roe

I first learned about Roe v. Wade, like most of us, in twelfth grade AP US Government and History. In that class, taught over Zoom by the lovely Ms. Pratapas, I learned about how the US Constitution is utilized in different court cases to come to a ruling. We learned about precedent. Precedent is when decisions in previous court cases lay a standard that all court cases after it can use to prove their point. For example, Brown v. Board of Education set a precedent that you cannot segregate schools (purposely) due to race because that is unequal, which violates the 14th amendment right to equal protection under the law. All cases following this one that similarly dealt with segregation in schools, in any form like separating children during prayer, followed the precedent that Brown v. Board of Education set.

Here is Roe v. Wade explained simply:

"Roe v. Wade was a 1971-1973 landmark decision by the US Supreme Court. It ruled that a state law that banned abortion was unconstitutional. The decision said that a woman's right to privacy extended to the fetus/unborn child she was carrying. In the view of the court, during the first trimester an abortion was no more dangerous than carrying the fetus/child full term.

In a 7-2 decision, the court held that a woman's right to an abortion was protected by her right to privacy under the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision allowed a woman to decide whether or not to have an abortion during the first trimester.

In that landmark case [Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)], the Supreme Court ruled that a Connecticut law against the use of contraceptives violated the right to privacy, as found in the Constitution. However, the right to privacy is not directly mentioned in the Constitution. The Supreme Court decided that the right to privacy is implied by several amendments. In 1923, the court interpreted the "liberty" guarantee in the Fourteenth Amendment as a broad right to privacy." Wikipedia

The US Constitution has a number of implied rights that can be interpreted by various amendments, the job of the SCOTUS is to interpret the Constitution and relay that into the laws we create. This can be manipulated in different ways--sometimes for good, sometimes for bad. That is the fun, but sometimes times dangerous part about the law. Especially when it comes to Justices who are originalists, meaning that they interpret the Constitution as is, like exactly how it is written, instead of being smart and interpreting it within the modern day context we are in. More times than not, they utilize this to reinforce conservative views.

Now, I didn't write this to give you a history lesson that you probably already know about, I write this to talk about precedent. Precedent can be a very beautiful thing, but it can also be our worst nightmare. Precedent protects many of our laws and stops the new generation of ignorant people from trying to reignite the work of their predecessors--or so we thought. Today, millions of people around the nation woke up to the news that their right to privacy and bodily autonomy has been violated by the shit show that is the United States Supreme Court.

Anger does not start to the capture the emotions women and people who can become pregnant feel right now, at least I know it doesn't for me. I am in shock. A part of me is waiting for the director to yell "Cut" and for me to walk off set and back into my much less warped reality. I saw the headline from the New York Times while I was scrolling through Instagram stories and I had to put my phone down. How dystopian is it that I am learning about the biggest removal of my human rights in my lifetime from my iPhone. I couldn't even have the grace of it being delivered to me via a newsperson (I forgot what they're called right now, I'm sorry), but maybe that would've just added to my dramatics. I cried real tears when I read the news, I was in the same spot I was in when I found out Donald Trump had won the 2016 election, man I am always getting delivered earth-shattering political news when I am sitting on the toilet (Elvis I am coming for ya spot). I immediately went to Twitter to see the reaction, but honestly everyone is in shock. There are no long think-pieces because the silence encapsulates what we all know. We are beyond fucked. Back to precedent, this overturning of Roe v. Wade almost 50 years later (half a goddamn century) has unfortunately established a new precedent. White men, dumb white women, old white people and coons (of all colors) who stand by them can come and undo the minimal progressive we have made. They are undoing the bare minimum of human rights that have been established in this nation, and they are winning. I find myself hopeless because who do I direct action to? What can I do? What can the people who watch my stories do? What can my friends do? What can my family do? What can you do? Yeah we can march and rally, but not everyone is capable of being an activist. They are literally murdering activists left and right and nobody (as in the people with power) does anything about it. It is a hefty sacrifice to ask someone to make, to risk their lives to fight against the bigots with money, power, and respect. Yeah, people in the past have fought, but people also died. Sorry, that came out darker than I wanted it to. I could sit here and emphasize to you why this is really really bad--You know what, maybe I will. In a generation that has determined itself to heal, undo generational trauma, go to therapy, and not have kids if we're not ready, we find ourselves now being the generation that is forced to have children that we do not desire, nor that we can provide for. How is it, a week ago, I felt pride in the fact that so many people in my gerneration have decided not to have kids because they understand that children are people and not toys. They understand the commitment and the dedication that it takes to raise a child. They understand that parenting has a LARGE impact on the children you raise, but today I sit here and am to understand that we now have to have the children, irregardless of want? We are going to raise a generation of children with trauma. In the next 30 years we will be looking at generation alpha-omega-zeta-beta and hearing the same stories we have always heard, because the people with power don't care about the kinds of humans we raise, they just care about bodies they can exploit. I worry about the Black women (especially and always) and the other young women of color who will now have to seek hazardous medical procedures in order to obtain an illegal abortion. I worry about the women of color and people who can become pregnant that will be jailed for obtaining an abortion. The doctors who will risk everything to perform the procedures, and for those with pregnancy complications that will die because the state has decided her living breathing body is less important than the possibility of another. I worry about those who are sexually assaulted and will be forced to have the children of their assailant, with no input on if that is what they want or not. I worry about those who don't live in a state where their abortion rights will be protected, about those who cannot simply cross state lines to seek medical care because they cannot afford or even find a way to do so. I hate The Handmaid's Tale references. I don't have to have a reason as to why it bothers me, but it just does, Idk people having a little bit too much fun with the reference. What bothers me the most about all of this is that I really don't understand why. Why now? I know that they don't really care about the "babies" because they don't give a fuck about school shootings. Is it truly all about power? I just don't get it. When I'm done writing this, I'll close my laptop and probably go about the rest of my day trying to convince myself that this is normal. That it can't really be this bad. That help is on the way. That good will prevail and evil will be defeated, blah blah blah, but I don't know if I still believe that. We are living through the history books my friends, but the question is have we ever not? We have never known peace, there's always some shit happening. I watched a movie that showed one perspective of what it is like to cross state lines to obtain an abortion, it was a fictional account but is for damn sure the real life experience of people all over the States. It is called Never Rarely Sometimes Always. Give it a watch if you're up to it. I won't lie to you and say that I'm not scared. I want to minimize this. I want to tell myself that it is no big deal and that we will all be okay. But this is really bad, Michael Jackson. I'm sorry I have said this is really bad so many times and that Kanye line is stuck in my head. Now I'm mad real mad, Joe Jackson. Okay, enough. If you are reading this, if you are someone that will possibly be affected by this (which is most of us), please take some time to yourself away from the screen. Talk to people in real life about it, or don't, but please know that there is power in your voice and your thoughts and that the people around you are also silently scared. Now, more than ever, we should form community. We're all we've got.