Basketball legend-turned-activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is calling for abortion supporters to inflict economic pain on the states affirming human life with new laws. Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, the former Lakers' star now says it's "boycott time." Abdul-Jabbar accuses President Donald Trump and Christians of reducing women to "baby incubators."
Abdul-Jabbar (in file photo from an appearance on CNN) calls President Trump a "time-traveling DeLorean" who "is speeding toward 1950, and when it hits 88 mph, it’s going to suck the whole country back with it. Back to a time when pretty much everyone who wasn’t a straight, white Christian male was considered a second-class citizen whose rights and future depended on the patriarchs’ whims and largesse."
This entitled group of "irrational, ill-informed and infantile legislators" wants to return to a rapidly eroding privileged status, the columnist charges. It hopes to accomplish this with "sustained attacks on women, people of color, immigrants, Muslims and the LBGTQ community. By emboldening the right wing through vitriolic rhetoric, the Donald Trump administration has become the UV light in sleazy motel rooms that illuminates these hidden stains on our democracy. Right now the stains include Georgia, Alabama, Missouri and other states passing restrictive abortion legislation that reduces women to baby incubators."
Pro-life people have refused to listen to "logical discourse about science, the separation of church and state and the constitutional rights of women ... ." Georgia and Alabama once used biblical quotes to justify slavery and now lead the way "in enslaving women by denying them autonomy over their bodies. Stopping them is especially crucial in the face of rising maternal mortality rates in the U.S. More than 700 women die annually due to childbirth, with black women dying at a rate three times greater than that of white women. Forcing a woman to give birth could be a death sentence. Who should make that decision, the government or the woman who faces death?" Not mentioned: more African Americans die of abortion than disease and violent crimes combined.
The Americans who favor a culture of death are now the defenders of the Constitution who can stomp on the brakes of that "DeLorean" by boycotting the offending states. States that refuse to go along with the Left's current obsession with infanticide, that is.
Boycotts cause hardships, Abdul-Jabbar says. Though some filmmakers continue to do business with Georgia, a state that passed a life-affirming law, they are donating money to the ACLU to fight the legislation. "While that’s a generous sentiment, it isn’t nearly enough. Here’s why":
"Unless a powerful message goes out right now, more states will pass these restrictive laws, as we have seen happen already. With women’s rights removed amid little meaningful opposition, LGBTQ rights will follow (as they already have in some states), and so on through every marginalized group. 'Build the wall!' isn’t just about the physical wall, it’s about the legislative walls to separate undesirable groups from their constitutional rights. We’ve already seen increased efforts to nullify non-Republican voters through gerrymandering, impossibly strict voter registration rules and reducing polling locations in poor and minority areas."
This "defender" of the Constitutional freedom dictates where Hollywood should make films, where businesses should buy products and hold conventions and where the average person should not visit. Resistance is futile! "No tourism dollars. And we continue this practice until legislators reverse the policies or are removed from office. When the Writers Guild of America, of which I am a member, is willing to boycott talent agencies over packaging practices, certainly they would endorse boycotting states that demean many of their members."
Offering mercy, Abdul-Jabbar says states can be given "a reasonable deadline to repeal these unjust laws." Refusal to abide by his demands should result in a coordinated boycott by marginalized groups that are "under attack." Somehow these minority groups form a majority of the population and have the power to change things. "The will of the majority was thwarted in the 2016 election, and we can’t let it happen again," Abdul-Jabbar warns.
