First Roe, then LGBTQ rights?
The Supreme Court’s shocking decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is a full-frontal assault on the reproductive rights and the autonomy of people who can become pregnant.
It’s a jarring reminder of how a judicial decision based on a set of personal beliefs of the majority of justices can separate us into people with rights and those without rights.
The opinion written by Justice Alito could not be clearer: “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” This reference to the “people’s elected representatives,” is a nod to states’ rights.
His words sound alarmingly familiar to similar words used by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision in 1857. Based on the beliefs held by the majority of the justices, in that case, that court decided that the federal Congress should have no power to legislate in the territories, effectively relegating to states and territories the decision on whether or not to own slaves.
