So the Supreme Court has reversed Roe v Wade. They have turned the United States back into a crazy quilt of widely differing abortion and other reproductive laws. Anti-choice bums can dance and jump and guzzle champagne all they like. Guess who else was cheering: Organized crime bosses, rubbing their paws as they contemplate the back-alley “clinics” they will open or coerce into supporting the Mob.
Fortunately, there is plenty of good news. Many local and state governments began taking steps to safeguard reproductive freedom as soon as the Roe leak became national news. California lawmakers have passed legislation that protects abortion providers and patients from civil actions coming from states hostile to reproductive rights. Colorado, which has long protected abortion rights, is preparing for a tsunami of patients from other states. Numerous companies have pledged to help their employees travel to where they can get abortions. Cities have passed resolutions protecting reproductive rights, and many state DAs have declared that they will not enforce trigger laws or pre-Roe laws.
This will lead to tension with states such as Oklahoma and Texas that want to prevent people from getting abortions – by any means possible. Citizen bounty hunters hoping to collect their thirty pieces of silver will be lurking on highways and byways, and examining social media for clues to who is seeking an abortion. Defenders of reproductive rights will need to take many precautions against spying, as an innocent message that has nothing to do with abortion could easily be misinterpreted. And since we are such a heavily armed country, there almost certainly will be bloodshed. Anti-choice crusaders have proven time and again that they will use violence to further their evil ends.
If anti-choice advocates are hoping for an abortion-free America, dream on. All you have done is halt legal abortions, and only in certain states. Illegal back-alley abortions will still occur. Desperate women will resort to knitting needles and “accidental” falls. Also, what about the pills for medical abortions, easily available by mail – and almost certainly easy to smuggle? Human ingenuity found plenty of loopholes in Prohibition, and ingenuity – along with determination and desperation – will help people wiggle through or past any anti-choice laws.
This is not the end of the battle over U.S. wombs – this is only Pearl Harbor. The reversal of Roe v Wade has spurred abortion rights advocates to take to the streets and raise hell, to pester their elected officials, to support organizations like Planned Parenthood, to pledge action in defense of reproductive rights. We need to demand laws that protect reproductive freedom, and vote in candidates who will heed the voice of the people rather than a small and narrow-minded minority.
At the end of the movie Tora Tora Tora, Admiral Yamamoto says “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” There is no hard evidence he actually said this, but the quote is germane to the defenders of reproductive choice. A comfortable majority of US residents wanted Roe v Wade to stay, and that majority is now mad as hell. And that majority votes! We can make sure that “right-to-life’s” victory is Pyrrhic in the extreme.
Time once again to cause Good Trouble.
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