Yesterday on MSNBC, constitutional law expert Lawrence Tribe persuasively laid out the case against Sam Alito's flawed reasoning in his overwhelmingly ideologiclal case against Roe v Wade. "I think it is intellectually and historically bankrupt," he began when asked about Alito's bullshit. "The founding document did not list all of the rights we have. It doesn't say anything about our rights to marry, our rights to decide how to bring up our children, our freedom to think what we will. It protects liberty in very broad terms. It protects equality. And this idea by Justice Alito-- and he is backed by the right-wing of the court and by many right-wing activists-- this idea that the Constitution protects only those rights that are listed and those rights that are rooted in a misogynist history that really didn't take account of women at all, is simply a prescription for turning the clock back, not just to the 1950s, but to the 1850s. It's a regressive approach and it's not consistent with our trajectory of constitutional rights, which have expanded and expanded. This will be the first time that the Supreme Court has taken away by a majority vote of people who were put on the court by someone who didn't even win the majority of the American people, the first time that a basic right has been taken away, that people have built their lives around for 50 years. And Justice Alito says, 'Oh, there has not been any big reliance on it, women have got the vote now and women are all over the place, they are in the workplace' they don't need this right.' That's ridiculous. Women have risen into positions of approximate equality largely because the Supreme Court 50 years ago, or nearly 50 years ago, affirmed for them the right that we men have long had, which is the right to control our own bodies and our own destinies. To roll that back is really to go back to the Dark Ages. We really should not let that happen."
Do you think any Idaho Republicans are in the slightest bit interested in these arguments? A couple of days ago we looked at who Idaho Republicans are and concluded that maybe secession, if that's what they want, wouldn't be such a bad idea since they are so opposed to the values and principles that bind America together.
Over the weekend, the state's biggest newspaper, reported on exactly what national Republicans want the extremists in backward states like Idaho to keep quiet about until after the midterms: After Roe decision, Idaho lawmakers may consider restricting some contraception. It may not be as odious as Louisiana's plan to charge doctors and women with murder, but... still pretty extreme and pretty odious. On Saturday, House State Affairs Committee Chair Brent Crane (R-Nampa) said he hasn't made his mind up yet on IUDs but wants to hold hearing on "morning after" pills. He claims "health concerns for the mom" rather than admitting that the patriarchal Republican Party is waging a war against women.
Believe me, DC Republicans are petrified that their state legislatures are going to be passing bill like this one in Louisiana before the midterms. "A new bill to charge women who get [abortions] with murder is making strides at the legislature. The U.S Supreme Court may be considering overturning Roe v. Wade, but state Rep. Danny McCormick (R) says the state can’t wait any longer. His bill would charge women who seek to get an abortion with homicide... The bill passed out of a House committee last week with a 7-2 vote and has a good chance to make it to the governor’s desk... The bill is currently on the calendar to be debated and approved by the full House floor sometime this week."
Chris Jacobs represents a pretty conservative district in western and central New York, pretty conservative but not conservative enough the jail women for having an abortion. His progressive Democratic opponent, Steve Holden, told me that "Roe could be a real gamechanger for many reasons in our race. First, the two GOP candidates, Mario Fratto and Rep. Chris Jacobs, are in a race to the bottom, and women’s rights are in the crosshairs. Both candidates are anti-choice, and on a side note, Fratto (the Trump-backed candidate) is also pro-Russia and a ardent supporter of Majorie 'Traitor' Greene. On Twitter, Rep. Jacobs decried both the leak and championed the decision. Two nights ago, I went to a meeting of Democratic Women in Oswego County, and this was the main topic. A lot of those ladies fought for Women’s Rights beginning in the 1970s, but there were younger women there who had never voted or registered to vote. Six Republican women contacted us that they will not be voting GOP in November, a growing number. Democrats have raised $5 million since the announcement, and our fundraising is hitting the gas. Most women in the Lake District must go to Syracuse, Rochester, or Buffalo to get reproductive care, and these women decried the need to get more providers, which I swore to do. Even though this District has more Republicans, as of right now, it has a growing amount of younger Non-Affiliated voters, enough to turn an election. These, along with Democrats, are enough to win this district. Together with the Rick Scott, Jacobs’ buddy, plan to raise middle and low income earners’ taxes and gut Social Security and Medicare, and Jacobs’ ethics violation for not disclosing more than $300,000 in stock transactions, this issue has enough momentum to turn this district blue."