Lots of people cheered when our rogue Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, and began what has turned out to be a flight from constitutional principles–especially the principle that government has an obligation to protect individual liberty and autonomy.
Faux Christians celebrated the obvious fact that the decision was a win for their particular religious beliefs. Those who’d piously pretended to care about religious liberty were delighted when the Court ignored the liberties of adherents of religions that differ on the issue. (It’s been clear for quite a while that the “liberty” these Christian warriors want to advance is the liberty to impose their own beliefs on others.)
Men (and some women) whose worldviews are paternalistic celebrated the Court’s declaration that women would no longer be permitted to govern themselves. After all, those sweet little females were never meant to have self-determination; pesonal autonomy is for men. (Mostly straight and White…)
Dobbs was also welcomed by the legions of authoritarians who believe–in contrast to the nation’s founders–that government should make life decisions for its citizen/subjects, rather than protecting their right to believe and live as they see fit.
Dobbs was handed down in 2022, so enough time has passed to see whether all that celebrating was justified, or whether the desired results have failed to materialize. A recent essay in the Guardian assessed that “progress.”
Here’s the lede:
Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the US supreme court case that rescinded the constitutional right to abortion, is failing on its own terms. Since the ruling, in June 2022, the number of abortions in the US has risen. Support for reproductive rights is on the upswing. And the rate of voluntary sterilization among young women – a repudiation of Trumpian pronatalism, if a desperate one – jumped abruptly after Dobbs, and there’s no reason to believe it will drop off.
Also rising at an alarming clip are preventable maternal deaths and criminal prosecutions of pregnant people.
The Guttmacher Institute reports that abortions rose 1.5% between 2023 and 2024, on top of a 11.1% increase in the first year after Dobbs. That’s probably a significant undercount, since Guttmacher reports only “clinician-provided abortions”, either surgical or medical (using abortion pills), and doesn’t estimate how many abortions are happening outside the formal healthcare system. As we know, numerous women are obtaining abortion medications directly from suppliers or from the multiple feminist underground networks that have been organized in the wake of the decision.
The fact that we have seen more abortions, not fewer ones (not to mention increases in pro-abortion public opinion and contraception) has infuriated the anti-abortion activists, who are searching for stronger disincentives. They seem to have settled on more punishment–and have no apparent problem with more deaths among the already born. (Evidently, the death of pregnant women is an unfortunate–but acceptable– consequence of saving the “pre-born.”)
The Trump administration and MAGA want to see more babies. (Fewer immigrants, more “real American” babies…). But if one goal of banning abortion was to produce more of those babies, that’s clearly not working.
Public health researchers saw “an abrupt increase in permanent contraception procedures” – sterilization – following Dobbs among adults in their prime reproductive years, ages 18 to 30. Unsurprisingly, the increase in procedures for women (tubal ligations) was twice that for men (vasectomies).
As the essayist notes, the carrots haven’t been appetizing enough, and the sticks not effective enough, so Red-state legislators “are bringing out the AR-15s.” Republican lawmakers in at least 10 states have introduced bills defining abortion as homicide, and criminalizing both the provider and the patient. The bills are based on “fetal personhood” – the strategy of conferring full legal rights to a fetus from conception. By 2024, 39 states had fetal homicide laws.
While they work toward criminalizing the ending of a pregnancy, anti-abortion lawmakers and prosecutors are making creative use of existing law to punish miscarriages.
A 31-year-old South Carolina woman who miscarried and disposed of the tissue in the trash was arrested for “desecration of human remains”, a crime carrying a 10-year sentence. In March, a woman found bleeding outside her Georgia apartment after a miscarriage was jailed for “concealing the death of another person” and “abandonment of a dead body” for placing the remains in the bin.
Rational people have always known this movement isn’t “pro-life.” It’s anti-woman.
I lost my 24 year old granddaughter Jennifer; she suffered a possible fatal seizure disorder but wanted to try to carry her baby girl to term. She died along with her daughter 5 months into gestation. Her choice, only 3 months before Pence enacted his anti-abortion laws here in Indiana; we will never know the statistics of how many forced pregnancies ended with the deaths of mother and baby. Republicans are passing laws but we never, or rarely, know the results of their laws in any area of our lives.
“Rational people have always known this movement isn’t “pro-life.” It’s anti-woman.Rational people have always known this movement isn’t “pro-life.” It’s anti-woman.”
A movement throughout religions regarding those of us who give them the lives they use to rule over us. Dilys Lainge comes to my mind again; “Women receive the insults of men with tolerance, having been bitten in the nipple by their toothless gums.”
The call what’s happening right now, gradualism! Gradually over decades, continuing the onslaught against equality, against compassion and empathy, makes many completely indifferent to the barbarism we see presently. If you run through the alphabet from a to z, without missing a letter, it seems almost hypnotic. But if you shoot straight from a to z and skipping everything in between, it’s a huge shock. Imagine if what’s happening today, happened 30 years ago, from a to z or from 1 to 100, people would have freaked out! Today everyone is anesthetized against the assault on their own self-interests. Another way to put it would be the old frog in the pot analogy drop a frog in a pot of cool water, and turn up the heat slowly, the frog will boil instead of jumping out. It ends up falling asleep, as the water temperature rises. It gives a little more insight into the analogy of turning up the heat.
Another frog in the pot issue, is all of the whites only communities being started across this country. Hundreds of them. The men work, either secular jobs or farming, the women have babies and take care of the kids, cook and clean, and be available for the man’s physical needs. The (white)
man who would be king?
And then you have the wealthy building their own cities. Not just settlements, but taking over established infrastructure to create their own Shangri-La.
Lincoln so aptly put, “a house divided cannot stand” And of course he was correct. But Lincoln adopted that from scripture. He absolutely was a Bible reader.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand” (Mark 3:25)
“A kingdom, (or government) that becomes divided against itself, cannot stand.” (Mark 3:24)
Those who claim to be following religious guidelines, are perpetrating a hoax on themselves. Because they lull themselves into the belief of godliness, when they are completely the opposite!
A kingdom cannot declare war on its citizenry for the sake of peace. It’s an oxymoron, and I Don’t use that term loosely! The tide will shift, and in desperation, there will be a lashing out. And either, government change or an internal entity will take over the reins, and it probably won’t be any better. After all, there is a vendetta that has to be addressed.
Is there any recourse that “We, the People” have over the SCOTUS, other than persuasion (which obviously has no effect) or protest? Can we even write to Roberts or any of the other Justices and register our complaint?
If you can know a tree by the fruit it produces, the fruit of the Roberts Court is bitter indeed.
JoAnn.
I remember you bringing that up before about your granddaughter, and I am so very sorry and empathetic to what you say. That’s a terrible thing. What a terrible wrong was done to her!
But the same believers are willing to slaughter other humans in some sort of war scenario or some sort of peacekeeping action, those lives are disposable. Those lives are trash! Those lives would be considered collateral damage! Hypocrisy at its finest. And let’s not forget “eugenics.” This was another masked attack on the poorest among us. Using religion to circumvent equality, is more hypocrisy. How anyone or thing can be oozing that much hypocrisy and expect to be believed on any issue they claim to be protecting?
A response to the impersonal is always easier than the personal. That far away pregnant woman or teen in Texas pulls no heartstrings; her cries cannot be heard; her anguish not seen. So easy then to demand punishment and heap recriminations upon her. But bring it home and one sees a whole new response from the self-righteous and the overly religious. Suddenly the true necessity of freedom of choice becomes all too clear. Suddenly empathy and compassion come to the forefront. All of which begs the question, ‘What will it take for us to also see the people of Gaza as our own?”
TB: What will it take for us to also see the people of Gaza as our own?
Not here. Notice how the Democratic Party establishment and its most ardent followers are not criticizing Trump for his enabling of the current in real time genocide?
He’ll, even our pious Christian and his cohort known as our most illustrious world-traveler opined this was not a real genocide, and consequently told me to STFU on this very forum.
Again the liberals have let the other side decide what rules we operate under. If we look at the labeling in this battle, we know that they aren’t pro life. They are pro birth. On the other side, we have the pro abortionists. Most people don’t understand that we aren’t pro abortion. We are pro choice.
I think about what Hillary said “A government that can forbid women having abortions, is a government that can REQUIRE women have abortions.”
Spread the word to all the people who are insulted by this administration that:
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Then join in the fight
That will give you the right to be free
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes
Will you give all you can give
So that our banner may advance
Some will fall and some will live
Will you stand up and take your chance?
The blood of the martyrs
Will water the meadows of France
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Claude Michel Schonberg
Do You Hear the People Sing? lyrics © Alain Boublil Music Ltd., Chester Music, Productions Bagad, Boublil Alain Editions Musicales Sarl
What you speak of is a perfect parable of what we all face today in general! We who are privileged white males say that we care, but our token support abets the needless deaths of far too many girls and women!!! Support Jessica Valenti- Abortion Every Day, Groups like SisterSong and The Midwest Access Coalition and Elevated Access. Men- Men 4 Choice and join us- only 4 Men- JoinMERJ(dot)org – Men for Equity and Reproductive Justice . Thanks!
The rabid Christians can make all the “holy” noise they want, but at bottom they only want power, the power to dictate to everybody else, and thereby to convince themselves that they are better than everyone else.
I think women’s history should be taught in education so women can understand the womens movement and what its like to not have autonomy over their bodies. Medieval and Renaissance films tend to romanticize the roles of women. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to live during that time.
Mitch D: Here is who I am in my placetime.
When we choose to be objective rather than subjective, we leave behind those who instead choose to be subjects of influential people, for liberal freedom.
The Catholic fashion made the Pope the primary source of authority to arbitrate lives and culture. The Protestant Reformation was a step away from that chain of authority towards freedom for the Faithful. Objectivity is a further step towards accepting our species as another product of the natural Universe, thus a natural progression from bonds to each of us as the ultimate authority through liberal Democracy.
That responsibility is threatening to most people just like a first baby is by forcing each of us to be responsible for a new person who doesn’t come with any instruction manual.
That new person eventually becomes each of us complete with a lifetime of placetime experiences as viewed by our five senses which are limited to only threats and opportunities at our scale.
Then we die and the world has to go on but we live a couple of extra generations in the memories of those who we made an impression on.
It’s life that’s great, not us.
Contraception is already in play for their goals to be achieved. Women always have borne the burden of consequences. Men most often are indifferent to the consequences, willfully ignorant or consciously avoiding the effects, especially the financial ones. Place regulation on condoms or control access to performance enhancing drugs and you will hear howls of outrage.
STD avoidance only goes so far, especially when the symptoms appear long after the fact.
Now young unmarried women who seek prenatal care in TN can be told that the doctor refuses treatment to said patient because their marital status violates his religious beliefs.
This slippery slope has become much more precipitous and is likely to be sheer in the near future. How soon will voluntary sterilization become highly regulated by the theocrats in charge?
Indiana had been the leader of forced sterilization in the past century, lending its eugenics ideology and methods to the NAZIs. It is a short step from controlling voluntary choice to mandatory, dependent upon status. We have been here before and have seen how horrific the end results were. RESIST.
“the same believers are willing to slaughter other humans in some sort of war scenario or some sort of peacekeeping action”
In the movie Shrek, the king says “some of you will die but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make”. Unfortunately, that meme rings true for so many issues these days.
Anti-women, for sure. My litmus tests for “pro-life” folks are always contraception and comprehensive sex ed, two things statistically proven to reduce abortion rates. If you’re against those things, then it was never “about the babies” in the first place. And we see conservative legislatures across the country attacking access to contraceptives and sex ed, all while claiming to be pro life and pro family.
Trump and his cabinet have shamed the United States repeatedly on the world stage. The countries that aren’t troubled by his behavior are not our allies. Try to imagine what would happen if Russia and/or China decided to launch an attack?
The policies of eliminating women, lgbtq, people of color from our normal rights will leave us at the mercy of a narcissist, a drunk and a bunch of cowards. And they keep thinning the ranks.
Cathy, so true!