Supreme Court Genuflects; Now is the Time for Some Big Noise!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Last night Politico published what is purported to be a leaked draft version of an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision that will bring an end to the right of American women to exercise control over their own bodies through the medical practice of abortion.  That right was guaranteed by the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade which was issued fifty years ago next January.  Overturning that ruling has  been a central tenant of conservative political ideology for the last half-century, and, if last night's revelation is legitimate - as it appears to be - that long-held right-wing objective of ending abortion as a legal medical practice is about to be fulfilled - at least in many states.

The leaked document was reportedly authored by Justice Samuel Alito who prefaces the decision by stating that the previous decision, Roe v. Wade, was wrong from the get-go.  Alito, a Catholic, was said to have been joined in the five-four decision by Justices Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Coney-Barrett, who are all also Catholics, and Justice Gorsuch who was raised Catholic but currently attends an Episcopal church.   The Catholic Church has always been a vocal critic of abortion and many see the Court's move away from a woman's right to an abortion as religion having an undue impact on American jurisprudence.

Critics of the decision would argue that the Supreme Court of the United States is preparing to take a knee toward Rome.

Also of significance in this particular vote is the fact that three of the five justices who are voting to eliminate a woman's right to an abortion were appointed to the Supreme Court by the same President - the President who has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women and who is currently fending off a charge in a civil case that he raped a woman in the dressing room of a New York department store.  (That would also be the same President who bragged on camera about "grabbing" women by the genitalia.)

But, religion aside, and the chauvinism and alleged criminality of the man who ultimately shaped this decision aside, it does smell like the United States is on the verge of taking a significant step backward in the treatment of women and their health issues.   The government may be pious in its protection of fetuses, but it has a long history of neglect and disdain toward actual children and their families - so this realignment of judicial philosophy is likely to play out in worsening conditions for American families.

There are things in this country that must change - the Electoral College that put Donald Trump in the White House over the will of the people, the filibuster which denies the will of the majority in the Senate, and perhaps even the total number of Justices on the Supreme Court itself.  Those are all things that can be changed if Americans turn out in mass and rebuke this extremist Supreme Court by sending large Democratic majorities to both Houses of Congress.

For years poll after poll has shown that American's favor a woman's right to control decisions related to her own body.  Now it is time to take those numbers and deliver them to the only polls that really count - the polls where we cast our votes on Election Day.  

Now is the time to be angry.  Now is the time to make big  noise and let the world know how we really feel.   Now is the tie to get registered, vote, and make change happen!