The Leaked Opinion Regarding Roe v. Wade
Neither the leaked draft decision nor the pro-forced birth movement that underpins it are about babies or the sanctity of life. They are about power and control, pure and simple.
The language of the leaked draft basically invites a small minority of the U.S. population - those who believe they should be allowed to force everyone to live by their beliefs, both religious and political - to bring further challenges to extinguish our rights. It is about power and control over others – most obviously women – but over everyone else, too.
Power Over Women
The opinion denies the legitimacy of the Constitutional right to abortion, as well as the right to privacy, based upon the majority’s belief that to be legitimate, those rights must be deeply rooted in American history and tradition. Apparently, a right has to be pre-1868 to be “deeply rooted”.
The two most obvious scenarios post-Roe are that abortion access will be legislated state by state, or that the Court will rule, in a future case, that abortion is unconstitutional.
Mitch McConnell is already making public statements about passing a national ban to prevent any states from allowing abortion, but legislation may not be necessary to achieve his goal. The draft decision lays the groundwork for further challenges that would allow the Court to declare abortion unconstitutional. Legislation has been introduced in Louisiana to give embryos the status of legal persons from the moment of conception, making abortion homicide. If passed, that law could be the vehicle that the Court uses to declare that embryos have legal personhood. No abortion anywhere in the U.S. would be legal under any circumstance.
Not in cases of rape - (roughly 32,000 pregnancies aborted per year in the U.S.).
Not in cases of incest (no one really knows, believed to be fewer than 16,000 cases per year in the U.S.).
Not in cases of ectopic pregnancy (2% of pregnancies, or approximately 127,380 in 2009, the most recent year on CDC.gov’s National Center for Health Statistics page).
Not in cases of incomplete miscarriage (statistics unavailable).
Power Over Everyone
It’s not about state’s rights, either. If it were, the possibility of a national ban on abortion wouldn’t be on the table.
The state and/or federal abortion bans that will inevitably result in the wake of eliminating a fundamental right that has stood for fifty years will put women and families at risk. We all know that. But it also puts many of our other rights at risk. We cannot afford to be complacent. We cannot afford to assume that it doesn’t affect us personally.
For example, in the past, anyone who could afford to travel out of state could obtain an abortion in another state. Just like anyone who lives in a state where marriage or divorce takes too long for their liking can go to Las Vegas for those services, or anyone who lives in a state where marijuana is illegal can travel to a state where it is legal and purchase and use it (there) if they wish. That right to travel may not stand. The next battlefield is the right of your state of residence to restrict your right to leave the state – or potentially even to move to another state – if your motivation may be to access safe, legal abortion. Those laws are already being introduced.
Underlining the fact that the majority’s opinion is much broader than the right to abortion is the list they provided of other cases and the rights they establish that the Court deems “not deeply rooted in history”, inviting challenges to their legitimacy as Constitutional rights:
The right to marry a person of a different race;
The right to marry while in prison;
The right to obtain contraceptives;
The right to live with extended family;
The right to educate your children anywhere other than in public school;
The right not to be sterilized without consent;
The right not to be forced to undergo surgery, administration of drugs, or other substantially similar procedures against your will;
The right to engage in private, consensual sex acts;
The right to marry a person of the same sex.
What To Do
This is not just about abortion access, and it affects everyone. Even if you believe your state is a safe haven from these issues, even if you are confident your representatives in the state capitol and D.C. will vote in a way that reflects your wishes, contact them.
Remind them that they are answerable to their constituents, and of what you, their constituents, want and need. Protest, communicate, educate, make sure everyone you know is aware of what is at stake. And lastly, inform yourself and then VOTE. In every election at every level, every time. It all matters.