The “I Have My Rights!” Brigade are lined up in support of the new assault on the Supreme Court, as usual, and are just as thoughtful and insightful as ever about the nuances of the position they’ve signed on to. Quell surprise…. And while I’m not really interested in doing their heavy thinking for them, sometimes I just can’t help it.
Like now: ‘cause Roe v Wade is about ABORTION, right? Uppity wimping not letting men have the final say? Righting the imbalances in our our crazy times? Returning to the natural order of things?
Let’s take a look at that....
Ever since the ruling in the matter of Roe v Wade, “conservatives” have attacked it in virtually every way, and at every opportunity. In the 47 years since that decision, their focus has never wavered: it’s been pursued on radio, on television, in email, on social media - as a religious matter, as a family matter, as a political matter - but first, and foremost, from the PULPIT. The churches of the rural United States have been training their flocks ever since Roe v Wade to vote EVERY ELECTION - to vote for CHRISTIANS who will take over the court, yes, the Supreme Court, and overturn Roe v Wade...and they have pursued it for generations.
That’s where “values voters” CAME FROM. It is and has always been their central purpose....but the rise of the “new right wing” has made the most of it - and for no “conservative” principle at all. Their goal is and has been the elimination of an existential threat to government coercion.
Yes, you read that right. Read on, and I’ll lay it out for you.
Roe v Wade is almost universally characterized as a WOMAN’s right to choose - the paramount women’s issue...but it is much much more than that. Roe v Wade is the ONLY TIME that US courts at any level have recognized a right - any right at all - that was not enumerated in our famous Bill of Rights: the first ten Amendments to the US Constitution. The individual right acknowledged by the court in that decision is THE ONLY SINGLE RIGHT not spelled out in those first ten amendments to be recognized AS a right by our courts.
Think about that for a minute. Think about those ten amendments that spell out our rights.
Are those our ONLY rights? Well, the tenth amendment - the famous “States’ Rights” amendment - says the federal government is limited to the powers spelled out in the Constitution, and that all other matters fall to the states “or the People” to decide. Do the STATES let “the people” decide any of those matters?
They do not. The states very aggressively interfere with the prerogatives of the people on everything not explicitly assigned to the federal government - to the extent of outlawing local laws and ordinances that state governments don’t like. So, the tenth amendment has been taken out of the hands of the people BY the states. Yay, freedom.
What else have we got? Well, we have the ninth amendment.... The 9th amendment states that “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
Got that? It says (in the plain English of the day) that being listed in the Bill of Rights is not what MAKES a right, that OTHER RIGHTS DO EXIST...and that they can’t be waved away (“denied or disparaged”) by courts or by government.
But that’s exactly what happens. In courts all the time, there is a moment of hand waving - asserting that while “other rights” exist, the “matter at hand” ISN’T ONE OF THEM. Who decided? The court decided. On its own. By itself. Over, and over, and over. Doesn’t matter which court, they ALL played that way.
Until Roe v Wade.
Roe v Wade, see, isn’t about abortion. True, abortion was core to the issue before the court, and I’m not disparaging it here...but it could have been forced sterilization. It could have been unwanted medical treatments. It could have been summary executions. It could have been freedom to choose, or NOT choose, anything.
It could have been a lot of things, but it wasn’t about ABORTION: it was about whether or not an individual had control over what they did or did not do with their own body.
Cannabis users, listen up: the SUPREME COURT found that the state COULD NOT INTERFERE WITH an individual’s right to choose their own personal and private actions. THAT was the principle. Yes, the context was abortion - and women were and are rightfully and RIGHTEOUSLY exercised about this particular right as it applies to their choices about their bodies and specifically about pregnancy. Not a blessed thing in the world wrong with that - almost NONE of our ‘ultra-patriot’ friends have a problem when it’s their particular choices...but somehow it seems different when it’s deciding whether or not to wave loaded weapons in the state Capitol building - as opposed to deciding whether or not to end a pregnancy...BUT THE RIGHT IS THE SAME: the RIGHT OF THE INDIVIDUAL TO CHOOSE FOR THEMSELVES.
Which means that Roe v Wade is THE ONLY PROTECTION WE HAVE for making the personal private choices of our own privacy, association, family organization, personal consumption, farming decisions, et cetera that we all prize so highly...and which we all complain about so bitterly when “government” interferes with them.
This is serious, if I may say it plainly: any time you say, “I HAVE MY RIGHTS” - and you’re talking about anything that isn’t expressly spelled out in one of the first EIGHT amendments - ROE v WADE IS THE ONLY DEFENSE YOU’VE GOT.
So: when people cheer about “reversing Roe v Wade” and a locked-in conservative court majority dedicated to that end..it’s their own throats under the knife. It’s THEIR OWN RIGHTS at risk.
If this doesn’t scare them into thinking, then...God help them - and us.
It’s their own freedom of choice they want to prevent...their necks...their rights. Put that in their pipe and let them smoke it.
