In June of 2022, Marc Elrich created a new policy that banned county payment for travel to states with policies that roll back a woman’s right to choose.
In releasing the ban, Marc said:
While we cannot directly affect other states actions, we can make certain Montgomery County does not provide additional revenue to states which are unwelcome to women’s freedom……While Montgomery County does everything it can to protect the right to an abortion, we will also not give taxpayer dollars to states that try to drag us back to a dark past.
The following states were included in the ban: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virigina, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
What other laws or regulations across has the Marc evaluated to determine if a state should be on the “visit” list? A lot of states are passing legislation in support of school choice, will these states be next?
And why did Marc stop at just states? What about foreign countries? Is MoCo no longer importing or consuming products with tax dollars that come from a country that doesn’t support abortion?
Fast forward to Oct 2023 and Marc Elrich and Evan Glass are on a tax-payer funded trip to India and Vietnam. Has the county looked at these countries to determine if their laws and regulations conform with MoCo values? What rises to the level of restricting MoCo taxes?
India
- India is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for sexual violence against women.
- In India, marital rape is not a criminal offense.
- Girls in India remain vulnerable to being forced into marriage at young ages. Around 7.84 million female children under the age of 10 are married in India.
- India has a dowry system, resulting in numerous dowry deaths – the murder or suicide of a married woman caused by dispute over her dowry.
- In July of 2022, the lower house of parliament banned a number of words from being used in parliamentary debates, including “sexual harassment”
Vietnam
- Vietnam remains a central point for human trafficking in southeast Asia – targeting many low-income women in poor communities.
- Women in Vietnam deal with persistent patriarchal stereotypes that limit upward mobility and opportunity.
- A UN study found that 63 percent of married women in Vietnam have experienced one or more forms of physical, sexual, emotional and economic violence.
- Human rights in Vietnam are among the poorest in the world, as considered by various domestic and international academics and NGOs.
- While the constitution provides for free of religion, the government imposes a range of legislative measures restricting religious practices.
- Same sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to heterosexual couples.
We are not here to judge the culture or legislative stance of these countries. But we are here to show the glaring hypocrisy evident by Marc Elrich and Evan Glass.
