American Dystopia

Uter-ly Frightening

I was all set to post about some art today but something came up…

Politico: “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Justice Alito writes in an initial majority draft circulated inside the court. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.”

Also reported, POLITICO received a copy of the draft opinion from a person familiar with the court’s proceedings in the Mississippi case along with other details supporting the authenticity of the document. The draft opinion runs 98 pages, including a 31-page appendix of historical state abortion laws. The document is replete with citations to previous court decisions, books and other authorities, and includes 118 footnotes. The appearances and timing of this draft are consistent with court practice.

The disclosure of Alito’s draft majority opinion – a rare breach of Supreme Court secrecy and tradition around its deliberations – comes as all sides in the abortion debate are girding for the ruling. Speculation about the looming decision has been intense since the December oral arguments indicated a majority was inclined to support the Mississippi law.

Heather Cox Richardson wrote We are in a weird moment, in which Democrats are trying to shore up democracy while Republicans are actively working to undermine it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) issued a statement after the draft leaked, calling the draft “one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history.” They noted that the justices lied to senators to get confirmed, saying they considered Roe v. Wade settled law, and are now—if the draft is confirmed—stripping away from American women a constitutional right they have held for 50 years.

“The party of Lincoln and Eisenhower has now completely devolved into the party of Trump,” Pelosi and Schumer wrote. “Every Republican Senator who supported Senator McConnell and voted for Trump Justices pretending that this day would never come will now have to explain themselves to the American people.”

Rebecca Solnit posted on her Facebook page Just remember no one ever got pregnant alone--yeah, for wanted pregnancies there are IVF-ish and donor modes, but unwanted/unintended pregnancies pretty much always involve someone else depositing sperm near a uterus, too often without cooperating with the birth-control desire and methods of the other even when it's not outright rape.
So maybe the revolution is to make men take responsibility as never before, and to acknowledge that every abortion involves a man. Wanted pregnancy tend to involve some guy strutting around like a stud; unwanted pregnancy is treated like immaculate conception by the whore of Babylon.
p.s. Abortions also are needed for wanted pregnancies where something is not right with the health of one or the other parties. It is not infrequently a lifesaving intervention. In those case the father is often very involved, but...you know what I'm talking about.

Planned Parenthood released a statement: The news came because a draft of the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization was leaked to the press. This opinion is a draft. It could still change, and even if it doesn't, it won't have the force of law until after the Supreme Court releases it officially.

You can make a donation to Planned Parenthood here.

In a discussion on Facebook, a man argued that "Any law that creates a legal right for some human beings to kill other human beings has gone beyond our Founders' vision."

My friend Duncan Stitt had this to say in response:

“Stand your ground laws grant that right. Allowing corporations to pollute our air and water grants that right. Not enforcing OSHA regs protecting workers grants that right. Letting law enforcement avoid responsibility for excessive force deaths grants that right. Allowing health insurance companies the right to deny life-saving treatment grants that right. Capital punishment grants that right, and yet you support all of these policies. If your basis of legality is your quoted sentence, conservatives have been going beyond the Founders' vision since the Constitution was written.

Here's the way I look at it. Back in the day, conservatives opposed granting women the right to vote and own property. Then, conservatives opposed women in the workforce, and later, in the military. Today, conservatives oppose equal pay for women, and they oppose allowing women to make their own healthcare decisions. It's the same old song and dance: Christian patriarchy, where women are subservient to men. It's 2022, not 1776.”

And Arizona Daily Star ‘cartoonist’ David Fitzsimmons came through with a flurry of posts:

These Republicans are wearing me down with their states’ rights ideology of the Confederacy in regards to business regulations and social welfare legislation, attacks on gay rights, book banning…you know, autocracy. And now this. My friend Jan Knight pointed out on Facebook that If the argument about privacy remains in the opinion striking Roe, many more rights can fall, including those protecting LGBTQ+, death directives, access to contraception, living arrangements and what you can read and watch.

In the latest news (an hour or so ago), the New York Times reported Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. is worried about the leak but didn’t say shit about the content.

Don’t even think about not voting. Just. Vote. Blue.

And now…