In 1973 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on the case of Roe v Wade. The majority opinion of the court made abortion legal nationwide.
Emotions about abortion ran high. It was and is a nasty word for many. So abortion was rebranded as pro-choice. Pro-choice morphed into woman’s health. Woman’s health was then repackaged as woman’s wellness. It’s harder to debate woman’s wellness.
Eventually, the government was so concerned about women’s wellness that Planned Parenthood (founded in 1916) became a partially federally funded abortion, and woman’s wellness clinic.
Since we’re changing what we call things, should that part of the organization be renamed Not Planned Not Parenthood?
Fifty years later, there is a public debate as to who actually is a woman at the same time that we put a woman, Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson on the Supreme Court. Brown Jackson testified before Congress that she couldn’t define what a woman was either. When pressed, she said, “I am not a biologist.”
So last night’s bombshell, the SCOTUS leak of the first draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito for the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization., has vaulted the issue to the front page of American discourse all over again. Alito writes, “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
That there is a leak is a bombshell unto itself. And, is a very dangerous threat to a very important pillar of US democracy-the Justice System’s impartial operational sanctity. Start the investigation today.
So why the leak? It’s pretty obvious, and serves a dual purpose, doesn’t it?
Can enough pressure be applied to those siding with Alito to swing votes the other way to maintain the status quo? And can the current political landscape be reshaped with this polarizing issue to the extent that the party in power can maintain that power by inciting and galvanizing its base?
Inevitably, the leak will spur Democrats to push for the passage of a bill to codify Roe. To do so they would need to bust the filibuster rule or lower the threshold to end a filibuster from 60 yes votes to 51. That means all attention will immediately turn to, you guessed it, Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
The midterm vote is on 11/8/22, or six months and five days from today.
If you’re the party from the left would you like to run on inflation, food shortages, Ukraine, Afghanistan, the southern border, crime, Biden’s poll numbers, and Kamala’s incompetence? Or, would you like to run away from all of that?
Or, would you prefer to watch “mostly peaceful protests” in this coming summer of love to combat that nasty “war on women?” You could then bank on that being the galvanizer to get the vote out and turned in your favor.
Is it a coincidence that Kamala Harris is the featured speaker tonight at the 30th Annual We Are EMILY National Conference and Gala, a pro-choice event? Is it a coincidence that President Biden is scheduled to deliver his thoughts from the White House today on Roe V. Wade?
Or, is all of this well planned by the party that plans well?
One thing is for sure, the Supreme Court has reunited the nation on the question of which gender gets pregnant and gives birth.
Or, chooses not to.
For now.