Enraged? Stay that way and Vote!

 Politico Magazine published this article yesterday on 18 ways the Supreme Court just changed  America. They range from the alpha to the omega, nothing much changed to civil war. Let me warn readers upfront of my sentiments on the recent SCOTUS decisions, Roe and others. I think the right-wing MAGA faction of the Republican Party is in full ascendancy. I disagree vehemently with them and find it appalling that after 233 years under the Constitution, the Supreme Court has simply become an operative arm of the party that committed sedition and is still trying to overthrow our government. I view the six conservative justices as a wrecking ball to the law. I will dedicate my efforts to seeing that they won’t succeed.

Okay, on to what we now face as a nation. The 18 mini-essays in the Politico Magazine piece include some delusions. Kristan Hawkins, who has long been an anti-abortion advocate, wants us all to sing kumbaya and now just come together. This is the sort of slap to the face one expects from the anti-abortion crowd. “WE won, you lost, so just get over it.” In a word, no. She wrote this Tweet yesterday:

As a physician, this is the depths of ignorance and will be likely to kill women starting now. Ob-gyn physicians are already asking each other if they live in a red state that bans abortion, what do I do when a woman with an ectopic pregnancy presents herself? Do I follow the law or do I behave according to my oath as a physician? If you answer you follow the law as the six GOP political operatives have made it, you belong in a profession other than medicine. Ms. Hawkins, IMHO, deserves no further mental effort.

Rachel Rebouché makes a valid point that “people who seek abortions will seek to circumvent these laws.” Abortion has been a fact in America since colonial times (witness Ben Franklin) and medication abortion will continue to be available. The abortion pill regimen is FDA approved and may be delivered by mail; the need to seek back-alley abortions as in the days before Roe will seemingly be diminished. That does not necessarily mean easy availability, though, and Keisha N. Blain points out the obvious – the Dobbs decision will fall hardest on women of color and the poor. Joanne Kenen points out in her mini-essay that the powerful tools that are now available for genetic testing and prenatal screening will no longer be fully available to women who are pregnant. This effectively takes medicine back many decades. 

Robin Marty notes that “abortion opponents will not be appeased until abortion is entirely eliminated.” To do that will involve legislative and judicial fights that will keep this problem boiling. Mary Ziegler believes that “the anti-abortion movement will ‘look to the conservatives justices for protection for fetal personhood”. This plays directly to the Christian view that life begins at conception – but that means forcing that religious dogma down the throats of other religions, such as Judaism, as well as those non-believers who thought that they were protected by the First Amendment from the imposition of religious beliefs. Here is a real nub for me – to take away the right to safe abortion, SCOTUS has also taken away women and me the right under the First Amendment to be free of religious dogma. 

Several mini-essays suggest that political violence will increase in the United States. Linda Hirshman goes so far as to suggest we will see civil war. I sincerely hope that we won’t see civil war but political violence, as we saw during the storming of the U.S, Capitol by MAGA groups on 6 January 2021, is already happening. The Dobbs decision simply pours gasoline on an already burning fire. 

Justice Clarence Thomas, in a concurring opinion to Dobbs, clearly leaked what is on his mind and the minds of the other conservative justices. Why stop with abortion rights? There is much the right-wing has disagreed with for decades, stretching back to FDR’s New Deal and moving forward in time to today. LGBTQ+ rights, same-sex marriage, contraception – Thomas wants them revisited next. Interestingly, he left out the Loving v Virginia decision because… Ginni. The social welfare net, expanded healthcare for all, business regulations, environmental concerns – they will also be on the chopping block for this group. Only everyone having guns and protecting the perverted Second Amendment seem sacrosanct.

Am I angry? You bet. Are rational Americans who believe in social justice and equity defeated? Hardly. Let’s work to get the biggest turnout for any election in November 2022 and dump Republicans from power in local, state, and federal elections. Let’s keep the House and add Senate seats for Democrats – and make them do something. Codify abortion rights into law. Add SCOTUS seats. Protect voting rights once and for all. Make the promise of the Declaration of Independence come true for every American. Erin Aubry Kaplan, a Los Angeles journalist, writes the most chilling mini-essay in the Politico Magazine article – that the end result of Dobbs will be that young people will no longer see America as a democracy, that cynicism will win. If that happens, the history of the United States will be written with a final chapter that will be sickening ⇒ Trump and MAGA wins. Just, NO.