{"id":75,"date":"2025-04-08T09:06:57","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T09:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ascjcapstone.com\/spring-2025\/sarencib\/?page_id=75"},"modified":"2025-05-17T18:47:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T18:47:51","slug":"women-are-terrified-of-trumps-america","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ascjcapstone.com\/spring-2025\/sarencib\/","title":{"rendered":"Women are terrified of Trump\u2019s America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bill Cosby survivor and others warn American women of a dystopian future they believe is set to become a reality under Trump\u2019s administration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The United States has<\/em> <\/strong> long stood as a so-called paragon of freedom<\/mark><\/strong><\/a> on the international stage, especially in regards to women\u2019s rights, granting both women and men equal rights and privileges. However, in the past decade, women’s rights<\/mark><\/strong><\/a> in the country have begun to deteriorate, in large part due to President Donald Trump\u2019s growing influence in American politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that Trump has stepped into office as President of the United States a little over two months ago, many American women, by citizenship or residency, of all ages, ethnicities and creeds, are \u201cterrified\u201d of what will become of their access to proper healthcare, safety in intimate or sexual relationships, romantic partnerships and independence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is what Trump in the White House right now is meaning to me,\u201d said author, activist and Bill Cosby survivor Victoria Valentino. \u201cWe’re going to be thrust back into the Dark Ages, where we’re going to have to struggle for every moment of peace, every opportunity that is being ripped away from us, every freedom, every right that we’ve taken for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe’re going to be thrust back into the Dark Ages, where we’re going to have to struggle for every moment of peace, every opportunity that is being ripped away from us, every freedom, every right that we’ve taken for granted.\u201d<\/p>~ Victoria Valentino<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with CBS News<\/mark><\/strong><\/a>, Trump took credit for the reversal of Roe v. Wade<\/em> and the delegation of abortion access from the federal level to the states, and has done so in other media appearances, including in a Truth Social post<\/mark><\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump justified his stance<\/mark><\/strong><\/a> by stating that he was simply fulfilling the people\u2019s will to have individual states determine access. However, surveys<\/mark><\/strong><\/a> conducted by the Pew Research Center revealed that a majority of the American public has consistently declared support for protection of abortion rights on the national level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA second term for us is even more dangerous as we look at just in what he’s been in office less than a month in,\u201d said Emiliana Guereca, Founder of the Women\u2019s March Foundation in Los Angeles. \u201cHis first term was devastating for women. Women lost reproductive rights; over 20 states have really restrictive abortion bans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Trump has evaded probes into his own personal beliefs on abortion and other issues affecting women\u2019s rights and freedoms, his stance has been implied by statements made in the first presidential debate<\/mark><\/strong><\/a> of 2024 and through the individuals he chose to appoint during his first presidential term. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s former vice president, Mike Pence, supported a federal abortion ban after 15 weeks. Trump also appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court, who were instrumental in securing the reversal of Roe v. Wade<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has made several new appointments to his presidential cabinet, one most notably being RFK Jr. as Secretary of Health. RFK Jr. has taken a hard stance against medical vaccinations, encouraging people to boycott them. His anti-vax agenda has led to two deaths and hundreds of infections by the measles disease, as parents were influenced against vaccinating their children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RFK Jr. has now released a statement claiming that vaccinations are the most effective defense against measles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe also see the danger in [Trump] putting RFK Jr. in the health department, someone that is an anti-vaxxer, but also someone that has signaled that he would make sure to put more restrictions on the abortion pill,\u201d said Guereca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of his appointments, Trump continues to deny his support for a national abortion ban, contrary to many others\u2019 beliefs<\/mark><\/strong><\/a> that he is preparing to sign a ban into effect shortly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe United States is regressing. Mexico has a female president, Mexico has enshrined reproductive rights abortion, and so has Argentina, so has Chile. What are we doing?\u201d asked Guereca. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The vulnerability of immigrant women in America<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Shortly after stepping<\/em> <\/strong> into office, Trump signed executive orders<\/strong><\/a> <\/mark>ending diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. As part of these orders, federal programs were dismantled and companies and organizations, including universities, across the United States were forced to shut down their DEI departments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWomen’s health is at stake, women’s lives are at stake. The path forward in terms of being in political power is at stake with the dismantling of DEI,\u201d said Guereca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDEI what it means, really, is less hiring of women,\u201d said Guereca. \u201cIt’s a thin, veiled thing that people think, oh, well, it’s DEI it’s based on race; it’s also based on sex, it is also for women, and it\u2019s particularly dangerous for women.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This attack on diversity hiring by the Trump administration will have a profound effect on job accessibility for and employment rates of women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’re going to lack representation, yet again, within the White House. When affirmative action passed in the 80s, historically, and what the facts are was that it enabled organizations to hire more women, to bring in more women to the workforce,\u201d said Guereca. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has also pursued an aggressive mass deportation campaign, stating that \u201con day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America,\u201d according to NPR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump officials have since increased arrest quotas<\/mark><\/strong><\/a> for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. There have been ICE raids and sweeps in communities of color and unjust arrests of U.S. citizens or legal green card holders. Most controversial are the deportations of people with legal immigration status and no criminal record from the U.S. to the infamous El Salvador CECOT mega-prison<\/mark><\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt makes you a target right away, especially with all the immigration policies and the executive orders that are being taken right now regarding deportation, sanctuary cities. We already don’t trust the police, but it makes you avoid them even more,\u201d Eva Burns, community organizer for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a woman who exists under other intersectional identities, Burns feels even more frightened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople like me that are immigrants that are Black and women, folks that are undocumented, they’re trying to stay as low key as possible, so they don’t attract any attention,\u201d said Burns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has a friend who is afraid to drive because her license has a note that says \u201cfederal limits apply\u201d which immediately signals to the police that she\u2019s not a citizen. It makes her life harder, because it restricts her everyday activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis president is trying to create fear in Black communities and in immigrant communities,\u201d said Burns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s a lot of uncertainty and fear, because that’s what the current administration has been. Especially as an immigrant, it makes you worry about surveillance, policing, racial profiling; you have to be prepared under any circumstances, because you never know what may happen,\u201d said Burns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burns added that living in this constant state of fear creates a mental weight that people don’t see, but that affect Black and immigrant women, which causes depression and leads or pushes people to suicide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet’s be clear all of these issues and all of these agendas. It’s a war on women, and we have known from the beginning. We’re now in a decade \u2013 he ran his first campaign in 2015 \u2014 in 2025, [it\u2019s been] a decade of the war on women from the Trump regime, the Trump administration,\u201d said Guereca. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CLICK HERE TO BE DIRECTED TO RESOURCES PROVIDED BY THE IMMIGRATION ADVOCATES NETWORK<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Emiliana Guereca standing in the Women’s March Foundation’s Boyle Heights office holding up a raised fist in a show of resistance and solidarity (Sarah Arencibia\/Annenberg Media). <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Threatened access to healthcare 
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\u201cI do think that women<\/em><\/strong> are living in fear, truly. I mean, we have some states that are looking at reporting women that have had abortions. Bounty Hunters in Texas in particular, is one of them. Missouri is another one,\u201d said Guereca. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valentino warns the women of America, especially younger women, about the realities of living in a country where necessary and life-saving healthcare<\/mark><\/strong><\/a> is inaccessible, as she lived through a time when this was her reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think all women need to be watching their backs, I think we all have reason to fear,\u201d said Valentino. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe younger generations have become so complacent, because of all of the rights we fought and got bloodied to attain for you all, you’re so used to them, you don’t understand what it was like when we didn’t have them. And it was rough, baby, it was rough,\u201d said Valentino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valentino received an illegal abortion in 1962, eleven years before Roe v. Wade was originally passed in 1973 and the right to abortion was legally protected. Per her opinion, her experience was nothing short of dystopian. Prior to the abortion, \u201cI was raped by the medical doctor who performed it after he drugged me and made me immobile,\u201d said Valentino. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a former registered nurse, Valentino had also witnessed pregnant women in medically dire situations put their lives at risk in fear of legal repercussions that came with having an abortion or receiving other types of medical intervention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have seen girls lying on sofas with ice packs on their lower belly, with their feet up, bleeding out, looking gray and blue-lipped, and terrified to seek any kind of medical help, and undoubtedly dying in the end, either by infection or through exsanguination,\u201d Valentino said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Control over women\u2019s bodies has long been exercised by the American government as an avenue of controlling women, according to the Brennan Center for Justice<\/mark><\/strong><\/a>. In the 1700s, when common law first originated in the United States, rape was considered a property crime committed against the survivor\u2019s father. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ability to control one\u2019s body is intrinsic to controlling one\u2019s life. This is true along the entire reproductive continuum, from sex to abortion to delivery,\u201d a report from the Brennan Center said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though it also takes a man to conceive a child, there are no laws holding them responsible for or limiting their freedom in relation to conception, according to the Brennan Center. Only women are held liable for conception and subsequent child rearing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe old white guys in power [say] it’s about morality, but it makes my head want to explode, because they don’t give a damn about morality; it’s all about power and control,\u201d Valentino said. \u201cThey don’t have the capacity to control women because of our intellect, our academic achievements, our professional achievements, so how else can they control us? Through our biology.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is clear the motive behind banning abortion is not simply to protect the lives of fetuses, but to have control over the trajectory of American women\u2019s lives, according to an article<\/mark><\/strong><\/a> from the award-winning online magazine Political Violence at a Glance written by Emily Hencken Ritter. According to Ritter, abortion bans are a form of political repression and are considered discrimination under international human rights laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These bans directly violate rights of women and girls afforded to them by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including: the right to life; the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; the right to benefit from scientific progress and its realization; the right to decide freely and responsibly on the number, spacing and timing of children; and the right to be free from torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe decision [to ban abortions] inherently disproportionately affects women and girls. An estimated 73 million induced abortions take place globally each year. Approximately 45 percent occur unsafely, primarily in developing countries. Unsafe abortion is a leading\u2014and entirely preventable\u2014cause of maternal deaths and morbidities worldwide,\u201d Ritter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies have shown that Black women are more likely to die while giving birth than any other race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a Black woman, I\u2019ll be safer giving birth in a different country than giving birth in the US,\u201d said Burns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burns said that her pain level isn\u2019t aways believed, because there are unhealthy stereotypes out there about Black individuals having high pain tolerance, negative stereotypes that are pushed by certain Republicans and Trump himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’ve heard him circulate negative stereotypes about Black folks and that’s a narrative that he’s building, and that’s going to stay in people’s mind, and that will eventually affect the different services that we get, including in the healthcare system,\u201d said Burns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women in the United States experience the highest maternal mortality in comparison to women from all other industrialized democracies, according to the UN Women’s Database<\/mark><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burns also mentioned that there\u2019s a lack of inclusivity in language access at hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Most language translations available are for Spanish, French, or Chinese, but there aren\u2019t any translations for Afro-immigrant languages. Burns thinks that Trump\u2019s new DEI policies and stance on diversity will make it even harder for this language access to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When men in the American government take away a woman\u2019s bodily autonomy and ability to determine when and with whom she has a child, they are affecting her ability to receive higher education or economic advancement, as well as control over her social and political experiences, according to the American Association of University Women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWomen remain\u202fmore likely than men to take time away from the workforce or to reduce their work hours\u202fbecause of caregiving responsibilities. According to the Institute for Women\u2019s Policy research<\/mark><\/strong><\/a>,\u202f43% of women workers had at least one year with no earnings, nearly twice the rate of men,\u201d according to the American Association of University Women. Mothers are also less likely to be hired by employers than single women and men. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guereca believes that Trump\u2019s executive orders and presidential cabinet appointments are going to affect the citizens of the US, and particularly women, for decades to come. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are women that can no longer afford reproductive care because they have to travel out of the state, which means that women will be tasked with having more children. Women will be tasked with possibly not having enough education, as they’re taking care of their children. And maybe if they hit the workforce, the DEI is not there and they’re not going to get hired. This will continuously affect us,\u201d said Guereca. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Women’s Rights Poster Wall<\/h2>\n\n\n\n


Emiliana Guereca, founder of the Women’s March LA, walks us through posters created by local LA artists and activists hanging on the wall of her organization’s Boyle Heights office<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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