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Alito’s argument is that the right to abortion is “egregiously wrong” because it is not “deeply rooted in our history and tradition” and respondents are “unable to show that a constitutional right to abortion was established when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted.”
Here’s the problem with this argument. Women didn’t have any rights when the 14th Amendment was adopted; not just abortion. Women didn’t even get the right to vote until five Amendments later. This in no way justifies ripping rights to bodily autonomy from women in 2022.
While he only expressly targets Roe and Casey in this brief, if the standard for our rights going forward is what is referenced in the Constitution or what is deeply rooted in our history and tradition, then the only rights that are safe are those belonging to straight white men.
Overturning Roe will be an unmitigated disaster for women. It will immediately trigger abortion bans in at least 13 states and near-bans in another 12. It will open the door for states to criminalize contraception, miscarriage, and even medical procedures to save a mother’s life.
And if Roe can be overturned simply because a majority of illegitimate justices appointed explicitly to take rights away from marginalized groups says so, then every civil rights decision will fall by the same distorted standards used to abrogate this near five decade precedent.
Over 80% of Americans oppose this. Think about what it says that Republican-appointed justices feel comfortable essentially invalidating the legitimacy of their entire institution to impose their will, which is rooted in a religious belief that fetuses are humans (they aren’t).
Not to mention that banning abortion doesn’t reduce abortion, it just reduces SAFE abortion meaning more women will DIE during the procedure. Or that access to safe, legal abortion leads to FEWER ABORTIONS and SAVES LIVES. There’s nothing pro-life about any of this. ZERO.
The ancient recognition of a right as a prerequisite to its contemporary acceptance defies the role of the court to be the nonpartisan branch of government that protects the lives, liberties and property of all persons from the overreach of Congress, the President, and the states
As for the claim that we can only respect or uphold rights that are explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, this would invalidate most of the rights we currently have. The majority of our freedoms are unenumerated; meaning they are inferred based on the text of the Constitution
Any conservative who thinks it’s some sort of “gotcha!” to say “show me where in the Constitution it says you have the right to an abortion! You can’t! Ha!” it’s not. You are just very very stupid.
You know what is in the constitution? Slavery. So why do we think it’s sole perfect,handed down from Moses, document?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device
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