American democracy is today under attack by a president who is brazenly breaking the law and defying the Constitution. “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” proclaimed Donald Trump recently on social media, a declaration of absolute power.
His administration refused to release funds mandated by Congress and fired thousands of protected civil servants—actions that are illegal. Vital agencies that protect Americans are being gutted, and policies, regulations, and programs that safeguard the health and safety of working and middle-class families are being eliminated. The recent defunding of global programs that have checked highly contagious diseases like tuberculosis now threatens us all.
We are Armenian American women who oppose this extreme agenda, particularly because women — both here and abroad — are hurt as this government actively takes away our hard-won rights and resources. Here are a few examples:
• A global gag rule that will result in millions of women being denied contraceptives, abortion services, and other vital reproductive health care such as cervical cancer screening.
• The elimination of life-saving information about women’s health problems by deleting important peer-reviewed medical articles from government websites (physicians based at Harvard Medical School are already suing the federal government over one such article about endometriosis).
• Trump’s promotions of abortion bans or restrictions that have already led to the death of women unable to get care during a miscarriage due to doctors’ fear of arrest should they provide necessary life-saving care. Trump has increased a hostile climate towards women by pardoning anti-abortion protestors convicted of violating a law meant to protect patients from blockades or threats.
• By requiring the removal of words like “women” from research grant proposals, this administration has eliminated the ability of researchers to continue vital research in women’s health. Scientists now have their hands tied in ways we have never seen before.
