President Barack Obama said in 2009 that “elections have consequences” and began demanding policies such as affordable health insurance from his Republican opponents. Recently, Republican leaders themselves have begun repeating his words. Red state legislatures ban abortion, prevent countries from taking action to combat the climate crisis, facilitate access to firearms and oppose aggressive public health responses to the pandemic. All of this makes the results of this fall’s vote very serious.

What these issues have in common is overwhelming scientific support for pursuing one policy direction over another. It is the choice of the candidate to either follow the scientific evidence or act as if the scientific evidence does not exist. Election Day ballots show local and federal candidates who support policies based on validated scientific evidence, and who base their positions on unsupported assumptions and biases. The scientific method has given us vaccines, the internet, cleaner air and water, and whole new sectors of the economy. Public officials who use investigative evidence to make decisions are the ones who help our country prosper. Those who reject this evidence only add to their suffering. The following research on pressing policy issues highlights the differences.

Reproductive and Gender Rights. when the Supreme Court overturned Law vs Wade It also allowed any state to ban or restrict abortion rights, allowing those states to put people at risk of becoming pregnant against their will. About 50 scientific papers compare women who have abortions when they want them to women who refuse them. The woman denied having an abortion and was followed for several years with deteriorating physical and mental health. They were also more likely to live below federal poverty levels and be unemployed. Pregnancy itself is far more dangerous than abortion. Maternal mortality is already alarmingly high in the United States, with one study estimating that a nationwide embargo would increase her maternal mortality by 21%. Job seekers who support abortion bans ignore such evidence. Instead, many adhere to narrow religious tenets.

Politicians who oppose gender-affirming healthcare are equally blind. Alabama enacted legislation criminalizing such care for transgender youth, and Texas directed state officials to investigate care such as child abuse. Florida wants treatment withheld. These positions ignore the life-saving effects of these treatments.2020 research in the journal Pediatrics We looked at teenagers who refused hormone-blocking treatments that temporarily delayed puberty, but young people consider their gender. These teens had a much higher lifetime risk of suicidal ideation.The effects of this drug are reversible.

health and pandemic. This summer, Congress passed a budget bill that includes some key health-care provisions. One was to give Medicare the power to negotiate significant price increases with drug manufacturers. More than 47% of new drugs released in 2020-2021 will cost more than $150,000 annually, according to a study in the journal. jam; Senate Republicans voted against the bill, which would put more life-saving medicines in the hands of more Americans. They eliminated a specific provision that capped the cost of insulin for people with private insurance to $35 a month. Yes, many of the millions of Americans with type 1 diabetes are forced to skip doses. And the evidence is clear that affordable health care saves lives. A study showed that states that expanded eligibility for Medicaid, a low-cost health program, saved thousands of people from premature death. States that voted against such an expansion went in the opposite direction, and people lost years of their lives.

The US response to the pandemic has been riddled with failures on every front. However, many conservative Republican-led jurisdictions are highly hostile to basic public health measures. Without a doubt (the N95 style is the version that works best), these places resisted mask mandates even as the United States suffered more than a million deaths nationwide. from COVID. Several Republican-led state legislatures have introduced laws that take power away from local public health agencies and empower state politicians. And Florida officials, urged by Gov. Ron DeSantis, have refused to recommend COVID vaccines for children and teens. , a study showed that the vaccine was 94% effective in keeping children aged 12 to 18 out of the hospital. Clinical trials of the vaccine in children have shown no serious health effects.

gun safety. In the United States, we are dying from the plague of gunfire. 45,000 people are killed by firearms each year. More children and young people are killed by guns than by cars, according to the latest figures. ) make the headlines, but most of the thousands of victims have one or two gunshots at a time. The death toll is disproportionately high among people of color. More than half of the dead are black men. And death doesn’t capture the whole harrowing story.In 2017, the most recent year for which these data are available, approximately 85,000 people were injured by gunfire. Many of them will be in pain and disability for the rest of their lives. Still, many politicians, backed by pro-gun lobby groups, want to loosen permit rules and make these weapons of mass destruction more accessible.

One of the repeated false claims these officials make is that more armed good guys stop more armed bad guys.Senator Ted Cruz of Texas used this disproven refrain In fact after the school massacre at Uvalde where many armed good guys (police) didn’t stop a single bad guy. More importantly, a study conducted by a Texas State University investigator using his FBI data found that armed bystanders shot attackers only 22 of his 433 shootings. was not shown. Even if the “good guys” have weapons, the massacre has already taken place. For example, in a church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, an armed neighbor opened fire on the perpetrator, killing 25 of her people, including a pregnant woman, and injuring 22 others. did.

Studies clearly show that more firearms leads to more deaths and crimes when guns are in the home instead of on the street. A 2003 study examined gun ownership rates among homicide and suicide victims. Gun owners were 41% more likely to be homicide victims than those without guns at home. He was 244% more likely to die by suicide. The last tragic number is significant. Of the 45,000 firearm-related deaths annually, nearly 25,000 are suicides.

There are ways to improve gun safety and save innocent lives. These approaches have been researched and proven, and candidates who support them deserve their votes. For example, we need to pass and enforce the Safe Firearms Storage Act. Tighter controls on gun dealers are effective measures, as are universal background checks, mandatory licensing requirements, red flag laws, and a ban on high-volume bullet-holding assault-style weapons and magazines.

climate. After spending has been cut from trillions of dollars to billions of dollars, the Biden administration’s climate bill has passed and scored some significant victories. Aid and funding clean energy projects in poor communities. But at the state level, some Republican-dominated legislatures are posing obstacles to cutting fossil fuel use. According to scientific consensus, these cuts are necessary to stop rising temperatures that are causing devastating storms, droughts, floods and wildfires in the United States.Levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Several Republican state legislators have introduced bills that would penalize companies if they move away from fossil fuels. Texas also passed a law banning new construction that does not use natural gas as a fuel source.

There are other key issues dividing candidates, such as supporting state legislation that would prevent schools from teaching about racism and sexism in American history. Promises to curb inflation will also get a lot of attention. Let’s take a closer look at these job seekers and their attitudes towards science-based policies. And by all means, vote for science.

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