Still Fighting For Basic Rights

It’s hard to believe we are out in the streets fighting for a woman’s right to choose yet again. And I think people truly underestimate the legal chaos that overturning Roe will create. Many of the older abortion laws that are still on the books and will be triggered back into effect if Roe is overturned are based in the criminal code, meaning we will see prosecutions of women as well as providers and assisters. Every miscarriage will now be a potential crime. States will attempt to restrict or even monitor women who wish to leave their state to get a legal medical procedure in another state. States will be suing abortion providers in other states and those other states where abortion is legal will set up legal processes to countersue, just as Connecticut has recently done. It will be a modern-day version of the Fugitive Slave Act. In addition, overturning Roe will set off new religious freedom issues since forced births conflict with the teachings of some major religions, particularly Judaism. Finally, as Alito’s draft clearly shows, overturning Roe will cut the legs out from the legal underpinnings of the broader right to privacy in this country, putting gay, trans rights, and even contraception at serious risk.

The protest we went to you yesterday was larger than it has been in the past and also angrier. Some of these signs captured that: