The day after Politico broke the news of a leaked draft of what appears to be Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s majority decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision establishing access to abortion as a constitutional right, Heather Cox Richardson nailed it succinctly.
“And so here we are. A minority, placed in control of the U.S. Supreme Court by a president who received a minority of the popular vote and then, when he lost reelection, tried to overturn our democracy, is explicitly taking away a constitutional right that has been protected for fifty years. Its attack on federal protection of civil rights applies not just to abortion, but to all the protections put in place since World War II: the right to use birth control, marry whomever you wish, live in desegregated spaces, and so on.”
There’s more. To be specific, Alito lied in his confirmation saying he considered Roe v. Wade “settled law.” If the draft is confirmed — is there anyone who believes it will not be? – it will strip away from American women a constitutional right they have held for 49 years.
It is also be a confirmation that women, all women, are “less than” men. Not all men; just white men who adhere to certain fringe elements of Christianity, political polarization and who revere the former Putin fan president who boasted “Grab ‘em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
It erases any doubt that the subjugation of anyone who is “different,” or thinks differently from the aforementioned master race, is metastasizing at an alarming rate.
It was a conservative Supreme Court that voted 5 to 2 in favor of the original landmark Roe vs. Wade decision.
Forty-nine years later the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower has sunk into the swamp of Trumpublicanism.
John Bos
Greenfield