The Rights Lost

The Supreme Court shows its willingness to ignore precedent and common sense. The Dobbs decision that ends a woman’s right to choose fundamentally changes our country. Some cheer. Most lament.

Plessey vs. Ferguson, Brown vs. Board of Education, Dred Scott vs. Sanford. Most of us don’t know the names of Supreme Court decisions, landmark or otherwise, but Dobbs vs. Jackson, like Roe vs. Wade, is destined to become one whose name will not soon be forgotten.

I’m still digesting the SCOTUS abortion decision, already shorthanded simply as “Dobbs.” For the first time in my life, we have lost rights, not gained them. I feel very strongly about the issue, and I think that at this stage, it needs a woman’s voice. For that reason, this week, I’m turning this space over to my wife, Laura:

The wishful thinking of the anti-abortion movement notwithstanding, this judgment will have the opposite effect of ending abortion controversy. It has unleashed legal, medical, and social chaos. It raises more questions than it answers. Should a woman who is raped and gets an abortion serve more prison time than her rapist? A follow-up question: Do we grant parental rights to rapists? And what of the 12 year old girl who is impregnated by her father in one of the states imposing a no-exceptions ban? Are we now forcing children to carry pregnancies to term?

It also raises questions about in vitro fertilization (IVF). Biology refresher: doctors harvest eggs (ovum); fertilize them in a test tube (with sperm); and over a period of months try implanting  fertilized egg into the uterus for wanting parents. They repeat until success, and over time, may discard the unused fertilized eggs. These are now legally considered abortions and potentially criminalized in several states. In such cases, whom do they prosecute—the women, the clinic, the doctors, nurses and techs? And who gets to pay for the jails we will put these people in?

The (majority Catholic) Supreme Court has wrenched our country back to the dark ages, far behind every other industrialized country in the world. In my ancestral Ireland in 2012,  31 year-old dentist, Savita Halappanavar, was miscarrying her 17 week old fetus, but because a heartbeat was detectable, and because of Irish criminal law, doctors couldn’t perform an abortion. The sepsis killed her. Her grieving husband went public with the case and outraged Irish citizens demanded change. Subsequently, and by a landslide, the Irish Constitution was changed to allow abortions.

In the US, seventeen states, including Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and Alabama, already have, or say they will, criminalize abortion, meaning they are willing to jail women and girls, doctors, and anyone else who helps, from nurses to Uber drivers and grandmothers.

Will we be seeing proposals for laws banning out of state travel for abortions? Missouri drafted, then shelved one reminiscent of the Fugitive Slave Act that demanded non-slave states extradite fugitive slaves back to their state of origin. Will some states attempt to drag teenagers and women back to forced births? Would we then be living in a totalitarian society?

So what of preachers, rabbis, and priests, who provide moral support or even physical support. Are we now in the business of throwing them in jail as well? The anti-abortion crowd is victorious for now with the Supreme Court throwing this thorny issue back to the states. Yet in this most whipsaw of weeks where the High Court also overturned New York’s century-old partial-ban on hand guns, I’m having a hard time understanding why abortion is a state rights issue, but gun safety no longer is.

A Synagogue in Florida is suing the state over its abortion law, arguing it violates the religious freedom of Jewish people. "We are proud that Jewish tradition regards abortion as essential health care, not only permitting the termination of pregnancy, but even requiring it when the life of the pregnant person is in danger," Rabbi Hera Person said in a statement. Jews, like African Americans, remember slavery, and how women and girls were subject to rape. Slave women were currency, and forced births increased their value. It’s an ugly history.

We know at a minimum that Susan Collins (R-Wishy/Washy), says Justice Kavanaugh lied when he told her that he would not disturb the long-standing precedent of Roe. We also know that this religious ruling is a violation of the separation of church and state, something that is enshrined in the Constitution. And that is before we even address respect for precedent and judicial restraint known as “stare decisis.”

The decision is not just flawed, it is ill considered with tragic consequences for lives of women and girls, and the men who love them. Our remaining “choice” is to vote every one of the anti-abortion politicians out of office and nationally codify the decision to put all private health care decisions where they belong: between a patient, her doctor, and her God.

©2022 Jon Sinton