Many women went to sleep last night in America only to wake up to find out they are living in Gilead.
I came late to the game watching Handmaid’s Tale, having only recently begun binging it. A totalitarian society that strips away a woman’s physical autonomy and reproductive rights in the former United States originally seemed too darkly dystopian for my tastes.
But now it feels as if the storylines are no longer confined to HULU- it is streaming free in real life.
A document leak from the Supreme Court indicated that this summer they are poised to nullify Roe v Wade ensuring abortion will be banned in over 20 states and made difficult to obtain in many others.
Hearing the news last night was like a gut punch. The cruelty of it was breathtaking. I gasped.
We are headed back to the dark ages kids, the dark ages of dark alleys, and illegal unsafe abortion. An entire generation of young women just had their lives dramatically altered.
Poster from the Women’s March, Washington DC 2017
In 2017 I carried this poster in the Women’s March in Washington after the election of Donald Trump. Warning him we had our eyes on him and his administration.
Last night we turned the clock back fifty years because of three stolen Scotus seats.
Vote like your life depends on it. Because it does.
Envisioning The American Dream 
You said it, Sally. So much for the right wanting to keep government from controlling people’s lives.
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It is profoundly disturbing
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YES WE CAN AND WILL TURN THE CLOCK BACK ON ROE.
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The Court’s decision (as reported in the draft), Justice Alito wrote that the Court would adhere to the Constitution and leave the decision (of a woman’s right to an abortion) up to the elected officials. Does the Constitution even mention “abortion”? Would the Framers of the Constition, independent thinkers that they were, would have had the temerity to invade a woman’s private personal care? I think not.
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There is no mention of the procedure in the Constitution. In fact, leaders didn’t outlaw abortion in America until the mid 1800’s. From colonial days until these first laws, abortion was a regular part of life for women, Common law allowed abortion prior to “quickening”- an archaic term for fetal movement that usually happens after around 4 months of pregnancy.
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And as Roe v. Wade states, “The Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without government interference…” With respect to the Constitution, the key word here is “liberty to choose.” …Alito has some cohones to write, “heed the Constitution”..For him, I don’t think it’s about the Constitution, it’s about priggish power.
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Thank you, Sally. I respect your thoughts on the issues that concern me.. It’s more than disappointing that we have to revisit the same battles. But I won’t stop fighting them and it’s obvious to me that neither will you.
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It is hard to imagine that we are still fighting this battle, that we are still marching and attending rallies to assure something that was settled 50 years ago.
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Like you, hearing this news, albeit not unexpected, was nonetheless a gut punch. How far back will we go, for this is only the beginning? Will we return yet to the days of segregated schools, the days where LGBTQ people remained ‘in the closet’ for fear of persecution? I think this is but the first, or perhaps second, piece of a puzzle that the bigots have crafted and are attempting to build.
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Sadly, I feel as deeply concerned and frightened that this is merely the tip of a dangerous slide backward, part of this right wing agenda that has been in the works for years. I am certain they are gunning for same-sex marriage and even before the ink is dried on the dissolution of Roe they will be front and center with that.
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Yep … same-sex marriage, interracial marriage, workplace and housing equality … all will be in the crosshairs eventually. I thought we won the battle once, but here we are again. Sigh.
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amen sistah.
https://cardinalj.substack.com/p/the-right-to-abortion-is-a-necessary?s=w
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Reblogged this on Rcooley123's Blog and commented:
Another outstanding essay by Sally Edelstein in her Envisioning the American Dream blog. The SCOTUS draft argument to overturn the Roe v. Wade precedent and steal women’s reproductive rights by allowing states to severely rollback access to safe abortion care should become a major issue for this November’s Midterm Elections.
Turning the clock back by negating half a century of pro-choice protections while demanding via Court decision a mandate forcing birth upon all women under any circumstances with no exemptions against the wishes of a large majority of the American people is unacceptable. We need to vote out any and all advocates of such a draconian policy.
Furthermore, Congress needs to enact legislation protecting these rights, as well as other recently acquired rights (same sex marriage being an obvious example) from attacks by the hard rightwing GOP. We need to be strengthening these rights, not elimination them out of spite. – rjc
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