WHEN SUPREMES GO ROGUE

by Ruth A. Sheets

There are almost no words to describe the anger and frustration I am feeling now toward 6 Supreme Court justices who have decided they don't give a damn about women and our rights.  For them, our rights are open to being given and taken away at the will of an unelected body that has become hyper-partisan.  They need no reason except their own personal beliefs and religious biases.

All but one of the six are Roman Catholics, and the sixth (Gorsuch) might as well be.  The Catholic bishops are frightened that their power over people is waning, so they are using their influence to threaten elected officials of this nation to withhold the sacrament of Communion, a sacred part of the faith, and demand loyalty from practicing legislators.  Why would these men do that?  Their targets believe women should have the right to make decisions regarding their own bodily autonomy.  Can’t have that now can we?  Besides, those targets also think the separation of church and state is critical to maintaining our democracy.  Hmmm!  Can’t have that either!

Catholicism has become even more authoritarian than it was a half-century ago when Roe v. Wade was handed down with a 7-2 decision from a conservative-leaning Court. 

The misogyny of the Catholic church is the main reason I left the faith as a teen.  What is amazing to me since then is that the church has doubled down on keeping women out of power and unable to make bodily decisions for ourselves.  A majority of Catholics want bodily autonomy but remain in the church hoping, I guess that they can bring about real change.  I can sadly inform them, it will not happen.  Those of course, men, who rule the church under the Pope are selected for their conservatism and adherence to certain points of doctrine, even if far outdated and destructive. 

Abortion was not declared a sin until around 1869, but it has become one of the pillars of the Catholic Church.  The mid-19^th century was the time when women found out in large numbers that they didn’t have to be pregnant all the time and watch so many of their children die in infancy.  Abortion did not have to be a hit or miss operation performed by midwives and other community women with few resources but a lot of knowledge.  Doctors (men) could now do it, and for money.  Done right, it could be safe.  That meant women (admittedly rich women for the most part) could enjoy sex without as much fear.  It would be harder to shame women for getting pregnant out of marriage.  Can’t have that! 

This play for more power and influence in our government by the bishops is disgusting.  It would be great if a whole lot more women left the Catholic church.  It would be let’s say, fun to see how men try to keep the church going without their female handmaidens.

When Supreme Court justices pander to a church that is out of touch with what it means to be a loving caring, honest human being, we are in trouble!  And we ARE in trouble.

The Supreme Court has just stripped away our Constitutional right to abortion, citing as a reason, the writings of a 17th century guy who was into killing women as witches. Of course he opposed abortion because even at its most primitive, abortion sometimes led to freedom from constant male pressure to satisfy his “sexual needs” without having to bear another child, which of course, the father would not actually be raising.   

After its success with overturning a 108 year gun law in New York and the 49.5 year ruling that the right to abortion is Constitutional,  The Court is on its way to taking away more of our rights as Americans, just because.

Clarence Thomas, the justice whose wife helped organize an insurrection is saying that a bunch of other rights are on his hit list.  Why was he even allowed to rule on abortion rights since he was a credibly-accused sexual harasser in the workplace?  And why was Kavanaugh permitted when he was credibly accused of attempted rape by one woman with credible charges by other women the Judiciary Committee was never able to interview and the FBI under Trump didn’t investigate?  Two men with that history tied up with their Catholicism made them sure bets for voting to overturn Roe.  They should have had to recuse themselves, but alas, the Supreme Court has no code of ethics to follow and we know their personal ethics have a lot to be desired. 

So, Thomas has the next targets:  LGBTQ persons, birth control (I guess banning abortion is not enough to keep women barefoot and pregnant), and giving corporations more rights to harm us and our planet (OK he didn’t state it quite that way, but pretty close).  How much more of this infringement on our rights are we going to tolerate?  When will we as a people rise up and say “no?” 

It had better be soon because the Republicans are studying the Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán to see how to make our country a dictatorship with them at the top.  Yes, what fun it will be ruled by a bunch of fools who have no idea how to govern but are sure that everyone but the very rich white folks is a taker while those good rich white guys are so generous and will teach those awful poor people they have to work at whatever pay the boss wants to give them and the women stay home with the kids they are forced to give birth to.  Poverty is just what happens!  Homelessness is what poor people deserve because their 60 hour work weeks just aren’t long enough.  If they had worked harder and longer, they would be able to afford housing.  The government shouldn’t have to pay for them, those losers!

They will insist everyone but themselves and their donors are lazy and they will pump that message out with the rest of the BS people will have to consume since they will control the media.  The courts will be delighted to take away more rights and dismiss the Constitution because those Republicans just don’t like it.  They don’t want people to protest or complain about their rights either. 

One may wonder what will happen when the effects of global warming hit. Well, who knows.  Because Republicans dismiss science except when it is finding a cure for their cancer or other personal complaints, they will have no clue what to do and those who do know will be out of power – remember COVID?

I wish I had a more positive outlook, but things are not looking good.  When one political party has no vision and no good ideas, it is hard to make a democracy work.  When that same party has the goal of taking away rights that have been enshrined in our Constitution for 50 years and more, then encourage the states to do as much harm to women (and their citizens in general) as possible, there is not a lot of hope.  And, when guns have more power than the people who will be harmed by them and when fetuses have more rights than the woman carrying them, it is hard to see any sanity reentering our lives any time soon unless Republicans are voted out of office all around the nation.

However, there are some things we can actually do if we have a mind to.

• Start with the President.  He could approve opening abortion clinics on federal lands.  There are federal lands in every state.  That is a stopgap, but could work for a while. Temporary pop-up clinics could be set up with housing for the staff and any other resources necessary on military bases and other federal installations.  
• Federal contracts should be given only to corporations that support women’s bodily autonomy actively and through medical insurance coverage
• A serious underground for abortion services and medications should arise training all kinds of women to perform basic abortions through 15 weeks, then only spend money to send at-risk women out of state.  There are homemade abortion devices that are safe and effective and could be taken apart quickly into the basic components if people come snooping around.

- Every woman from age 10 to death should go online and look up information about abortion clinics and abortion care every week so it won’t matter what information Google reports, no one will be put at risk since everyone will be looking.

• Give funds to states that offer abortion services to help with extra costs for women in the Confederacy and Confederate wannabee states who come for help.

- Vote vote vote!!  Choose candidates who stand for the rights of the people over corporations, over religious beliefs, over partisan garbage.  Ask each candidate to swear on their religious book that they will work to insure the rights of women, people of color, disabled persons, LGBTQ individuals, and more.  If they can’t swear to it, they do not deserve your vote.  Today’s Republican Party is not your mom’s Republican Party, so don’t vote for them on auto pilot.

• Make some waves: 
• - declare Lysistrata months when no woman will have sex with men at all;
• -conduct strikes of various kinds that let people see just how much women do;
• -make and regularly publish lists of the women who have died either in childbirth or while pregnant because they are forced to remain pregnant;
• - Sue the Confederate and Confederate wannabee states as well as the Republican Party  for the care and suffering of children born with extreme disabilities that forced-birth laws required to be born.
• -put up billboards with the names of convicted rapists in communities;
• -leave churches that consider women nothing if they are not virgins or moms with lots of kids (Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons, etc.);
• expand the process for getting women to safe abortions and getting abortion pills to women even before they become pregnant - perhaps have a neighborhood supplier;
• -shame huge corporations who have stood against women’s rights into getting them to fly charter planes from red states to places where women can get quality abortion care.

In short, there are things we can do.  I suspect some of these could get attention and help women while we work to overturn the current Supreme Court.  It’s time all of us get involved.  Change will not happen unless we demand it and we had better demand it!