In the days since the leak of the opinion written by Alito, there's definitely been a sense of dread for those of us who support access to safe, legal access to abortion. It's hard to fathom that we could regress so much as a country. As I've said before, while I generally support states' rights, there are some things that should be universally protected. I include reproductive health (including safe, legal access to abortion) amongst those things that should be universally (read: federally) protected.
I'm loathe to imagine a world where a person is forced to have a baby they can't afford, or that they can properly care for. I'm loathe to imagine a future where victims of rape and/or incest are forced to keep a child they were forced to conceive.. Freedom implies options.
I remember being forced by the people who raised me (one of whom actually tried to murder me after I was born) to regularly stand on anti-abortion picket lines where "good" Christians yelled at anyone and everyone who wanted people to have the freedom to choose. Despite the indoctrination I was raised with, I took the time and effort to understand the issue better, and I came to the conclusion that a few aggregated cells don't constitute life, and that no aggregated cells deserve more rights than the person who has those cells inside of them. It took me a long time to feel comfortable in expressing these opinions and feelings. It took finding out that a girlfriend of mine had an abortion after we had split. I thought about how.... she was right to chose the procedure. She made the smart (and difficult, I imagine) decision for herself AND me AND the cells that would eventually be a child if she hadn't chosen to abort the pregnancy. I certainly wasn't ready to be a father. I was an alcoholic with a horrible job history and PTSD that had never been addressed. If she hadn't chosen the abortion procedure, the child those cells would've eventually become would've had a horrible life. I probably would've become an even worse person, too, if I'm being honest.
I think my experience is illustrative of the most common reason people choose abortion: not because they hate fetuses, but because they have enough foresight to see that the life the fetus would be born into would be horrible. Condemning a fetus, before it's even close to being born, to a life of poverty and/or dysfunction isn't compassionate. It's irresponsible.
I'm going to process this more, so (for now) I'll end there. But I do want to add that I think it's fucking disgraceful for Clarence Thomas to already begin discussing overturning the rights of the LGBTQ+ community (amongst other things). This shows the current Supreme Court is less about justice and more about a specific agenda that is regressive and dangerous to the freedoms and liberties of a significant and substantial portion of the American population.
(Later)
I'd like to say, before I continue on, that I do think it's important that the voices we should be listening to the most regarding RvW right now are the voices of people who can actually get pregnant. I'm adding my voice as a person who can't get pregnant, but only as a show of support. I hope no one goes to me for a voice on this matter before listening to someone whose rights are being violated. I can't get pregnant, so technically I'm not losing rights. This isn't about me, it's about the people who can actually get pregnant and want (and deserve) a choice. And I just want to show my support for their right to choice, and add my voice to the call against this violation of their rights.
Just to be clear.
In the spirit of that disclaimer, I'd like to say that I liked (and agree with) what Ana Navarro had to say here (click for video). If you're pro-life, you're pro-life. You can be pro-life with or without legalization of abortions on the federal level. The "choice" part of "pro-choice" means nobody is going to come to your house and force you to have an abortion if you want to have your fetus grow into a child. You can raise your children to be pro-life. If they decide to become pro-choice, you have the right to be pig-headed and disown them if you want.
Politically, I'm not sure what the end-game of overturning RvW is. Taking personal feelings out of the equation, the only point I see to over-turning RvW is to limit rights.
Maybe I'm pessimistic about the decision making abilities of a large portion of the population in especially tumultuous times, but this recent slew of Supreme Court decisions project a "powder keg" type of atmosphere for the near-future.
We're just off COVID, we're in extremely politically divisive ties, we're in tough economic times, we're still dealing with our collective reckoning with the racist history of this country, we're still dealing with mass shootings on a large scale, we're still dealing with the storming of our nations capitol, and somehow the Supreme Court thought it was a good time to go back on a popular but controversial ruling AND increased access to firearms?
We're already dealing with so much. I worry this will be a time where a lot of liberties will be taken away in the name of maintaining "peace and order". I think the stress of the whole COVID situation (stay at home orders, social distancing, etc) played a large part in the extreme turn a lot of the protests that were happening concurrently with the pandemic.. I worry the stresses of the fallout of the pandemic and the other previous problems, coupled with all the new problems, is going to create a similar response. I don't see how increasing the number of children being born into poverty or to parents with PTSD from incest and/or rape (etc) is going to do anything to help that situation, now or in the future to come..
I'll always remain politically unaffiliated, but I do feel like I've lost any sympathy that I've ever had for the Republican party. I appreciate Republicans who can remain true to their core beliefs of personal rights that do NOT come at the expense of the rights of others (both socially and economically). I have total respect for Republicans who are trying to keep their party from being sucked into the madness of extremism. But the party itself is being increasingly represented in Government institutions by extremists. I think the Democratic party is getting closer to being in the same boat. We don't need AOC's any more than we need MTG's right now. The American political ecosystem is in a very vulnerable state right now, and I believe that extremism in either direction is going to destroy the soil upon which the ecosystem needs to survive.
We need to be more vigilant of out rights and freedoms. We need to be respecting our neighbours' rights and freedoms , even if we don't agree with them. We need to be finding ways to protect our citizens from gun violence, not being more laissez-faire with our approach to people carrying guns in public.
27 June
I wanted to say that Sen. John Cornyn's tweet/comment/whatever toward Obama regarding Supreme Court rulings on segregation are disgusting. I don't care if it was in jest, I don't care if it was meant to be a troll job (which would be doubly pathetic in its childishness). I really don't care what the reasoning was. There's no other way to read it other than racism. Just ugly, bald-faced racism. Apparently, for some people, and rights given to any marginalized community should be revoked to make way for....fucking internet troll Senators and Congress-people? That's what we've devolved to.
We want drama and entertainment so badly that people form pretty much every political persuasion are willing to tear apart their own country. America is literally becoming an episode of one of those Kardashian-type reality shows.
We took a perfectly amazing tool (the internet_ and we chose to weaponize against ourselves. We let it bring out the worst in us. We might log out, but we're never really logged out. It all carries over into the real world. I love the internet. I wouldn't even be doing this thing I love (mathematics) without it. I couldn't understand the larger world I am a part of without it. I couldn't have a place to put my thoughts and papers & such.
But most of us (including our supposed leaders) are just using it to press buttons and create discord. For what? We could be a civilized country leading the world to a better future by espousing collaboration and innovation and equality and freedom and responsibility and compassion to our fellow peoples.
But we're out here choosing to be a bunch of knuckle-dragging fucking Cro-Mags who'd rather shout at each other and fight each other and post fucking memes and dance videos and viral fucking bullshit. We didn't lose any culture wars. We used the internet to commit cultural suicide. We took a medicine that should have improved our collective health, and we overdosed on it. We used it for its darkest purpose. We're all culpable in that. Myself included. Your political party included. Your religion included. Etc. Etc. Etc.
We care more about being entertained than being vigilant against the people who would come for our rights.
Sorry about the internet rant, but I think it ties into all that we've seen. Not just with recent Supreme Court rulings, but with the last decade (or longer, depending on your politics no pun intended) of this American mess. I just don't think most people where ready for the kind of onslaught of information and methods of dissemination that the internet offers.
2 July
I was really dismayed by the ruling on autonomy of Native American land (link to article here). I'll be honest, at first I thought "This isn't too bad", because it initially reads like an attempt by the state to keep non-residents from coming in to harm residents of Native American lands. But the more you read into it, the more it reads like a way for the state to keep people from going to Native American land for abortions (which...was that a problem beforehand?). It just seems like a way for Oklahoma (and similar states) to throw their weight around and keep the reservations from wholly realizing the autonomy they were promised. It's just a really disappointing decision to me.