How dare they?
9th May 2022 · 0 Comments
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito’s “leaked” opinion, which will technically overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey – precedents that protect a woman’s right to an abortion, immediately sent pro-choice advocates into the streets in cities nationwide.
In her official dissent, Vice President Kamala Harris repeated the mantra “How Dare They!” about Alito and the Supreme Court majority’s attempt to overthrow Roe v. Wade.
“How dare they,” VP Harris said at an Emily’s List event. “How dare they try to deny women their rights and freedom.”
“The Court confirmed the report’s authenticity last Tuesday. The draft was written by Samuel Alito, one of the most conservative justices. According to Politico, four other justices – Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – have agreed with the opinion, enough for a majority, according to a PBS News Hour report.
“Women’s rights in America are under attack,” Harris said. “Today, we know our purpose, and we also know what we are up against.”
Harris went on to say that the justices want to “criminalize and punish women” for having abortions.
In their hearts, most American women are pro-life, but they also have a right to privacy; to control what happens to their bodies; to have an abortion, and, as celebrated blues singers Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday sang, “Tain’t Nobody Business If I Do.”
Anyway, beyond the federal court’s overreach into women’s uteruses, why is the predominately white male SCOTUS deciding what women can do with their bodies? Government has no right to determine what women do with their bodies. America is not the country of Gilead from “The Handmaid’s Tale,” where men force women to be surrogates for their barren women.
What’s next? Will the SCOTUS allow states to ban birth control pills and Plan B morning-after pills?
Black mothers are dying in childbirth and their babies too. The CDC reported that Black women experience maternal mortality two to three times higher than that of white women. The estimated national maternal mortality rate in the United States is about 17 per 100,000 live births – but it is about 43 per 100,000 live births for Black women.
Louisiana’s pregnancy-related mortality rate was 54 Black women per 100,000 women in 2017. Black babies are dying at alarming rates, too. “With 5.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, the United States has a high infant mortality rate, and Black babies are in the gravest danger, with an infant mortality rate in 2018 of 10.8 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to a rate of 4.6 White babies per 1,000 live births,” according to The Washington Post’s 2021 report.
“Pro-life” extremists, don’t care. A cynic would say that some white people want abortion bans because America’s white population is decreasing. Whites will be a minority in 2050, according to population projections.
Others may genuinely believe that abortion is immoral and a sin before God. Should we assume this is what Louisiana State Senator Katrina Jackson, a Black woman, thought when she sponsored the state’s Heartbeat legislation? Is that what Governor John Bel Edwards, a Catholic, thought when he signed the Heartbeat bill into law?
Say that abortion bans work and no female has an abortion. Will resources be available to help these women provide a decent life for their children? Housing, living wage jobs, clothing, transportation, free childcare, free college and vo-tech training?
In 2021, Louisiana’s DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services) received 47,091 reports of child abuse or neglect online and through the statewide, toll-free, 24/7 hotline. Five thousand seven hundred forty-nine children served in Foster Care, 345 youth in Extended Foster Care (ages 18-21), and DCFS adjudicated disability claims for 7,200 children.
These stats suggest that if the state bans abortion there, the DCFS needs reforming to ensure that new lives have the resources and services required for a good quality of life.
Women have abortions for different reasons. At a Congressional hearing in October 2021, three congresswomen shared their personal experiences. Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri said she was raped at a church youth picnic; Rep. Barbara Lee of California received a “back-alley” abortion in Mexico at age 15; and Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington said she opted for an abortion after being told her pregnancy would be high risk for her and the baby.
Choosing to have an abortion is a heart-rendering, life-altering decision for anyone who decides to undergo the procedure. Still, it is a personal, private, body-autonomy choice that belongs to women whose lives are at risk.
The SCOTUS is creating a slippery slope by overturning Roe v. Wade or ceding power to the states to ban abortions. Twenty-six states are poised to ban abortions, and more are pushing bans daily.
Banning abortion puts a whole range of rights at risk. Will the 14th Amendment be overturned, which guarantees privacy and due process?
Here’s another threat posed by the SCOTUS moving under the radar. The U.S. Supreme Court’s radical Republican members – the majority – are gradually ceding its supreme power in favor of states’ rights.
The destruction of the Voting Rights Act (ripping out pre-clearance mandates for states that have a track record for voter suppression and violations of the VRA) and the Court’s decision not to rule on partisan gerrymandering are flagrant acts that assist states in nullifying the Black vote.
Currently, abortion is still legal in the United States, but that might change in June 2022 if the SCOTUS votes to allow states to ban abortions. Even if the right to an abortion is not in the Constitution, abortion rights are settled law. The same institution that decided it was a legal right is now poised to overturn the law in favor of allowing a majority of white elected officials to decide that pregnant women must give birth.
The bottom line regarding abortion rights is this: Government officials should stay out of women’s bodies, full stop.
This article originally published in the May 9, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
