ROE V WADE
This week the American Supreme Court took one giant leap for women – backwards. In a leaked Draft Opinion the Supreme Court is poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade case and end women’s right to abortion – with no exceptions. So, in the words of one TV commentator, America will soon have rape dads & incest dads. The leaked document has sparked a firestorm in America and could alter the political landscape substantially later this year during scheduled mid-term elections for the House of Representative and the Senate.
ABORTING YOUR RIGHTS
Donald Trump appointed 3 conservative judges to the Supreme Court during his term and the chickens are now coming home to roost. I am really concerned that the Supreme Court is damaging its legitimacy and its important constitutional role by reversing an almost 50-year old decision; revoking the right to abortion, which is seen by more than 70% of Americans as a constitutional right. The court has already been politicised by the hyper partisan political landscape, in large measure the cancerous legacy of Donald Trump.
As an outsider, and a person that lived [albeit privileged] under apartheid, I find it hard to understand the indecent obsession in America by right wing politicians, religious leaders, and now judges also, to continue to limit people’s rights and fight these wars of prejudice and vindictiveness against anything that they perceive to be ‘woke’ if I may use this rather ridiculous buzzword.
By its latest action, the American Supreme Court is not taking a bow for democracy, tolerance and freedom of choice. Whilst a bloody and barbaric war is covering a large part of Europe in blood, leaving millions of adults and children severely traumatised by a Dictator who has declared that Ukraine is not a nation and that he will cleanse it of Nazi’s, American judges have now decided to make a double backward summersault in the name of conservative purity and to limit choice – in this radical manner.
It is tragic that the world has come to this. Rather than celebrate freedom, diversity & opportunity, as we have come to know the AMERICAN EXPERIMENT, we have to witness vitriol, extreme anger & toxic prejudice struggling to spread their hold over, and infect, American society – seemingly the new values that we in South Africa have decidedly rejected only 30 years ago after 340 years of exploitation, empire & colonialism; which culminated in apartheid, a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY before we finally arrived at democracy’s gate.
UKRAINE SETS THE EXAMPLE
May the example of the Ukrainian people, and the universal support from free nations, help humanity to press the reset button – launching greater solidarity with freedom and at the same time jettison the mindset and institutional frameworks that have produced the GIANT LEAP BACKWARDS in America, courtesy of the Robed Ones.
I include for you, from Twitter, a small slice showing the depth to which American Republicans have sunk. This from a democratically elected Republican, who has thankfully lost re-election to a Democrat [a first in that particular constituency ever]. The tragedy is that he is not alone. Here in South Africa we now have a robust alert system to flag such persons and a strong institutional framework to hold such low lifes’ to account.
Brian Tyler Cohen posted this:
WOW: Robert Regan, the Michigan Republican who said he would tell his daughters "if rape is inevitable, you should just lie back and enjoy it" just lost his seat (in a district Trump carried by 16 POINTS) to a Democrat
After Robert Regan was defeated, someone tweeted that he hopes “Regan will just lie back and enjoy his defeat.” Nasty. Ugly. Mean. – But I have to confess that is my sentiment altogether.
From the New Yorker:
“This is about a lot more than abortion. Republicans are radical and dangerous, not only anti-woman but anti-gay, anti-personal freedom, and anti-democracy.”
It’s not abortion per se, but the limiting of rights, the overturning of ‘settled law’ and it calls to mind lyrics from the Michael Jackson song, Gone Too Soon =
Like the Loss of Sunlight
On a Cloudy Afternoon
Gone Too Soon
…because soon it may get darker.