I read the Alito decision and here it is in a nutshell. If you are a female, you are not afforded autonomy over your own body. No matter how it happens, if you become pregnant, your decisions are already made for you, regardless of your wishes.
Alito never ceases to be a complete douche nozzle and an embarrassment to the high court. It's unfortunate that he now has an entire posse galloping backwards with him.
When I was a child, my father made sure I was educated regarding politics and policy, that I watched the news at the dinner table every evening, read the newspaper, participated in political discussions, defended my positions, and understood the importance of exercising my right to vote. Apparently, all that exposure and education turned me into a radical leftist, though I prefer to call it educated empathy.
You might roll your eyes when I say I am overwhelmingly empathetic, especially to others' circumstances. But if you truly know me (you know who you are), you know I speak the truth. I may be a bitch, but I'm also a pretty decent human being. What can I say, I'm a dichotomy.
This country is progressively getting more progressive while our laws are exponentially regressing. In the last eight presidential elections, Democrats have won the popular vote in seven, but only won the electoral college in four. Gerrymandering has created districts Republicans can't lose, even though their states may not be overwhelmingly conservative. If the current seismic right shift of the Supreme Court is any indication, we (women specifically) may all be living on borrowed time. Four of the five justices choosing to overturn Roe v. Wade are men who were appointed by men who lost the popular vote. The fifth, Barrett, was a handmaid in a religious cult. A fucking handmaid. In a cult. A cult that demanded her subservience to her husband. This certainly feels like life imitating art.
When Roe v. Wade falls, women will no longer have control over their own bodies. Think about the implications. You will cease to be a human being during pregnancy, but become merely a vessel. Ectopic pregnancy? You will not legally be allowed to terminate an embryo trapped in your fallopian tube. Both you and the embryo will die. Invitro fertilization that results in 6-8 viable eggs? You will now be forced to carry and then care for a litter. Miscarriage? Prove it. You will certainly be investigated, and perhaps imprisoned for actions your body spontaneously performed. Rape? Incest? Who cares? Carry that reminder and then be forced to allow the rapist (who will most certainly suffer no consequences) rights to the child. Fatal fetal anomaly, a condition likely to lead to the death of the fetus in utero? Carry that dead fetus bitches because you, your body, and your rights do not matter. You have been reduced to a repository. Did you know that the U.S. already has the worst rate of maternal deaths in the developed world? Nothing like being number one, but you ain't seen nothing yet. Start saving up your wire coat hangers.
Anti-choice activists are screaming about how the right to an abortion is not in the Constitution, parroting Alito's exhaustive (so exhausting) numerous mentions of abortion not being mentioned. Dare I mention what else isn't mentioned in the Constitution? Civil rights. Miranda rights. Your right to privacy. Desegregation. Contraception. Same-sex marriage. Your right to own land and travel, unless you are a white male. Think none of these can be taken away? Think again. Many of you won't care until something is taken away that affects you. Then what will you do?
Alito claims that nothing counts as established law in this country unless it is 'deeply rooted in our history and tradition', another exhaustive phrase he used as a testament to his lack of both imagination and any cogent argument. Hmmm, what on earth could possibly be deeply rooted in our history and tradition? Could it be the subjugation of a large swath of human beings, as spelled out in the Dred Scott decision, which stated that a slave who had resided in a free state and territory where slavery was prohibited was not entitled to his freedom; that African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States? Why, yes, that is correct. Among constitutional scholars, Scott v. Sandford is widely considered the worst decision ever rendered by the Supreme Court. Alito, in his deeply rooted misogyny, said, 'Here, hold my flaccid penis! I think I can win at being worst!'
Hmmm, what else? Well, women have been oppressed throughout our deeply rooted history so what's a little more going to hurt? White men have controlled every branch of government for hundreds of years in our deeply rooted history so why not keep that traditional streak going? I can see Alito telling Brett and Neil, "now all we need is the conservative, non-male, uber-religious handmaid and the dude who wouldn't even be free if we could have just kept those uppity bastards in their place. Oh, but he acts like he's a privileged white dude so we'll look past that bit of deeply rooted history and tradition because it doesn't fit the narrative here!"
I'd like to deeply root a sharp stick up Alito's white privileged, traditional ass.
Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and to some extent, Amy Coney Barrett, lied under oath about their views on abortion rights (although Barrett said it wasn't a super precedent, whatever the hell that means). They all stated that the right to abortion was settled under stare decisis. Simply put, stare decisis binds courts to follow legal precedents set by previous decisions. The most well-known example of stare decisis is 1973's Roe v. Wade, wherein the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a woman's right to elect to have an abortion to be a constitutionally protected right. A decision that was reaffirmed in 1992.
Shouldn't there be a penalty for a Supreme Court nominee lying under oath? Shouldn't they be removed? How can any American trust an institution that allows justices who are supposed to be exemplary, impartial, fair, and truthful to be the antithesis of these attributes? To become political tools? To strip rights from millions of women who have never lived without the right to make decisions about their own bodies? To gut a law with a 49 year history? It's stunning in the barbarity it will unleash.
Is anyone else tempted to jump off the sinking ship that is this country? Women, prepare for more indignation and humiliation, but be ready to fight like your freedom depends on it. You don't matter in the eyes of this court. If you don't stand up and demand to be heard, you will certainly be silenced.
This is a fantastic cover of Lesley Gore's 'You Don't Own Me'. Great video too. Don't stop fighting for your rights!
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