Overwhelming Evidence
We have to start with the basic facts. Most of the major news sources are reporting that the Supreme Court has secretly voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. Obviously, the way case law works is a little complicated. You can’t just wave a magic wand and erase fifty years of precedent. You have to have a case that allows you to render such a decision. The court has done it before. Brown vs. Board of Education reversed Plessy vs. Ferguson.
If we take enough steps back we can even look on with interest. It should be noted that reversing Roe v. Wade doesn’t make abortion illegal necessarily. Essentially it kicks the matter back to the states. Each individual state can choose for itself whether a woman has a right to choose. I imagine the blue states will continue to allow abortions as they have while the red states will immediately put the kibosh on that.
Public opinion is a fickle thing and I’m not sure that the constitution should be interpreted with public opinion in mind. However, it should be noted that more people are in favor of the pro choice view point than those that are pro life. Right around the time of the 2008 election the two positions were nearly even. Since then the tide has slowly turned towards pro choice with 59 percent currently believing that abortion should be legal in most if not all cases.
Without getting into the religious ramifications of any decision, I find the decision itself to be a fascinating microcosm of what is currently going on in the country. We are seeing a growing gap in the numbers of people that support progressive ideas and progressive causes while seeing an increase in conservative ideas and conservative causes. For the life of me I’ve never figured out exactly what to call this gap, but it is significant and it is growing.
Part of the problem is that some Americans have failed to put A and B together. If you want A and A does not happen then it pays to be able to identify who is keeping A from happening. Instead, a large enough percentage get angry at election time and vote for the very people that are stopping progress because the party working for progress hasn’t delivered.
The other part of the problem is that the opposition is good at silencing the will of the people through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and filibustering bills to death. Combine those two elements and you get what we currently got. Meanwhile we brace for the rights of women to roll back five decades as if we were in some sort of perverse DeLorean.
Next up on their agenda: reversing Griswold, Obergefell, Lawrence and probably Loving, because as long as they’re on a roll, why the hell not?
1Just a little semantic. I refuse to allow opponents of choice to be called pro life. They are simply anti-choice not pro life. Please don’t call them that
2Justice Robert’s has come out and said this is a leaked valid document. Just stunning.
3And the right to vote will come after I lose my right to wear shoes because I’m gonna be in the backyard pregnant and making my own grainsack dresses if the Repugnants have their way.
4Being a left-wing libertarian with a strong Christian background, I find myself in the peculiar position of being both anti-abortion and pro-choice. I don’t like abortion but I strongly oppose the government sticking their nose into what should be a woman’s right to choose. Let the choice be an individual one.
5On the other hand, I’m strongly pro-life in being adamantly opposed to capital punishment. And being pro-life I also strongly favor caring for the medical, nutritional, and educational care of individuals AFTER they are born.
I’m firmly anti-“choice.” Abortion is almost never a “choice”; it’s a *decision,* and it’s likely to be the most difficult, heart-wrenching decision a woman will ever have to make. Calling it a “choice” trivializes that. I am firmly “pro-woman,” and that means I believe a woman must have the right to make her own decisions about her future. And if she is not physically, financially, emotionally, and educationally ready to have a child–for whatever reason–she should be able to make the decision not to have it.
6OK. It goes like this.SCOTUS Rethugs declare they is no such thing s privacy or a right ot thereof. Everything done by th4 court on the basis of privacy is null and void. And that would mean HIPPA as well. You know the thing that keeps our medical and health info private? Once that goes, the SCOTUS Rethugs are in just as much trouble as the rest of us. Bet they have not thought of that and will be scandalized when it happens and wonder how it came to be. Well, eejits. Just look in the damn mirror.
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