If you’re looking for logic and consistency in today’s emotionally inflamed politics, move on, there’s nothing to see here. If you’re looking for hypocrisy, this is the place. Conservatives and Trump supporters waged a war during the Covid pandemic against vaccination and mask mandates, claiming that the government has no right to mandate that the individual take a vaccine or suffer the consequences, be they social or economic. Yet that argument does not apply when it comes to abortion. In that case, apparently the government has that right to forbid you from getting an abortion. And so, on June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned its landmark decision in Roe v. Wade that established the constitutional right to an abortion.
Standing from left to right: Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Neil M. Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett.
Photograph by Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States
We knew this was coming and we shouldn’t have been surprised. SB 8, the extremely restrictive Texas Law that was passed on September 1, 2021, practically announced it from the rooftops. The Texas Heartbeat Act, as it’s legally called, prohibits abortion when there is a detectable heartbeat, which may be as early as 6 weeks into a woman’s pregnancy, before most women may actually know that they are pregnant.
Based on a few conversations I’ve had today, there is a bit of clarification necessary here. What the Supreme Court struck down was the Federal law. It means that abortion is no longer protected as a Constitutional right, but each state can make its own abortion laws, for or against it. Therefore, in practical terms, this means that you can still get a legal abortion if you live in a state that decrees it to be legal. However, post-Roe v. Wade, finding care will be much harder for many pregnant women; states that protect abortion rights most broadly are generally concentrated on the coasts. New, severe restrictions or bans would cover enormous swaths of the country and put many pregnant women hundreds of miles from an abortion provider. And let’s not forget that there are many among the more economically disadvantaged that could not afford to cross state lines in order to avail themselves of a more liberal law.
So, if women can still get an abortion in many places, why the big fuss today? Why are the liberal pundits and politicians, and the pro-choice people furious, disgusted and dejected? Because in addition to practical matters such as making it more difficult and costly and less safe, there are foundational principles involved. What does the Constitution say? What are the individual’s rights? What part should religion play in political decisions? Who are we as a nation?
Those who are exulting over the end of Roe v. Wade speak about having reinstated the sanctity of life. Those who are bitterly disappointed, of the violation of a woman’s legal rights. The opposition of sanctity versus rights is an illustration of just how deeply the principle of the separation of Church and State–on which this nation was founded–has been eroded. What role should religion play in a secular state? Other than declared theocracies such as the Muslim countries, it’s hard to find a Western nation with such restrictions on abortion and reproductive rights, even in staunchly Catholic nations like Italy and Spain. The exceptions to this are Malta, Vatican City, Liechtenstein, Andorra, and Poland, where abortion is illegal or severely restricted. Otherwise, 95% of European patients of reproductive age live in countries which allow abortion on demand or for broad socioeconomic reasons.
The US is moving ever closer to Margaret Atwood’s Republic of Gilead, the theocracy so disturbingly portrayed in the dystopic novel, A Handmaid’s Tale, where all aspects of a woman’s reproduction are controlled by the State. And we’re moving farther and farther away from our original identity as a secular nation–at least from the legislative perspective.
The Supreme Court Justices are supposed to be scrupulously unpolitical. Yet clearly this is no longer true, as they are increasingly making decisions along party lines on sensitive issues such as gun control and reproductive rights. Arguably, this is Trump’s greatest victory. He promised in his campaign speeches that if elected he would overturn Roe v. Wade and 6 years later, he did. He played the long game and determined the outcome by appointing 3 conservative justices during his administration. The vote on the overturn of Roe v. Wade was 6 to 3, but Justice Roberts was deeply conflicted. He argued the court’s conservative justices went too far in ending a federal right to abortion.
Justice Alito, on the other hand took a hard view and it was his that prevailed: “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
Talking heads have said that the Justices are throwing out precedent in favor of the political moment. Both on gun control legislation and abortion, numerous experts have stated that the Supreme Court is looking back to rights as they existed in the 18th and 19th centuries, not as they have changed over time to be what they are in the 21st century. The outrage is palpable. New York City mayor Eric Adams called it “an affront to human rights that shackles women and others to reproductive bondage.” New York Senator Chuck Schumer added, “Millions upon millions of American women are having their rights taken from them by unelected justices on the extremist MAGA court.” Nancy Pelosi said that “the radical Supreme Court is eviscerating the health and safety of American women” and urged people to show their anger in the November elections.
The question is, will this unpopular decision cause a backlash that will hurt the Republicans’ chances at the polls? Even Donald Trump privately thinks so. “The decision, Mr. Trump has told friends and advisers, will anger suburban women, an increasingly important demographic swath.”
And let’s not forget that as I argued in a previous article, it now seems inevitable that the Supreme Court will also overturn same sex marriage, LGBTQ+ rights, and access to reproductive control. This has now become an easily-read trend. The Bible has been weaponized to do the Republicans’ dirty work.
