As every American knows, the U.S. Supreme court reversed Roe v. Wade and cleared the way for states to ban abortion if they want. I won’t bore you with a rehash of the details. This decision was engineered by right-wing republicans diligently working for fifty years to pack the court with ultra-conservatives.
I normally wouldn’t comment on political matters, but this reversal of a decision that granted a basic human right to women is too much to bear. When the United States won its freedom from England, each colony was autonomous. The original federation continued this notion. The Federal government has limited power governed by the constitution. The Trump Supreme Court decided that the consitution didn’t grant the federal government the right to legislate abortion. It said that a previous Court was in error when it decided Roe v Wade.
Whether or not you agree with the decision, you have to see that this decision is intruding into the private lives of citizens. Religious rhetoric aside, abortion is a medical procedure. It has been practiced for over a thousand years. Religious nuts have been debating when a life begins. Some say it begins as soon as an egg is fertilized. Others believe it begins when a heartbeat is detected. There is no good answer to this. Reasonable people agree that at some point in a pregnancy the fetus is viable. It can live outside of the mother’s body. Is this when a pregnancy must be allowed to end in a birth? What if a medical condition is detected in the fetus that will cause it to have a horrible disease?
I’m not really going there. My point is that debating viability isn’t productive. Roe v Wade had a dramatic effect on our country. Twenty years after the decision, crime went way down in our cities. By giving poor people access to abortion, they had the ability to decide if they wanted to have children. Women who wanted children had them. They were far more likely to provide good parenting than those who accidently got pregnant and couldn’t terminate.
I believe that every woman has the right to decide whether or not she has a child. Birth control failure, ignorance, or rape makes it necessary for some method of terminating unwanted pregnancy. The vast majority are terminated well before twenty weeks.
Anyway, I’m apalled that in this day and age two corrupt politicians (Trump and McConnell) could pack the Supreme Court with dishonest cronies who have begun an assault on American freedom. This is only the first step. Next, expect birth control to fall. If the corrupt Trump runs in 2024 and loses, expect the fake court to invalidate the election. It happened once with Florida and George HW Bush.
This decision isn’t just an assult on personal freedom, it’s the opening shot in a war that will almost certainly end American democracy.
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Just ten simple words ratified by 2/3rds of the states is all it would take to put this issue to rest:
“A woman’s right to an abortion shall not be infringed.”
Your statement that “The Trump Supreme Court decided that the constitution didn’t grant the federal government the right to legislate abortion.” is incorrect. Suggest that you read the text of the decision of Dobbs more carefully. That and review the authority of the three branches of government. It seems that so many in the USA have forgotten their basic civics lessons.
Once upon a time women in the USA could not vote. They lobbied for it and Congress WROTE A LAW and had it voted upon by WE THE PEOPLE and it was ratified by 2/3rds of the states in 1919 which became the 19th Amendment. After that nobody could argue about it. It is interesting to note that it was the Democratic Party which opposed women’s suffrage and the Republican Party championed it. That is How Harding became president. Just go back and look up the state by state voting records. But I digress.
Even Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg noted the inadequacy of Roe and Casey. It was bad jurisprudence for a number of reasons, mostly because what can be won in a court hearing can always be reversed by a later court hearing. It was not the will of the people but the will of a few lawyers wearing black robes. WRITING NEW LAWS is not the role of the JUDICIAL branch but of the LEGISLATURE branch.
For 49 years Congress had every opportunity to WRITE A LAW on the matter of abortion and it still does. Dobbs does not prevent Congress from doing so. Dobbs basically says that under the constitution the court did not have jurisdiction on the matter, at least not until Congress acts.There are countless examples of federal courts and un-elected regulatory agencies overstepping the enumerated powers in the Constitution.
As stated above, just ten simple words ratified by 2/3rds of the states is all it would take to put this issue to rest:
“A woman’s right to an abortion shall not be infringed.”
If that can’t pass 2/3rds of the states then qualifiers can be added to make it more palpable to the public vote if need be. The original qualifiers in the Roe decision would pass easily today. And there are examples of qualifiers in every European nation that can be considered. No nation that I can find in Europe has unqualified access to abortions.
Finally, I would not object if the ratification vote was restricted to women. That would not happen of course. but I would not object.
Now, I would encourage all who read this to contact their US Senator, Congressman as well as their state Senator and Assembly members to let them know how each feels on the matter. Thinking that protesting or threatening the judiciary is appropriate would be the actual end of American democracy.
The recent decision reversing Roe and Casey are not motivated by a desire to “clean up” prior Courts overstepping their authority. The original decisions were rooted in the Court’s legitimate check-and-balance of protecting citizens against constitutional breeches by states and congress. Fifty years have passed. Regardless of your arguments, this is a church and state issue. Radical Christian Republicans have worked tirelessly to void Roe. Every legitimate poll for the last fifty years shows a large majority of American’s favor the right of a woman to get an abortion.
Passing a constitutional amendment is almost impossible on an issue like this. You know as well as I that congress, let alone states, can’t get together on anything. It’s a sad statement. So, yes, a constitutional amendment would be nice. It certainly wouldn’t be one sentence long. Eventually, we will probably have one. In the meantime, I am sad that Trumpian lunatics are taking over the asylum.
Q: What is the difference between the conservative judges on the supreme court and the Talaban?
A: Of course it’s a trick question, there is no difference.
I don’t agree. It’s the kind of joke that drives away people who otherwise would agree that the conservative judges need to be impeached. (The Trump appointees lied to the Congress at confirmation hearings)