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DiscussionA new era beckons. Don't mourn, organize.
As much as this is scary and feels like another move to control and hurt women, it isn't. The overturning of Roe is about how laws are made in the US according to the Constitution, not the issue of abortion itself.
Having a SCOTUS judicial ruling that you happen to approve of be overturned is a bummer. And yes, there will be ugly consequences. I don't deny or look forward to that. But for a nation that is a constitutional democratic republic this is a good move. The right move.
This is an opportunity for starting a modern reproductive rights movement, and for bringing women's sex based rights into the spotlight. Sex based rights that have been undermined recently. Back in 1973 a handful of judges overruled democratic law making at the state level. Returning abortion legislation back to the democratic process, as much as it creates chaos and misery right now, was the right decision.
Abortion has not been banned nation wide. Creating laws about it has been returned to the state governments. And really, some of those states with trigger laws banning abortion on their books are in for some real political upheaval in the coming months and years. Those laws will be revisited. Most people in the US are moderates when it comes to abortion and do not want to ban it outright. And what if a majority wants abortion banned in their state? Then the work to persuade them otherwise needs to begin. Old school politics will be forced to make a comeback. Squabbling, compromise, legislating and moving on to the next issue.
And if persuasion doesn't work, there's always organized resistance.
A new era of women's sex based rights could rise from the ashes of Roe. Don't mourn, organize and agitate. Remind everyone that only women get pregnant. And that it's women who get to decide what happens with their pregnancies, with their lives, within their spaces. And be glad that you live in a constitutional democratic republic, and not under some other form of governance where you don't have free speech, you don't have the right to assembly, or the right to elect representatives who craft the laws that you have to live under.
Don't fear democracy. Embrace and use it. This is a darkness before the dawn moment. Not the twilight before an endless night.