BREAKING: The Roe v. Wade catastrophe and what comes next
It took a village to get here
We knew this was coming, but that doesn’t make it any less devastating.
Politico tonight published a leaked draft of a majority Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization, a lawsuit over Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The opinion, written by the arch-conservative Justice Samuel Alito, doesn’t just uphold Mississippi’s law, but fully overturns the court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, the seminal 1973 case that established the right to an abortion.
Soon after that decision was handed down, a small sect of the religious right began organizing to undo the ruling and the society that had made it possible. They set out to remake the nation in their vile image, radicalizing an army of zealots and building the political, legal, and financial infrastructure required to undo Roe and subject tens of millions of Americans to their radical sectarian views.
This is what’s coming:
Republicans are responsible for this hellscape we are entering, but they had to have help along the way. Both the political media and Democratic leadership created the conditions for them to succeed.
A political media that covers abortion as an election issue instead of life or death for tens of millions of women bears deep responsibility for this fiasco. Even tonight, the nation’s leading political correspondents are treating this devastating news, this world-altering atom bomb, as merely a potential twist in the midterm elections.
Complacent Democrats who refused to use their power to protect women also have a hand in this. Democrats chose to preserve the “integrity” of the Supreme Court over expanding it and saving abortion rights. Leadership wouldn’t even budge, wouldn’t even dangle it as a threat.
They took a full year to decide to move at all on the filibuster, and only for voting rights, killing off any hope of codifying Roe. They did nothing, and in doing so, invited historic failure and what could be generations of immiseration. Abortion is likely to be illegal in half of the United States by the end of the summer.
Overturning Roe and banning abortion is one of the most unpopular policies in the country. Polls show that there is not a single state in which more than 30% of voters approve of a nationwide ban on abortion. And yet, Republicans pursued it with a literal religious zeal for five decades, while Democrats shrink from proposals that enjoy supermajority levels of national support.
Democrats were handed Clarence Thomas’s active knowledge of (and likely involvement in) a coup attempt on a silver platter. They decided to do nothing. Democrats could have threatened to expand the Court and chastened some justices, but they declined.
Republicans will trample any law and ignore any tradition to achieve their evil aims. They don’t care about the “integrity of the court. They don’t care about bipartisanship. They care about power. Democrats refuse to use their power. So here we are. It’s now or never.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as if Democrats intend on even making any noise about doing something. They won’t even stop their support of the odious Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, one of the only anti-abortion Democrats remaining in office, against the pro-choice Jessica Cisneros.
This assault isn’t going to stop at abortion. Alito’s opinion doesn’t just decimate a woman’s right to make decisions about her own health, it invalidates the entire premise of the constitutional right to privacy. They’re inviting challenges to same-sex marriage, anti-sodomy laws, and any other personal right that has nothing to do with owning a gun.
I’m not being alarmist; I’m not sure that’s even possible right now. This is the end game for conservatives; the end game for a free society. It’s not about electing more Democrats right now, because frankly, there’s no indication that they’d do the right thing without immense pressure.
There needs to be mass mobilizations in the streets, relentless pressure on our leaders, and a historic effort to force so-called pro-choice moderates like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski to step up, too.
Maybe it won’t work. Maybe we’ll be stuck with this horror on Election Day. But if we don’t try, and Democrats don’t put in a true effort, there’s no reason for anyone to come out and vote for them in November.
Please ignore any emails and texts you receive from political candidates looking to raise money off tonight’s news. Instead, consider giving to abortion funds. They do the vital work of helping women access abortion, whether through paying for the procedure, delivering medication, or providing transportation to a state where it is more accessible. They need all the help they can get.
I’ve put together a list of more than two dozen funds in states where abortion care is about to become impossible to access. Please give what you can:
Thank you Jordan.