, and rightly so. Many have pointed out that low-income women and women of color are the most impacted by bans like the 15-week ban at the heart of thecase or the six-week ban out of Texas—both of which are, in effect, bans on women’s ability to exercise their legal right to abortion. But there is another, lesser known way in which women’s rights have come under attack in recent years: the enforcement of nuisance laws against victims of intimate partner violence.
who call 911 for protection from their abusers. And it is low-income, minority women who are the least likely to be able to pay for a lawyer to defend themselves against eviction under these laws.Research in the last six years has documented the widespread enforcement of nuisance laws against battered women and described many ways in which these laws are harmful. Here isAmy was getting fed up with the abuse from her long-term boyfriend.
As feminist philosopher Sandra Bartky has argued, all contract theories of the state make clear that, in exchange for giving up their prerogative to engage in personal violence, citizens are entitled to protection from the state. But when the police threaten battered women with fines, arrest and eviction if they call 911 again, they not only deny women access to this most basic level of protection—they also leave them vulnerable to repeated, serious threats of harm.
Many municipalities have passed nuisance laws in the last decade, and although the exact numbers are impossible to come by, it appears many more are continuing to do so. But the harm done by these laws is not spread across all economic and racial groups equally. There is evidence that nuisance laws are enforced disproportionately in racial minority neighborhoods and that they are often used against women of color.
WOMEN ARE THE ANCHORS OF AMERICA WE Deserve OUR Constitutional RIGHTS PASSERA because =EQUALITY= Is NOT Gender Bias