+ Content warning: This chapter will discuss abortion. If you find this topic triggering, please feel free to skip it.

In case you are somehow unaware, on June 24th, the US Supreme Court overturned the 1973 decision of the case Roe v. Wade, which protected abortion rights on a national level. I have many thoughts on this and decided not only to discuss said thoughts, but also explain some things to the people who live outside of this God-forsaken country.

WHAT IS THE SUPREME COURT?

The United States government is separated into three branches: Executive (the President), Legislative (Congress), and Judicial (the Supreme Court). The reason for this is so we have a "checks and balances" system— basically, no individual branch should have too much power. However, some people have started to point out that the Supreme Court is the only branch where the people don't elect its members. We can vote for the president and members of Congress, but the president nominates justices to the Supreme Court.

Generally, a case has to be big in order to make it to the Supreme Court. A case will go through district and state courts before making it to the Supreme Court. They don't deal with, like, some random person's laptop getting stolen.

Supreme Court justices are appointed for life. The only ways out are retirement, an impeachment that leads to a conviction, death, or resignation. This is another flaw in my opinion because, when the branches of government were created, the average life expectancy was 46-48 years old for men. Now, people are living twice as long. Also, only once justice has ever been impeached, but he was acquitted. This was in 1805.

Justices are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing where the nominee provides testimony of their beliefs and responds to questions that the Committee asks. Then, the nomination is traditionally brought up to the rest of the Senate. The Senate's decision is completed by a majority vote.

It's important to note that the Senate was controlled by the Republicans during the Trump administration, meaning they were more likely to approve his nominees with a majority vote.

The Supreme Court is "ruled" by the Chief Justice, who has significant influence in the selection of cases for review , presides when oral arguments are held, and leads the discussion of cases among the justices. This person is the highest-ranking official in the Judicial branch.

WHO IS ON THE SUPREME COURT?

Below is a list of current US Supreme Court Justices, when they were appointed, their ages, the political party of the President who nominated them, and the President who nominated them.

—John G. Roberts, Jr. — Chief Justice (2003). Aged 67. George W. Bush (R).
—Clarence Thomas (1991). Aged 74. George H.W. Bush (R).
—Samuel A. Alito, Jr. (2006). Aged 72. George W. Bush.
—Sonia Sotomayor (2009). Aged 68. Barack Obama (D).
—Elena Kagan (2010). Aged 62. Barack Obama.
—Neil M. Gorsuch (2017). Aged 55. Donald Trump (R).
—Brett M. Kavanaugh (2018). Aged 67. Donald Trump.
—Amy Coney Barrett (2020). Aged 50. Donald Trump.
—Kentaji Brown Jackson (2022). Aged 52. Joe Biden (D).

*Important: Kentaji took her seat on June 30. Justice Stephen Breyer was involved in the hearing where Roe v. Wade was overturned. He retired this year at 83 and was appointed by Bill Clinton (D) in 1994.

WHAT WAS ROE V. WADE?

Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision made in 1973. From the Cornell University's Law website, "A pregnant single woman (Roe) brought a class action challenging the constitutionality of the Texas criminal abortion laws, which proscribe procuring or attempting an abortion except on medical advice for the purpose of saving the mother's life." Roe filed a lawsuit against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas. She argued that "the state laws were unconstitutionally vague and abridged her right of personal privacy, protected by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments" (Oyez).

The ruling was a 7-2 majority in favor of Roe.

The fourteenth amendment was heavily investigated for this case, and again for its overturning. It has five sections, but the part that's most important is found in Section 1: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." This is also known as Due Process.

The Supreme Court ultimately decided that the Due Process Clause protects abortion rights, which fall under the right to privacy.

HOWEVER, what a lot of people don't seem to know (and what I didn't know myself), Roe did have its limitations. "In the third trimester, once the fetus reaches the point of 'viability,' a state may regulate abortions or prohibit them entirely, so long as the laws contain exceptions for cases when abortion is necessary to save the life or health of the mother."

HOW DID THE PEOPLE REACT?

While women's groups were ecstatic, there quickly became critics. However, the Republican party didn't really see anti-abortion as one of its core beliefs yet. Many Catholics were Democrats.

In 1972, when Richard Nixon was running for president, his campaigners took new positions on abortion in order to draw Catholics and social conservatives away from the Democratic party. The party as a whole wasn't opposed to abortion before then. Rather, people from both parties were divided on the topic. Ultimately, the change of policy worked and Nixon won the election.

WHAT WAS THE SUPREME COURT'S DECISION IN OVERTURNING ROE V. WADE?

In a 6-3 decision, the Court decided that the right to an abortion is not protected under the constitution. They retracted the 1973 statement that said it falls under the 14th amendment and the right to privacy.

One justice wrote that "the constitution makes no reference to abortion" and that is the basis that the decision was made on.

HAS THE SUPREME COURT OVERRULED ITS OWN DECISIONS BEFORE?

Yes. As of 2018, it had overturned 300+ of its own decisions.

WHAT OTHER CASES ARE IN JEOPARDY?

Justice Clarence Thomas said that the Supreme Court should now reconsider its past rulings allowing contraception access (birth control)*, same sex relationships, and same sex marriage.

*Catholics believe that contraception is immoral because it gets in the way of pregnancy, which is viewed as "God's plan" if it happens. This is likely why he, and other Catholic Justices, are against access to birth control.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR ABORTION?

The right — or lack thereof — to an abortion is now left up to individual states. The good news is that states like California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Illinois, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, and Maine explicitly protect abortion rights. Some are undecided or have a few restrictions. However, not everyone has the resources to travel to other states in order to gain access to an abortion.

As of right now, it is completely legal for a pregnant person to travel out-of-state to get an abortion, but that doesn't mean that some states aren't trying to make that happen. Missouri already has a pending bill that would enforce the abortion ban through civil lawsuits if someone traveled to another state to get one.

Lots of people are urging others to delete their period tracking apps because the information may be used against you in court — the app "knows" if you miss your period and may be pregnant. Our data is also not private and is easily accessible to others.

Even if it's not illegal to travel out-of-state to get an abortion, it still has its risks. People have mentioned calling them camping trips/vacations. Telling anyone, even one's best friend, is a liability. Texas has a law where people are rewarded for turning in people who are going to get an abortion. For some people, keeping it a total secret is the only option.

MY THOUGHTS

As I've mentioned before, I was raised Catholic by Republicans. I went to Catholic school for 12 years and had pro-life ideology and abstinence as a means of sex education shoved down my throat.

I remember being 13 years old and the nuns at my school were talking to my class about abortion. They mentioned St. Gianna Beretta Molla, who famously died during childbirth. She was warned that giving birth would likely kill her, so her doctors allegedly suggested she abort, but she refused. She died but the child survived. Gianna left behind 3 other children.

The girls in my class were urged to be like Saint Gianna. The nuns told us that if we ever found ourselves in her situation — if we were faced with terminating the pregnancy or death — that we should choose to die. It was so traumatizing to hear as a literal child that we should die instead of terminating a pregnancy that was killing us, even if it meant leaving other children or family behind.

I honestly attribute that as part of the reason why I'm terrified to give birth now and I don't know if I ever want to be pregnant. Catholic guilt is an insanely strong force. The possibility of pregnancy messing up my body forever or killing me is terrifying.

I've been surrounded by pro-life people my entire life, and I can safely say that they are not pro-life. They are just pro-forced birth, even if they don't want to admit it. Or even realize it. They think being pro-life is just stopping abortion. But once those unwanted children are born, they don't care what happens to them.

There's a fantastic video of this guy on TikTok approaching women who are holding a sign saying "Choose adoption". He asks each of the women how many children they've adopted and every single one of them says they haven't adopted any. They refer to their biological children as "their own" (as if adopted children wouldn't be their own children???) and it's so eye-opening. They push a choice that they haven't even followed themselves.

Here's the video:

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They also act as if the adoption process is so easy and that foster care isn't an absolute nightmare. There are over 424,000 children in foster care in the United States. There aren't enough social workers to properly check in on these kids, and once they turn 18, they are kicked out of the system with nothing. They have to find their way through the world on their own with little to no resources. Not to mention that these same people try to prevent same-sex couples from adopting, further strengthening the struggles of foster kids.

States banning abortion also means that children will grow up without adequate resources for survival. There is a nationwide shortage for baby food. Giving birth costs anywhere from $5,000-$10,000+. Not to mention that, if the child is born with a health condition like asthma or diabetes, insulin and other medications to treat them are hella expensive. Inflation in general is at record highs. We have no paid maternity leave guaranteed.

They do not care about the children once they are born into horrible conditions. They do not care about parents who are struggling to raise these kids. These people are often privileged enough that they don't see the cost of giving birth, taking time off work to raise the child, childcare, baby supplies, etc as an issue. Or if they do, they blame the parents for getting pregnant in the first place (but what happened to "God's plan"?)

People who are pro-choice aren't "pro abortion" like some people say. It's called pro CHOICE for a reason. I'm not going to try to force anyone into getting an abortion if they don't want to. We just want to give people the option to have one. It doesn't matter if it's because it's killing them, they were raped, they can't afford the kid, or they just don't want to be pregnant. The option should still be there because what they do with their pregnancy is not my business.

Also, pregnancy seriously fucks with your mind and body. If men were able to experience it (and giving birth) firsthand, I feel like a lot of them would feel differently about abortion. Think about all of the guys who faint just watching a live birth. Imagine them actually doing it.

I had a conversation about abortion with my dad last year and all we did was go in circles. It went like this:

Dad: I just don't believe in abortion. I think that if you get pregnant, you should have the baby.
Me: But what about cases of rape?
Dad: Well, obviously, that's a very unfortunate situation and it's different.
Me: But the embryo is biologically the same as one that's not a product of rape.
Dad: Well, yes...
Me: So there's no biological difference between them.
Dad: ...
Me: And abortion restrictions typically won't care about cases of rape because they're already not taken seriously. Most rape cases don't result in any kind of punishment for the rapist. Abortion restrictions won't make exceptions for pregnancies as a result of rape.
Dad: ...................

The man was too stunned to speak.

I have no idea what happened after that; I honestly think he just walked away.

Another thing that bothers me is the use of scare tactics by pro life people. There was this guy standing on the side of the road on my way to work the other day holding a sign saying "Abortion stops a beating heart" with a diagram of an abortion during the third trimester on one side. (He also wore a shirt saying "Jesus made me Kosher" on the back, which is another conversation...)

The diagram on the back was one that's commonly used when pro life people are like "THIS is an abortion!!! THIS is what you're doing to the fetus!!!" where the head is crushed, the limbs are taken out piece by piece, etc. What they don't tell you is this is a very late abortion that the pregnant person did not originally want. This happens when the fetus is already dead and is not commonly practiced anyway. Nobody carries a pregnancy for 7 months and then randomly decides to abort one day.

90% of abortions are performed during the first trimester when terminology varies between "zygote" and "fetus" and it has 0% chance of surviving outside of the womb. The remaining numbers are performed in the second trimester, typically due to fetal abnormalities or a severe congenital defect. Abortions performed during the third trimester are astonishingly rare.

Banning abortions will also force these people to carry dead fetuses full term even if their life is endangered (or the life of the still-developing twin is). Someone mentioned that a woman they knew had a baby who was developing without any brain tissue and was forced to carry the baby for the entire term because she lived in a country where abortion was illegal. She gave birth and the baby died after minutes.

Basically, this whole ordeal is terrifying and now the SCOTUS might try to come after contraceptive rights, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage. Help us.