Note: I wrote this post during the afternoon of June 24, 2022.
This week had been a very eventful week for the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). They published three landmark decisions affecting our daily lives in different ways…
The first decision was about concealed carry permits in New York. This has been an issue in the state I have lived for the past 16 years because in practice it is almost impossible to obtain a concealed carry permit. Unless you fall in a very limited scope of users, you wont qualify for a permit. The SCOTUS decision simply establishes that New York is restricting the Second Amendment by establishing stringent qualifications. That basically it…
The second important decision was about Miranda rights. They decided you cannot sue Police departments if the officers forget to read the Miranda Rights. It did not invalidate the arrested person’s rights because all the rights in the Miranda card are amendments in the United States Constitution. What to do if you are arrested? Taking the advice of famous Internet lawyers, call a lawyer and SHUT THE FUCK UP!
Now, the main course of this meal: Roe v. Wade…
I will summarize my personal opinion in three words: SCOTUS is right. Why? Because there are four reasons that for some people will be bombshells
First reason: Abortion was never a constitutional right.
There are 27 amendments to the United States Constitution. None of them establishes the right of a woman to kill an unborn baby. Roe v. Wade was decided based on INTERPRETATIONS of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment. The problem is that according to some scholars, the same section could be used to ban abortions IF it is decided the constitution applies to the unborn baby as many laws do. Even the celebrated Justice RGB expressed her concerns in 1992 about the fragility of Roe v. Wade.
The current decision acknowledges the misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment.
Second reason: Roe v. Wade was unconstitutional from the start.
When SCOTUS decided Roe v. Wade in 1973, they violated the United States constitution in two ways. The first was by violating the separation of powers between the Judicial and Legislative as established in Article I, Section 1, and Article III-Section 1. The moment SCOTUS established a criteria to allow unrestricted access to abortion below the 12 weeks, they effectively made a legislation – something reserved in the Federal level to Congress.
The second constitutional violation was against the 10th Amendment. By establishing criteria and ordering states to provide unrestricted access to abortion by that criteria, they usurped powers given to the States in the Bill of Rights. More specifically, they took the power from the states legislatures.
The current decision basically returns the “hot potato” to the Legislative powers – Congress in the Federal and the State Legislatures.
Third reason: Abortion has NOT BEEN BANNED
What the SCOTUS decision does is returning the issue to the legislative bodies – the entities in charge of dealing with the issue in the first place. It does not ban abortion, but in practice, individual states could enact prohibitions or very strict measures. There are two ways around it: 1) Challenging individual state laws all the way up to SCOTUS (like the challenge giving this decision), and 2) Congress passing a federal abortion law (Codifying abortion). Most likely Congress will not do shit in the next four months (Congressional elections in November), because after all, they had 49 years to do it and did not…
Fourth reason: Abortion is not birth control
To many people, this could be a bombshell, but when Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, there were very limited birth control methods. Male condoms were crap (they did not really improve until the late 1980’s) and the pill was very unreliable and insecure (it was approved less than 10 years before).
Fast forward 49 years. In 2022, women has at least 12 methods of birth control available – most of them accessible and even covered by their medical insurance. Birth control pill, birth control injection, topical gel, vaginal ring, IUD, female condom, Plan B pill, patches, spermicide foam, sterilization, and male condoms are just some of the methods. If you talk about variations of materials and strengths, we could be talking about a couple of dozen options. The two current options for men, male condoms and vasectomies, are easily available and vasectomies are covered by most insurance plans.
Even in 1992 I could understand abortion as a real option. In 2022? Nope! And please, don’t give me the bullshit argument about the cost… You can buy male condoms for as low as $.30 per unit while the fancy Frappucinos many young woman love is at least $5, the cell phones even the poorest person carries around can be $300 and the manicure some WOC (women of color) have cost over $200.
BTW, don’t even try to convince me about rape victims or other non consensual pregnancies. According to statistics from Planned Parenthood, those are less than 1% of the established cases of abortions… and most state laws provide exceptions for non-consensual acts.
What can you do?
Do you want to have safe, legal abortion accessible in your state? One simple thing: VOTE!
I’m talking about voting for Congress. The HIGHEST participation since 1914 was in 2018 – just 49.4%. The 2014 midterms turnout? About 37%. Those are the only people who can pass federal abortion laws and if you do not vote for them…
I’m also talking about voting in your state elections. And for God’s sake, avoid voting along party sides! Learn who represents you in Washington and in your state’s legislature and check what they support and who are their donors.
Even better, run for office if you dare…
Until then, SHUT THE FUCK UP!