roe v wade

Outrage: Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade

“The Supreme Court on Friday overruled Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion after almost 50 years in a decision that will transform American life, reshape the nation’s politics and lead to all but total bans on the procedure in about half of the states.”

The New York Times

The January 6 Committee Hearings have exposed in stark relief how close the authoritarian Donald Trump’s machinations came to keeping him in power in spite of his landslide loss to Joe Biden. We are living in perilous times and we can’t take anything for granted, not democracy or our constitutional rights.

This is a dark age in the history of our democracy, this execrable ruling may be a precursor of horrors to come. Today the far-right Supreme Court dealt a crushing blow to women’s rights, will they strike down marriage equality next?

Welcome to the Handmaid’s Tale America, racists and Christian nationalists and far-right reactionaries have taken over the Supreme Court and the Republican Party.

These religious conservatives are in the minority, the majority of Americans wanted Roe to remain the law of the land. The vast majority of Americans support sensible gun control laws, but yesterday the Supremes struck down New York’s law limiting guns in public.

To hell with fascist red, white and blue fake patriotism, America is a rainbow country. America is a “live and let live” democracy, and we must take our country back from white evangelicals, far-right Justices, and Trumpian Republicans.

Post Roe Churches, Corporations & Citizens Must Help Women Seeking an Abortion

America is on the verge of a catastrophe of Biblical proportions. If Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court in late June or early July, many states will impose stricter restrictions on abortion, or ban the procedure altogether.

There are at least 13 states that have trigger laws in place that would automatically outlaw abortions immediately when Roe is officially overturned.

It’s incumbent upon us to prepare for the imminent overturning of Roe; thoughts and prayers won’t get us anywhere; we must take concrete actions.

Some of America’s largest corporations, like Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple, are leading the way by pledging to cover the costs of employees who need to travel to get an abortion.

Protestant churches, mosques, and Jewish temples need to demonstrate that anti-choice evangelical churches are in the minority, by following the example of Starbucks et al.

Religious organizations should go further and pay not only for travel costs but for the procedure itself.

It’s going to take all of us (enlightened religious organizations, forward-thinking corporations, empathetic politicians, and ordinary Americans to defeat the forces of evil that seek to take us back to the 19th century.

Roe v Wade Will Be Overturned, But It Will Be a Pyrrhic Victory for Evangelicals

Starting in the 70’s, under the leadership of Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority, evangelicals made overturning Roe v Wade their primary objective.       

In late spring or early summer, the Supreme Court will likely ban abortion or at least severely curtail the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Why are we on the verge of such a catastrophe? To recap:

Merrick Garland was nominated by Barack Obama to fill the 2016 vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the death that February of Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative judicial icon. Then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) declared any appointment by the sitting president to be null and void, arguing against precedent and common sense that the next Supreme Court justice should be chosen by the next president.

Donald Trump then stacked the Supreme Court with stalworth conservatives Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, and conservatives now hold a 6-3 super majority.

It will turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory for evangelicals, for the following reasons:

Blue states will continue to offer abortion services, and women in red states will travel to blue states to terminate their pregnancies. It’s only poor women who can’t afford to travel out of state or to take time off who will be disadvantaged. Evangelical parents will secretly drive their daughters across state lines for abortions.

Abortion pills exist, and they will only become more readily available when Roe v. Wade is overturned.

If Roe v Wade is overturned it will galvanize liberal voters, and they will turn out in droves in the midterms and subsequent elections. Most Americans are in favor of choice and overturning Roe will be hugely unpopular, and Republicans will pay the price at the ballot box, and evangelicals will pay the price evidenced by empty church pews.