Well...it's happening. There has been a leak of the Supreme Court's draft of the Samuel Alito-led majority decision on the currently-deliberated Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, in which Mississippi is trying to appeal a lower court ruling which struck down a ban on abortions after 15 weeks. This is the latest in a series of cases where states have tried to chip away at the legal protection of a healthcare procedure that should be like any other medical procedure - between a patient and their evidence-based doctor (you know, not a doctor who lets outdated beliefs interfere with appropriate medical treatment), and not the subject of a politically-driven assault that has served to undermine the rights of birthing people (anyone with a uterus) for decades.
The initial majority draft features Justice Samuel Alito turning to the favored bastion of the desperate conservative who has run out of ideas: "We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled...It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives." Yes, the Constitution. The document drafted by a group of men who wanted to codify that Black people were subhuman and who knew bloodletting as advanced medical science definitely doesn’t need updating or changed at all. Never mind that there have been 27 changes to it already, I guess.
With those words, and several other gaslighting statements on how Roe has “enflamed debate and deepened division” (as if it was the court case’s fault and not the agenda of a political party who has sought to undermine what should have been settled law since 1973), Justice Alito declares war on birthing people throughout the United States. He’s joined by a Justice whose wife likely helped fund the Capitol Riots, a Justice whose confirmation was stolen from Merrick Garland, a Justice who is an alleged rapist, and a Justice who basically served as a religious handmaiden and who thinks adoption is easily accessible to everyone (it’s not) and safe haven laws mean that pregnancy is no longer a burden.
Removing federal protection of abortion as healthcare and as a guaranteed right means states will be allowed to pass laws that ban an essential healthcare procedure, and many of them will not (or already do not) allow for any exceptions (health of the mother, rape/incest, economic hardship, etc.). In some states you can already be criminalized for a miscarriage, and the person who turned you and your doctor in will get paid to be a rat.
It’s already well-known that banning abortions does not lessen abortion numbers. It bans SAFE abortions. You instead get back-alley abortions that are far more likely to result in harm to the person with the uterus. Remember, in my previous discussion of abortions I pointed out how abortion rates actually go down during Democrat presidencies because people usually get better access to Healthcare (for example, the Affordable Health Care Act’s passage).
Would you be surprised to find that pregnancy and delivery is technically more dangerous than a medically-supervised abortion? The United States has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the world. We are a country who does the bare minimum (if anything) for parental leave, subsidized childcare, or mental health. I don’t point these things out because I’m against safer practices in birth, but because pregnancy and birth are NOT benign conditions! So to take away the autonomy to make the decision to undergo those risks is extremely dangerous. The conservative Justices aren’t making a pro-life decision. Their decision is pro-forced birth.
People tried to say that the court would never overturn Roe even if conservatives tried to chip away at its protections. This leaked draft proves that was a false hope. Further, we know the people leading the charge behind this, and their agenda. They won’t stop at abortion. Gay marriage, transgender access to healthcare (already under attack), other LGBTQ rights, and equity for women in other aspects of life are next.
Two things here:
If you’re getting hung up on the fact that I have said “birthing people” instead of “women” here, we should talk about that and how scientific knowledge has evolved, but don’t let it interfere with the message here.
I am a Christian. The Bible doesn’t ban abortions. It really doesn’t.
So what do we do now? We write to our Congresspeople to pass laws protecting abortion. At the very least, they should ratify the Equal Rights Act.
And donate to your local abortion access funds. https://abortionfunds.org/
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