The Handmaid’s Tale
For the first time ever, an insider within the Supreme Court has released a draft of the Supreme Court’s consideration of a lower court case (Dobbs v. Jackson) that challenges the famous Roe v. Wade case, which had the effect of legalizing a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy. Four of the five justices expected to vote to overturn Roe v. Wade swore under oath in their confirmations they “accepted Roe v. Wade as settled precedent.” They lied to get their jobs.
The film named in the title above describes the life of a woman named Offred, whose role in her dystopian, patriarchal, totalitarian society is to produce children for the white masters known as “commanders.” The name of the film evokes several of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and describe the injustices asymmetric power can lead to. In the “Republic of Gilead,” men use women’s bodies for their own purposes. What those women want is irrelevant.
When pregnancy is what a woman wants, it’s beautiful. Not right at the end, but during and afterwards — except for the morning sickness and a other inconveniences. But sometimes, pregnancy happens. Allusion intended. Sometimes it happens as a result of truly horrifying events. Sometimes women change their minds — it’s not just a stereotype. But it’s their bodies, and it should be their decision. Men have only a brief role to play. Allusion intended.
Justice Alito (and I use the term “justice” ironically), the purported author of the draft opinion, has written Roe v. Wade must be overturned because it was “not rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions.” Neither was freeing the slaves, but this is different, because Alito says so.
This will sound fine to religious fundamentalists, who apparently don’t understand the meaning of the first 10 words of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” Forcing women to abide by a contemporary interpretation of Christianity violates the First Amendment on face. And clearly it’s an interpretation; the word “abortion” appears nowhere in the Christian Bible. Apparently, those 10 words fall into the same category as valuing a Black person as being worth three-fifths of a White person for the purpose of determining congressional representation, which the Constitution also specifies, and can be selectively ignored.
The religious view is “life begins at conception.” But what they really mean is that something called the SOUL comes into being at the instant of conception. What irrefutable law of nature is that based on? And if you believe the soul comes into existence at that instant, PROVE IT. What instrument would you use — a soul-o-meter? Maybe an electroencephalograph? No, that won’t work; no brain wave can be detected for the first two or three months of a fetus’ existence. If a patient has a flat EEG, you can pull the plug. I know, because I’ve done it. The flat line belonged to my son, brain dead after months of cancer treatment. You can literally end the life of a human body with no detectable brain function, and you won’t be arrested. But terminate a fetus that has no brain activity and therefore has acquired none of the experiences that turn a fetus into a human being, and everyone in the room gets arrested.
If this doesn’t inspire rage and indignation among educated women (meaning women governed by truth rather than dogma or superstition), I don’t know what will. Who put men in charge of women’s bodies?
And do we really want people we didn’t elect to remain in control of legislation for decades after the ideologues that put them on the bench have come and gone? Especially when they lie under oath to get their jobs. The Constitution presumed Justices would be above partisanship, and clearly they screwed the pooch on that one.
The positive fallout of this tragic and arrogant abuse of power by five Christian fundamentalists who are now Presidents for Life is one can hope women will get angry enough to turn out and vote. The tragic truth is the abuse of power that has characterized fundamentalist Christianity since the Crusades and the Inquisition isn’t dead yet. Perhaps the injustice of this Supreme Court decision will motivate American women in large numbers to grow a pair — of ovaries — and end the Republican reign of terror once and for all.
Les Pinter is a contributing columnist and a Springville resident. His column appears weekly in The Recorder. Pinter’s book, HTTPV: How a Grocery Shopping Website Can Save America, is available in both Kindle and hardcopy formats on Amazon.com.contact him at lespinter@earthlink.net