Republicans Are Waging a War on Children and Families. The Answer? Run for Office | Opinion

Republicans are waging a war on children and families. Here is just a smattering of policy choices that are quite literally killing, endangering, and isolating our children, our families, women, and the LGBT community, proposed by Republicans across the nation:

Taking away reproductive health care choices to the point it is endangering women's lives. Introducing the death penalty for abortion. Monitoring the menstruation, travel, and communication of middle and high school girls. Putting a bounty on the heads of anyone who helps someone seek reproductive care. Banning gender affirming care. Threatening to separate trans children from loving, supportive families. Banning mifepristone and care options used in a range of family planning processes. Unleashing an endless supply of firearms into society and schools to kill our children.

Underneath these policies is an entire apparatus built by ultra right-wing conservatives to suppress your vote, bury you in debt, and keep you chained to employment to meet your basic needs. That keeps you from not only electing different candidates but, more importantly, having the time and resources to run for office yourself.

And that's especially egregious because it's how we fix the situation.

I started in the Vermont Legislature when I was 22 years old, becoming only the second woman of color in history to serve. I've achieved many milestones with the support and encouragement of my colleagues and so many Vermonters. My legislative work has always put children and families first, but as a young woman in office, starting a family was something I put on the back-burner for myself.

14 years after beginning my journey as a legislator, becoming the first woman of color to serve in the State Senate and the Chair of the Economic Development & Housing Committee, I am the first pregnant legislator in nearly two decades to serve in Vermont. My due date was supposed to coincide with the last week of the legislative session, with speculation running rampant about the dramatic and memorable ways this all could shake out. Instead, I was recently admitted to the hospital, a month early. I spoke to and voted on child care, paid family leave, housing, and labor bills yesterday from the University of Vermont Medical Center.

My hope is however it happens, it becomes the beginning of a trend toward seeing far more young women in office able to balance meaningful life choices with sharing their valuable lived experiences in the policy realm. I don't want people to recall in another 20 years the last time someone was pregnant during the legislative session as a novelty.

We also need to be able to break the silence and stigma about how hard the journey is to get there. I have openly spoken about my abortion in college, without which I would not have been able to run for office and serve at a young age. I have not yet spoken openly about my miscarriage last year when I desperately wanted to be a parent. With the aid of mifepristone, it occurred over two months of the legislative session, and the emotional toll was part of the reason I lost the will to run in a tight congressional race and endorsed another candidate.

These are lived experiences that most men in office will never fully understand. And yet, they are the ones most likely to serve in office. In fact, the last major study on young people in elected office, conducted by the Eagleton Institute of Politics, found that just 5 percent of people who serve are under the age of 35. Of that small number, less than a quarter are women; most are white men.

When you look at the consequence of that, it stretches beyond their early careers. Those under the age of 35 in office are the most likely to make it to statewide office and Washington. And guess who they like to make the most laws about? Women under 35 and their bodies and economic well-being.

Like many states in the country, red or blue, the pandemic revealed to us how many families are hanging on by a thread, especially single moms in the workforce, who fit the demographic of those most likely to make close to minimum wage and struggle with child care and housing. These are the issues that fall off our agenda when things get hard, those are the people whose voices are not loud enough for us to hear over special interests. And their struggles will only increase with laws and policies that make it harder for them to plan their families and ensure the safety and well-being of their children.

However this session ends, of course my biggest goal is to deliver a healthy baby girl. But if I am wheeled out while fighting for the issues that matter most to our children and families, then I will have made her future brighter. And then I'll come back next session and do it all over again.

Join me.

Kesha Ram Hinsdale is a Vermont State Senator, the first woman of color ever to serve in this role. She has served in the Vermont legislature for a decade and is now running for Vermont's open At-Large Congressional seat.

The views in this article are the writer's own.