Abortion ruling the start of something bad

Constitutional mischief inherent in Dobbs v. Jackson echoes the repercussions of two other U.S. Supreme Court disasters, Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), which helped trigger the Civil War, and Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which initiated 70 years of racial segregation (“Here’s why you shouldn’t trust politicians who promise not to prosecute women seeking illegal abortions,” July 19).

For example, by reporting that “anti-abortion lawmakers want to block patients from crossing state lines,” a recent Washington Post headline foreshadows reincarnation of the 1859 Fugitive Slave Act.

And Dobbs will divide those states which pledge to protect women’s autonomy and freedom from those that demand forced births and reconfigure the Mason-Dixon Line. Thanks to Justice Samuel Alito and his five radical associates on the court, a new Confederacy — that returns women to the back of the bus — now stretches from Texas to North Dakota.