Looks as though the Republican-corrupted SCOTUS has voted to overturn Roe v Wade and send reproductive rights back to the individual states. Already, fortunately, people and institutions are making plans to fight back.
Without Roe v Wade, the USA will become a crazy quilt of restrictions, while evil vigilantes hunt for anybody planning to have an abortion or help someone who is, hoping to collect their thirty pieces of silver. Women will be forced to travel hundreds, possibly thousands, of kilometers, for care. Those who can’t will try to obtain Plan B pills, possibly exposing themselves to prosecution – and persecution – or fake medicine. Many may go the old “coat hanger” route, like animals caught in leghold traps chewing off their own paws, trying to self-abort with knitting needles or other long, sharp objects. A lot of them will suffer infection, excessive bleeding, even death. And the “pro-life” crowd won’t give one hair off a rat’s ass.
However, there is good news – and the possibility that we can turn the compulsory-birth ogres’ victory into one of the Pyrrhic variety. A number of blue states, including Colorado, California, New York, Minnesota and Vermont, are ready to become bastions of reproductive rights. Many of them could even codify reproductive rights in their state constitutions, which would be sharp blows to the anti-choice hordes. Some companies have already declared that they will provide assistance for their employees who need to travel out of state for abortions, even though this could expose the company to harsh fines and other legal actions.
The possibility of the GOP getting a hammerlock on the Senate this election cycle is a frighteningly real possibility. The party of the incumbent President tends to lose ground in the midterms. We have already seen how the GOP-controlled Senate has frustrated Biden’s attempts to pass meaningful legislation, such as the Green New Deal. Repubs appear to have just one item on their agenda: Frustrate Democrats. The successful nomination of Justice Jackson must be a fluke.
On the other hand, leaking the SCOTUS decision has galvanized Progressives and reproductive rights advocates. Overturning Roe v Wade could backfire horribly against the Right-wing Reich. Not just the aforementioned states making abortion the law, but also motivated voters turning out in droves to support Democrats and flip seats to blue at all levels of government. Local and state races will be critical if the SCOTUS does go ahead and gut Roe v Wade. Since the leak was a rough draft and not the final word, they have the opportunity to change their decisions before releasing the final ruling. However, I doubt they will even after the tremendous poop storm that has arisen after the leak.
If you think that abortion is the only thing the Right is after, you are wrong – dead wrong. They intend to push us back – way back. They intend to strip LGBTQ people of their rights, not just the right to same-sex marriage but even their right to be true to themselves. And why stop there? They could easily set civil rights as well as women’s rights back decades. They could make it a lot harder to become a legal immigrant, or a citizen unless you’re white, straight and rich. Give them a centimeter, and they’ll take an entire meter.
This is why we need to fight back hard and loud. We need to let our (alleged) representatives in government know that WE THE PEOPLE will NEVER allow our precious rights to be taken away – not without a long, hard and bloody fight. And if they still insist on catering to a shrinking minority, we will vote them out – because we must.
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