Letter: Supreme Court puts religious belief ahead of human rights

Published 1:30 am Saturday, July 2, 2022

Editor,

To paraphrase the great Beto O’Rourke, “Hell no, I’m not going to turn my clock back 50 years.”

Roe v. Wade was a landmark legal decision issued on Jan. 22, 1973, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas statute banning abortion, effectively legalizing the procedure across the United States. The court held that a woman’s right to an abortion was implicit in the right to privacy protected by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

In the late 1850s, the newly established American Medical Association began calling for the criminalization of abortion, partly in an effort to eliminate doctors’ competitors such as midwives and homeopaths.

Additionally, some nativists, alarmed by the country’s growing population of immigrants, were anti-abortion because they feared declining birth rates among white, American-born, Protestant women. (Yes, you can look this up.)

Our current Supreme Court has gone rogue and is making decisions based on their own personal religious views, even though these views are held by the minority of Americans. Right now, 55% of Americans are pro-choice; 39% are pro-life and 5% have no opinion. As Americans we should be alarmed by this current Supreme Court since they clearly do not support equal rights. What else is on their agenda? Clarence Thomas did say he would be looking at other cases that rely on the right to privacy. Same-sex relationships? Marriage equality? Contraception? Fear is often grounded in reality.

The radical right say they’re pro-life but look the other way when America’s children are shot to death in their school classrooms, on their playgrounds, when out dancing and having a good time, when at a concert, i.e. Las Vegas or sitting in a movie theatre watching a movie with their pals. So it seems, life begins at conception and ends at a mass shooting.

What can you do? Make sure you register to vote, make sure everyone you know registers to vote, then make sure you vote in November and don’t vote for any candidate who is not pro-choice. Fund organizations that provide assistance to those needing help with an abortion. Abortion is a health care decision. No one should make a health care decision for a woman, except that woman and her doctor. We won’t go back.

Peggy Kimbell

Clinton