We Are Iran Now

A Supreme Court draft ruling penned by Justice Samuel Alito was leaked. This is a 98-page draft that signals a decision to rule in favor of the state of Mississippi in legislation intended to drastically limit abortion in that state. This decision by the right-wing majority in the Supreme Court will effectively ban abortion rights in half of the U.S., where Republican state politicians have enacted anti-abortion laws.

The next step, if Republicans wrest control of the House and Senate, is a law banning abortion in all 50 states. Of course, Joe Biden will veto that legislation. But what will happen if a Republican wins the White House in 2024? We will be back to the days of my youth when women and girls had to bear children or seek a back-alley abortion, putting women at risk of death or incarceration.

Democrats and independents, plus some Republicans, favor keeping Roe as case law by a 60-40 margin. This mandates that the Congress and the president must immediately pass legislation to make abortion legal in all 50 states, and throw the filibuster into the trash heap. Certainly the Republicans will do the same once they control Congress and the White House. What is next, making contraception illegal?

I am reminded of the sad state of affairs when in my youth a highly respected doctor in my small town lost his license after being set up by anti-abortion advocates. They enticed him to help a young girl who desperately pleaded to have her pregnancy ended. Sometime after that the Supreme Court ended this lunacy by ruling in favor of Roe. We have had almost five decades of freedom from religious persecution since that. Now the Christian right has spoken. We are Iran or Saudi Arabia, not a nation protected by our Constitution.

Thomas Oatway

Valencia