Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
In the last weeks of the last year, a month before the second inauguration of Donald Trump, it was revealed to the wider public that a barbaric scene had played out on the streets of Louisville, Kentucky. In September, 2024, Lieutenant Caleb Stewart of the Metro Police Department cited a homeless woman in her early thirties under the auspices of a so-called “law” that bans “unauthorized public camping.” The legalese employed by the state aims to obscure the fact that this woman was, in both intention and effect, cited for being homeless. This itself is not enough to make the news. Kentucky was one of at least three states in 2024 to criminalize being houseless. What made headlines was the fact that this poor woman had been in the middle of giving birth.
Before the citation was written, the woman being harassed by a pawn of the state made it clear she was losing amniotic fluid, a sure sign that labor had begun, and a sure sign that she had to immediately go to the hospital. The uniformed pig was not interested in the fact that her husband had left to call an ambulance, and began attempting to detain her. In body-cam footage released later, Caleb Stewart is shown safe in his patrol car discrediting her story, stating that he “wasn’t seeing what she was saying.” Our “safety” is guaranteed by having such qualified airheads respond to any and all emergencies.
The situation outlined here is not unique, and it will happen again. In fact, the new genocidaires in charge have guaranteed that not only will human rights violations like this continue, but will surely increase as any semblance of an existing “welfare state” in Washington is dismantled and sold off to the highest bidders. As people are left in the dust by an already brutal system becoming even more so, more and more expecting mothers are being pushed to the street.
The horror here not only lies in the blatant disregard of human life for the sake of property, as evidenced here by this little boy in blue protecting a sidewalk from a woman having a medical emergency, but in the fact that women are being forced to live on the street while navigating a situation that is extraordinarily difficult to deal with even for those with the needed resources. Countless studies have shown that birth, always dangerous and always painful, is an even more harrowing experience for homeless people.
The Republicans’ “pro-life” commitments do not apply to the expecting mother, and cease applying to the child as soon as it is born. No help will be given to the mother or child, assuming either survive the ordeal, and any health conditions brought on by the circumstances of houselessness will go untreated until it’s too late, driving up the cost of living as ICU visits are notoriously prohibitively expensive in the so-called “United States.”
Let’s be clear here, this did not happen out of nowhere, this was not an aberration, this wasn’t even a partisan issue. This was a crystal clear example of class warfare. This is the front line of the battle the capitalists wage against us every day, with those deemed not productive enough facing the most open forms of violence. As the Communist Manifesto so bluntly stated over a century ago:
“The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation.”
This veil, torn away, has become a mask the capitalists can don and dispose of as necessary. To ensure an intrusive and dangerous condition such as pregnancy is suffered through, the capitalists clutch offended at the pearls of morality. However, should a newborn’s single bloody toe risk staining the capitalist’s true divine entity, property, the hammer of the state will smash you to bits.
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