The Pro-Life Republican President Who Made Women’s History Month Possible

Women’s History Month. I’m all for it. We should celebrate anyone (like these fearless women) who has helped to positively shape the greatest nation on earth. And yes, my American exceptionalism bias will always show.

Of course, in this day and age, it’s gotten a bit murky since anyone, apparently, can be a woman. Perhaps the historical designation has run its course. It’s increasingly being made irrelevant by a pseudoscientific ideology that denies there is any distinction between women and men. We’re all just the same. And we can all be the same, as long as we self-identify as anything we want to be. I think therefore I am has a whole new meaning.

If only women knew this special semantic trick back during the early part of the 20th century. They could have been voting long before the 19^th Amendment. Why wait until 1920 when all they needed to do was temporarily self-identify as males and voila! Voting ballot done! Isn’t that how it works today? Born Caucasian but wanna be black? No problem. Just Dolezal it! Born a man but feeling like a woman? Be Jenner’d! (Or is that de-Jenner’d?)

I know some people get all testy when you get all historical about things (ironically, especially during Women’s History Month), but the joint resolution making “Women’s History Week” possible was the result of…wait for it…patriarchy! Hush yo’ mouth! The very men, blasted with waging an imaginary War on Women, voted to celebrate women’s historical contributions to this great nation.

Fake feminists are gonna get all Ashley Judd on this but they need to thank pro-life Republican Orrin Hatch for sponsoring the Senate bill that made history for women. Yes. Women’s History Week, the precursor to Women’s History Month, was introduced in February 1981 and signed by a pro-life Republican President—Ronald Reagan—in August of the same year.

I can hear some Women’s Marchers screaming for a safe space right now.

The bi-partisan effort was co-sponsored by 35 other Senators (18 Democrats, 18 Republicans). All of them, but one, were men. A subsequent Senate resolution (Pub.L. 100-9), which made the commemoration the entire month of March was, again, sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch…and again, signed by President Reagan.

I honestly think this could trigger the sudden and desperate need for cookies and coloring books on campuses across the country. Breathe Women’s Studies majors, breathe.

So, when you see posts on your favorite social media about American women who’ve blazed trails, thank Reagan. Thank a bipartisan effort in a GOP-led Senate. Thank those blamed for all the “wrongs” of patriarchy by today’s historically-challenged “feminists”. More importantly, when you celebrate a history-making woman, thank the mother who didn’t choose to abort her and the father who (most times) helped to shape her into the woman she became.

Ryan Bomberger is the Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of The Radiance Foundation. He is happily married to his best friend, Bethany, who also happens to be the Executive Director of Radiance. They are adoptive parents with four awesome munchkins. Ryan is a creative agitator and international public speaker who just loves illuminating that every human life has purpose.

The views expressed in opinion articles are solely those of the author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Black Community News.