Saturday, June 25, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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Even with ample warning and the leaked releases of a draft opinion, Friday’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and the right to seek an abortion was shocking in its unprecedented historical significance and outright cruelty toward women.
We’ve expressed our opinion and our outrage many times before. The American people have done the same, with an overwhelming majority — 90% — supporting the right to an abortion in at least some circumstances. In fact, the percentage of Americans who support access to abortion is the same as the percentage of Americans who say they like ice cream.
Popular opinion should not dictate the court’s rulings on the law, but on questions of public policy, public opinion has always held at least some sway.
In May, we joined with dozens of other news outlets in expressing our disappointment at the court’s leaked opinion, and the legal, moral and ethical shortcomings of its reasoning. Friday’s opinion echoes that leaked draft and shares its shortcomings.
How do we, or anyone else for that matter, respond to a ruling on women’s health, privacy and bodily autonomy that is so short-sided and myopic in its “historical” analysis that it fails to acknowledge the absence of all women’s rights for the first 150 years of our country’s existence?
How are we expected to respond to a ruling that suggests civil rights in one state for one group of people can be withheld in other states? Are we not all Americans afforded the same rights irrespective of our address?
We were in awe of the audacity of it all, until an emailed press release from Nevada Right to Life and its executive director, Melissa Clement, took our stunned amazement and reminded us that now is the time for action.
Many of the statements in the organization’s email were exactly what we might expect from a group dedicated to furthering anti-choice policies. Then there was this whopper:
“Overturning Roe itself does not prohibit abortions. For too long, pro-abortion groups have gotten away with the sky-is-falling argument that overturning Roe would outlaw abortions or reverse ‘abortion rights.’ Their tacit approval of and use of language implying that a reversal of Roe would automatically outlaw abortion misrepresents the decision and its impact. The Dobbs ruling returns the abortion issue to the duly elected representatives in state legislatures. Unfortunately, abortions will continue to be available across the country in many places and there is much work left to be done.”
Despite the organization’s claim, the decision will trigger laws in 13 states that automatically outlaw abortion within a month. Ten of those trigger bans were passed by previous legislatures going as far back as 2005 — not exactly today’s “duly elected representatives in state legislatures.”
Moreover, with Roe struck down, the federal government is now free to pass a national ban on abortion. Former Vice President Mike Pence called for that in an interview with Breitbart News, saying:“Having been given this second chance for life, we must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land.”
Given that Congress has almost unlimited authority to regulate interstate commerce, combined with the current religious and political leanings of the Supreme Court, a national ban on abortion would likely be upheld. Meaning that the court’s ruling doesn’t really return the decision to the states, because the federal government can overrule the states at any time.
Of course, an organization like Nevada Right to Life, which is exclusively focused on abortion-related issues, is probably already aware of these truths and simply doesn’t care that it’s lying and manipulating Nevadans to impose its own beliefs on all of us.
Either way, the words of Pence, Clement and Nevada Right to Life should serve as a wake-up call to Nevadans, and people in other states who want to protect the right to seek an abortion, that the court’s decision has put us directly in the anti-choice movement’s crosshairs. They are also a sign that the movement, even those who claim to be peaceful and principled, is dangerous, and will stop at nothing to realize the vision of an authoritarian Christian nation.
This is morally wrong but shouldn’t be surprising.
Three of the five justices who voted to overturn Roe lied under oath in their confirmation hearings about their willingness to overturn the decision. Their statements included:
ν “(Roe) is important precedent of the Supreme Court that has been reaffirmed many times. It is not as if it is just a run-of-the-mill case that was decided and never been reconsidered, but Casey specifically reconsidered it, applied the stare decisis factors, and decided to reaffirm it.” — Justice Brett Kavanaugh, 2018.
ν “Once a case is settled, that adds to the determinacy of the law. What was once a hotly contested issue is no longer a hotly contested issue. We move forward.” — Justice Neil Gorsuch, 2017.
We are running out of time to change the course of American history.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas called on the court to use the same rationale that struck down abortion rights to “correct the error” of previous cases and overturn cases establishing rights to contraception, same-sex consensual relations and same-sex marriage.
No other justices joined in the concurrence. But the fact that a sitting member of the U.S. Supreme Court is advocating to overturn a previous ruling and once again allow states to criminalize same-sex relationships and imprison those who use contraceptives should strike fear in us all.
And don’t forget, that same justice also votes on issues as far-ranging as voting rights, free speech, religious liberty, segregation and discrimination, and what is allowed in the privacy of your own home.
Three of the court’s nine justices were placed on the court by a president who failed to win the popular vote. One of them is only on the court because of a campaign of unconstitutional obstruction by Sen. Mitch McConnell, who put “winning” over his constitutional obligations.
These justices are appointed for life.
The only way to save the country is to ensure that people like Trump and McConnell — elected officials who openly and actively ignore their constitutional obligations, undermine democracy and even incite insurrections, are never allowed to control the halls of government again.
November’s elections will determine whether Congress and the Senate are controlled by those who would lie to our faces, eliminate civil and human rights, overturn election results and impose religious law upon all of us, or if we are able to change course and plot a new path toward liberty, freedom, democracy and justice for all.It’s up to all of us to vote to save our Constitution, save democracy and preserve our rights as Americans.
