In the representative democracy that American government is, it only makes sense that people making decisions that only affect a certain group of people would be a part of that group of people. However, marginalized groups are underrepresented in both U.S. federal and state governments.

This fact has been demonstrated very prominently in recent laws passed on abortions in Georgia, Ohio, Mississippi, Kentucky, Iowa, North Dakota, and, most recently, Alabama. In Alabama, the vote to pass a bill that makes a doctor’s punishment for providing an abortion after a fetus’s heartbeat is detected a maximum of ninety-nine years in prison, was passed by a 25-6 vote. Every single one of those 25 votes was submitted by a man.

Georgia was another state to very recently pass a similar law against women’s freedom of choice. House Bill 481 is set to go into effect in January 2020 and faces legal challenges from the ACLU and Center for Reproductive Rights, according to The Cut.

What is essentially a ban on abortions in these states is only the most recent result of having such a small amount of minorities involved in government, from city council to congress.

Women are the marginalized group with the most representation in congress, with 127 total members. This number only makes up 23.7 percent of the people serving in congress.

According to Pew Research Center, 116 lawmakers in this current congress are nonwhite. 56 of them are black, making up only about ten percent of the total 535 members, while thirteen percent of American citizens are black. Only 43 congressmen and women are Hispanic, seventeen are Asian, and just two are Native American.

In this 116th Congress, the number of its LGBT members has reached the double digits. Still, that is only two percent of the group, while in all of America LGBT people make up about five.

Across the board it has been found that the amount of people representing America in Congress is disproportionate to the amount of citizens in real life. Lack of representation can be detrimental to minorities because there are not enough people to make laws for them.

People can’t be expected to make decision for a group of people whose life experiences they can never understand. This in and of itself is not a problem, but the fact that many people think they can do just that, is one.

In order to have equally beneficial laws for everyone, more minorities must run for office, and the voters must vote to elect them during every single election, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem.  If you are interested in public service, check out Candidate Bootcamp, an organization that helps train citizens to run for office.