A lot has been said about two recent rulings of the US Supreme Court (expanding gun rights and restricting a women’s right to choose). However, I think only US Senator Susan Collins from Maine is surprised by these rulings. I usually refrain from sharing political rants because there are so many others who do a far better job, but sometimes I need to use this space to vent. I recognize that many who visit this blog likely agree with my thoughts, but I’m not looking to create an echo chamber – merely to vent.
The thing I find so utterly frustrating about SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe vs Wade is that it ignores 50+ years of precedent, and the three justices appointed during Donald Trump’s time in office are likely to continue to make rulings for the next 20-30 years building new precedent in the absence of legislation from the Federal Government.
The ruling on Roe reverses a 70+ year trend of expanding rights of women and minorities that dates back to the early 1950s when the US Supreme Court ruled against racial discrimination in Brown vs. Board of Education. Following this week’s controversial ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas said he believes now is the time for the court to revisit rulings on Obergefell vs. Hodges (same sex marriage) and Griswald, Lawrence vs. Texas (contraception) – and why wouldn’t he?
The court now has a conservative super majority with 6 conservative justices but it is Justices Thomas (age 74), Kavanaugh (age 57), Gorsuch (age 54), and Barrett (age 50) who worry me the most. These four justices seem intent on rolling back minorities and women rights, while at the same time aggressively expanding “religious freedoms” and paring back gun safety measures.
The Judicial branch, which has helped protect the rights of minorities and women over the past 70+ years, is now (and forseeable future) a hostile branch of government for these groups. I am concerned these two rulings offer us a glimpse of what to expect moving forward, and additional rights will be pared back if not removed altogether. This reality places an increased importance on the Legislative and Executive branches. Activists need to turn to these branches to legislate and sign into law a woman’s right to choose, protect minority rights, and enact sensible gun laws. It’s a tall order and is probably why I am so despondent – in a country divided as we are, can this be done? I suppose I’d rather fail trying than surrender. I just hope others will feel the same.
BosGuy 
It is amazing that something that has been in place for more than 20% of our country’s history isn’t considered carved in stone and can be tossed out by a few people.
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We are already in the year 2022 and it is not logical that a country that claims to be democratic continues to allow large caliber weapons to be available to anyone giving all kinds of facilities, it is even much easier to acquire a rifle than a beer can! It is something that I can not understand and much less approve.
But if I find it hard to understand the sale of weapons to anyone without taking into account who that person is or what age they may be or simply if that person is able to acquire such a weapon, I find it even harder to understand this new legislation against abortion.
The decision to keep a pregnancy or not is only up to the woman who is pregnant. Each person is a world and behind a name there is always a story with its beautiful things but also with its dramas and before being able to decide on the body of that pregnant woman it is necessary to know what her situation is, what kind of problems she may have or even if she is psychologically capable to go ahead with her pregnancy.
Unfortunately there are pregnancies caused by rape, sometimes the rapists are part of her own family, others are even more dramatic rapes with physical violence included in addition to the violence added to the rape itself, great beatings and situations of real terror that no one stops to analyze, they only care that the woman intends to have an abortion.
There are also cases in which continuing with a pregnancy puts the mother and even the child in serious danger and nobody puts themselves in the place of that woman, of the fear she is going through, of the consequences of maintaining a pregnancy with risks for both the mother and the child. Children who sometimes come with many problems and who are presented with a future life full of pain and difficulties.
The most conservative will say that these things are the designs of God, but for me a God does not want to see his children suffer and much less because a number of people dressed in a black robe have decided that abortion is wrong, it is a sin…. Who are they to decide on the life of a person without knowing the real situation both on a personal and social level? Will they be the ones to take care of the future of that child whose mother lost her life at birth? Will they give her every month punctually the money and adequate housing to be able to give a child a decent life?
It is the woman who must decide what is done to her body, no one else can say ANYTHING at all and much less sitting behind a counter, with her black robe and a hammer in her hand. Only that woman is the one who can have a say and decide about her future and the future of what she is carrying in her reproductive system at that moment.
It always happens that the most ignorant are the ones who make the most noise and with the noise and confusion they end up getting their way.
FOR THE FREEDOM TO HAVE AN ABORTION IN CONDITIONS OF TOTAL SAFETY AND WITHIN THE REACH OF ALL WOMEN!!!!
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