On May 2 of this year, the magazine “Politico” obtained and published Justice Sam Alito’s majority opinion to overturn Roe v Wade. We all knew this was coming, but much like Putin’s Satan 2 nuclear missile, it’s one thing to expect something intellectually and it’s something else entirely when the explosion happens.
Yesterday the explosion happened.
The expectation is that over half the states in the US will make it immediately illegal to obtain an abortion–even in cases of rape and incest. More “forward leaning” states like Louisiana have made certain exceptions if a woman is about to die or if the baby has died in utero, but in all other cases, doctors face fines of up to $200,000 and prison terms as long as 15 years for assisting in any abortive measures the state finds to be illegal. As most doctors generally err on the side of caution, it’s practically a given that there will be many women left to die in tragic situations where the decision falls into a gray area.
Even as I type the phrase “abortive measures that the state finds to be illegal,” I can feel a chill go right down my spine. Let’s not pull any punches here: this majority decision caters to the wishes of a minority of the US population and it is rooted in nothing less than evangelical belief held by about 30% of the country. Most healthcare professionals will tell you that emergencies happen in real time and require experience and education to make the quick decisions needed to save lives. As Sam Alito and Amy Coney Barrett possess neither medical experience or education, it is ludicrous that they should have the final say in decisions they will likely never have to see the consequences of.
While it is true that this is an out and out assault on the rights of an entire gender, it is also one more kick in the crotch of America’s poor and low income people. It is no coincidence that 9 of the 10 poorest states in the US have immediately made abortion illegal. Many have what is known as a 6 week ban, but as I am sure most of the men on the Supreme Court know, many women aren’t even aware they are pregnant until 6 weeks have already elapsed. This is one of those unfortunate realities for people who are denied access to healthcare and education. You know, like those in the poorest states in the country.
This is just one of many headlocks on the poor by America’s rich and powerful. In 1965, the average CEO made about 24 times what bottom rung workers made. Today, it’s closer to 200 times more. Black high school dropouts have a much higher chance of going to prison than not, and in a list of the top ten most well-off countries, America is 10th in the areas of economic mobility, wealth inequality, safety nets and poverty.
But statistics are just that: statistics. They are cold, hard numerical facts that don’t really paint an accurate picture of what it is like to be disenfranchised in this country. Either way though, the larger point is that instead of trying to do anything about improving the situation, it seems as though all efforts are being made to exacerbate it as much as possible.
The overturning of Roe v Wade is just one more nuclear strike
The people who currently work in social service situations are probably more outraged by this decision than even those who will be directly affected. These people spend their days shoveling shit against the tide, trying to stretch one dollar to help feed 67 children and the Supreme Court, in their infinite wisdom, has just opened the bay doors of the Enola Gay and released another 700 tons of shit on the shoreline. In a manner of speaking.
You know, two years ago, when the conservative pundits sat back in their $2500 suits and blamed the chaos that was unleashed upon this country after the George Floyd murder on every acronym and liberal boogieman they could think of, they all failed to see what was really happening in a historical sense. Those riots and protests were the organic result of what happens to a population that sustains beating after beating by the haves on the have nots. People were out of work, unable to pay bills, rents, mortgages or buy food. They were sitting in their little apartments getting on each other’s nerves, day drinking, using substances, relapsing, and staring at Twitter 20 hours a day. It was a perfect storm and could’ve been predicted by anyone with an advanced education in human behavior.
Just wait until you see how yesterday’s Supreme Court decision is going to play out when women start dying in emergency room parking lots or in speeding cars racing to neighboring states to try futilely to obtain medical procedures no longer permitted where they live.
It’s going to be a shit storm, the likes of which no one has ever witnessed before. And even though the instigators will find every way possible to shift the fault in every direction but their own fat laps, they will, as usual, have no one to blame but themselves.
No one could have written this better than you! I was hoping you would!!