A dreadful decision

The far-right majority of the Supreme Court gave the white supremacists a reason to celebrate.

An ongoing slow motion coup, driven by a scheme to overturn the results of a free and fair election. The rejection of fifty years of precedent to retract the right of persons who can become pregnant to have autonomy over their bodies, based on a rationale that threatens more basic, accepted human rights. Attacks on the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ folk, stripping medical care from trans children, and promoting the hunting of fellow humans.

The far right has taken off its mask, and shown itself for what it is: deeply racist, deeply classist, and deeply misogynistic.

At least since the post-WWII creation of the United Nations, basic human rights and basic rights for women have been understood to be linked. The flip side of that connection: you cannot control the masses if you do not control the feminine.

Look at the language used by the far right that fetishizes violence as “strength” and damns what it considers “weakness” - compassion, understanding, nurturing. These are characteristics stereotypically assigned to women. Now, with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the far-right Supreme Court majority has declared open season on rights that are seen explicitly to help women and LGTBQ+ folk: marriage equality, contraception, even interracial marriage.

The majority in the Dobbs decision has aligned itself with misogyny. It has elevated the supremacy of the male, as if sperm are not equally necessary to begin a pregnancy, as if the full burden of child bearing and rearing is a necessary part of being female. The fact that it has done so under the cover of “originalism” or even “states rights” is not even a partial disguise of the underlying bias. We are not fooled that this is about returning the issue to elected legislators.

There are people of good faith who, because of their religious or cultural contexts, find abortion abhorrent. There are reasonable discussions to be had about reproductive care, about the health and well being of people who can get pregnant, about the rules for medical providers.

Friday’s decision is not part of that reasonable discussion. This decision - and most likely, more to come - is entirely and completely a way of removing the Supreme Court as a guardian of human rights.

Our work for inclusion and respect has been set back. Mourn, rage, and find the energy to keep working. Our human family needs us now, more than ever.

Be safe and take good care.