, contraceptive has been branded completely illegal, maternity leave is not at all allowed, and children and women don’t have access to health care at all, and furthermore that these things no longer exist specifically to detriment women - then let’s stop proselytizing the idea that there’s an actual war on a gender.