last week we learned that this country's supreme court is poised to overturn fifty years of reproductive freedom for women. the leak which revealed their preliminary vote on a case in which the state of mississippi is seeking to severly curtail the right to abortion showed that a majority of the court made up of five conservative justices has indicated its willingness to reverse the row-versus-wade decision that made abortion legal throughout the country. in the draft of the decision, written by justice alito, it was argued that there is no constitutional right to abortion based on the concept of the right to privacy. according to this line of thinking, what goes on between a woman and her medical provider is subject to regulation by each of the fifty states. each state would have the power to make whatever laws its legislature sees fit in this matter. many of the republican-controlled state legislatures in the country have already passed laws that all but outlaw abortion. Some have passed laws that eliminate that right if the federal supreme court rules that there is no national right to abortion, which it seems that the court will do.
the ramifications of such a decision are great. in many states, we would return to a situation where women are forced to bear children that they do not want or cannot afford. victims of rape and incest who become pregnant will have to either carry their pregnancy to term or travel great distances to reach a state where abortion is legal. this means that women who do not have the means to travel have little recourse. they will have to bear their unwanted children or turn to a provider that operates illegally. some states are even contemplating passing laws that will prosecute medical professionals and others who assist women from their states, even when the abortion takes place in a state where the procedure is legal. state-enforced childbearing is a draconian measure that takes away women's rights to control their own bodies. such laws ignore the realities with which women must live and diminishes their power to live on an equal footing with men. as margare attwood has said, women become slaves to the state.
the same reasoning that applies to a woman's right to choose whether to bear a child or not also applies to a number of other issues. in his opinion on this case, justice alito's argues that abortion is not ingrained in our nation's history and traditions. neither are civil rights, the right to same-sex marriage, and inter-racial marriage, all of them rights that previous courts have ruled are guaranteed in this country by the constitution, using some of the same intrepretations of the constitution that were applied in roe-versus-wade. the same political groups that have campaigned against reproductive freedom are opposed to national court decisions that granted these rights to all those living in the usa. these conservative groups will argue that each state has the right to regulate the rights of its residents, using the argument that the majority of voters within a state should decide all these matters through their elected representatives to each state's legislature. if such a view is allowed to prevail, much of civil society's progress over the last hundred years will be undone, and the country will be further divided.
may we not allow our country to step backward in our treatment of those who live here. may we understand the need for women to control their own bodies. may we see that forced childbearing is a horrible idea that should not be enacted either by court ruling or law. may medical professionals and their patients continue to have the right to make decisions without government interference. shalom.
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