Rage, Rage Against the Dying of Our Rights

Well, America, it was fun controlling my own body while it lasted. This week the entirely expected though still utterly devastating news broke that the U.S. Supreme Court is planning to overturn Roe v. Wade and end legal abortion across the country. Full stop.

So, a right I’ve had since birth in America is about to be taken away. Cool, cool. Excuse me while I go scream into the void of existence until all sound is swallowed by space and time and we return to the primordial sludge from whence we came.

Safe and legal abortion access has been the law of the land since 1973. That’s 49 years of women, and all people who can become pregnant, deciding for themselves when to start a family. That’s 49 years of women, and all people who can become pregnant, deciding for themselves if they want to become a parent. That’s 49 years of women, and all people who can become pregnant, having a choice.

But now, as it stands, there is not even an exceptions for rape. No exceptions for incest. No exception if the life of the birthing parent is in danger. And already, 13 states have passed so-called trigger laws that would ban abortion immediately if/when Roe is overturned. And, once officially overturned, an estimated 23 to 26 states would go on to ban abortion altogether.

This means in a good half of the country women, and all people who can become pregnant, would lose their full bodily autonomy. And, of course like everything in this chronically unjust world, people of color and poor people would disproportionately bear the brunt of this ban.

Wealthy women, particularly wealthy white women, have the means to travel to other states and other countries even for the procedure. Because, as we all should realize, banning safe and legal abortion in America won’t end abortion in America. Not in the least. It just means a lot of women, and people who can get pregnant, will suffer trying to get abortions in other ways or suffer the consequences of not being able to get one.

Because let’s not be mealy mouthed about what’s happening here. Abortion has been the so-called third rail of politics despite not being very controversial at all. Recent polls show about 70% of Americans oppose the Supreme Court overturning Roe and another 75% believe abortion decisions should be left between the birthing parents and their doctor.

Banning abortion is not popular. But American’s Puritan past is always sitting on its shoulder, so we have things like President Biden not use the word “abortion” during his presidency until this very week. Well, fuck all of that. Abortion is healthcare for women and all people who can become pregnant. We are entitled to control our own bodies and our own reproductive health. Full stop.

And for the people out there thinking, oh well, I don’t need an abortion, well well well, do I have some news for you. All of our rights to privacy, and many of the hard-fought and hard-earned rights we have gained in modern history through that, are now at stake. If you don’t think they’re coming for same-sex marriage, birth control, you name it, well you just aren’t paying attention. And, also, can I live under that rock with you because I’m tired of this world and its people.

The thing is, the Republicans weren’t ever subtle about wanting to re-ban abortion in America. It’s been their stated goal for fucking decades. DECADES. And now, with the help of the former host of The Apprentice, they’ve been able to install three radical right-wing justices (and a slew of radical right and also just really unqualified to boot federal judges) who will finally achieve their goal of ending choice in America. This from the so-called party of FREEEEEEDOOOOMM.

Funny how one party wants to keep rolling back our rights (voting, reproductive, you name it) and another party tries (too often ineffectively, though, ahem) to expand them. Funny, indeed. But you know, less in a ha-ha way and more an oh-no-we-are-being-controlled-by-a-Christofascist-minority kind of way. So, you know, the not funny way.

Oh, and while we’re talking about not funny things, to all the conservatives hand-wringing about “The Leak” and destruction of norms and blah-fuckity-blah. How are you still playing the victim when you’ve literally won? Your dudes held up an open Supreme Court seat and did not allow President Obama to fill it saying it was “too close to the election” despite having almost a full year left on his term (even though the Constitution directly grants presidents the right to appoint justices, if we’re being originalists and all). And yet were somehow able to install Amy Coney Barrett 35 days before the last presidential election when voting had already started in many states. That’s just another one of those fun not-funny things we were talking about. The world has so many of those today.

Lately it feels like the arc of the moral universe is long, and recently it has only bent toward ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT. Get mad, stay mad. Fight like hell because they will take it all away if we don’t. They’ve already started. They’re way ahead. Let’s fucking go.