We Should All Be Outraged About the Potential End of Abortion

Republicans want to strip women of their rights and control their wombs. And with the Supreme Court’s help, they might get their way.

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

For the last couple of decades, America has seen local governments chip away at constitutional rights. With the recent Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, it appears the far right may be on the verge of striking oil — a gusher that could overturn 1973’s Roe v. Wade and 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey, two of the most important decisions to affect women’s reproductive rights. If the country’s highest court decides to rule in favor of Mississippi, by next year, women nationwide will be stripped of their constitutional right to legally abort a pregnancy.

Many may wonder why red states have chosen this new decade to fire slingshots at the 14th Amendment. Well, there are a few reasons. First and ostensibly most essential is that the Supreme Court is now a conservative super majority. With last year’s passing of the late great Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the scales in the Supreme Court have tipped toward the elephants. Ginsburg passed at the worst time: during Donald Trump’s tenure in the Oval Office. Ginsburg vehemently believed and vocalized that women’s equality required access to contraception as well as abortion. Trump replaced RBG with Amy Coney Barrett, who not only has gone on record in opposition of abortion, but noted the potential overturn to a “glimpse of an alternative America.” Sound familiar?

This constitutional attack first struck gold in Texas. The Lone Star state banned abortions for pregnancies older than six weeks, about the midway point of the first trimester (current law allows up to 23 weeks). The most inhumane aspect of the ban is that Texas doesn’t offer exceptions to women impregnated due to rape or incest. Governor Greg Abbott brazenly stood by this omission. How could he? Simply because Abbott had unprecedented plans to “eliminate rape” in Texas. Amazing declaration when considering that less than a third of the state’s rape cases lead to prosecution.

Clearly, Mississippi was inspired. The crooked letter capital has spent the better part of the last decade oppressing…