How bad could things get if Roe v Wade is struck down?

The Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion: The spearhead of a massive assault on democratic rights

The Supreme Court’s draft ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization not only abolishes the basic democratic right to abortion, but it is an attempt to radically transform the country’s legal superstructure by stripping the population of the democratic protections established in the American Revolution and Civil War.

The opinion would overturn the landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade in the most sweepingly reactionary way imaginable. It establishes a new test in which (1) constitutional rights previously upheld by clear legal precedent can be stripped away without warning, and (2) rights not listed verbatim in the Constitution are deemed unenforceable if they were not widely recognized in 1791, a time when the US was home to three million people who used horses for transportation and candles for lighting.

In the Dobbs decision, the Republican majority curls a beckoning finger toward its far-right partners, imploring legal challenges to a host of other basic rights. It suggests that the new legal test could be applied to all “fundamental rights that are not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution” and calls all “unenumerated rights” into question by referring to them as “putative rights,” i.e., rights which have been assumed to exist but which may not exist in reality.

The decision criticizes the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. It rejects the constitutional right to privacy, claiming that this right “is also not mentioned” in the text of the Constitution, paving the way for a massive intrusion of the state into the private lives of individuals. Homosexuality was not accepted in society in 1791, after all, and neither was interracial marriage.

The right wing is scanning the darkest periods of American history to inspire its political strategy today. Alongside the specter of “morality squad” police raids on gay bars and private homes, Republican leaders are planning to re-introduce segregation, this time with immigrants as the victims.

The day after the decision was leaked, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that he will ban the children of undocumented immigrants from attending public schools, the modern revival of Governor George Wallace’s pledge to “stand in the schoolhouse door.” The law would involve fines or criminal prosecution if immigrant children are caught on school grounds (and perhaps for using drinking fountains intended for “Citizens Only”).

Abbott said states should enact their own restrictions on immigration and wage legal battles to overturn a 2012 Supreme Court decision barring Arizona from declaring that undocumented immigrants had no constitutional rights and could be jailed simply for being undocumented.

Police organizations are also preparing to argue that there is no constitutional right to Miranda warnings or other protections for arrestees and criminal defendants, opening the door to even more brutal waves of police violence. The fascist Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) declared on a podcast Thursday that the decision “is a big tool in our arsenal,” and is “shaking things up in a way that could help us in the long game.” After all, since police forces did not exist at the time the Constitution was ratified, necessary democratic protections against police abuse could not have been rooted in the traditions of the time.

The Supreme Court’s ruling did not arise from nowhere, it is another manifestation of the disintegration of bourgeois democracy in the United States and the uncontrollable drive toward ever more extreme forms of political reaction. To understand what this decision arises out of is to understand how to fight it.
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The last half-century has been defined by financial parasitism, militarism, nonstop attacks on democratic rights, the end of restrictions on campaign finance, and unrelenting efforts to prevent masses of people from having any say on government policy. America’s 50 richest families now possess $1.2 trillion in assets. The oligarchic principle is manifest in the entire two-party, bicameral set-up, characterized by undemocratic and unrepresentative structures from top to bottom.

As Oxford University professor Joe Foweraker wrote in his recent work Oligarchy in the Americas, “High returns to capital and super-rents deriving from market power and monopolies have created a new financial oligarchy and a step-change in the private command of public policy, leaving the oligarchy largely unaccountable to democratic government.” (Emphasis added). The oligarchy, Foweraker writes, “is so far detached from the society from which it extracts its wealth that it can act entirely independently of it.”

The character of the entire political establishment and corporate media flows from this fact. But despite this, the American ruling class declares itself the champion of democracy in the fight against Russia. Every day provides new confirmation that this is a lie.
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The Democrats will do nothing to reverse the attack on the right to abortion. When it comes to pouring missiles into Ukraine, there is no risk the Democratic Party is not willing to take, not even risks that bring the world to the edge of nuclear war. But when it comes to defending basic democratic rights, there is always a Joe Manchin or a Senate parliamentarian to blame for their own fecklessness.

In reality, the Democrats’ political trajectory is entirely of a piece with the Republicans’ transformation into a party of open authoritarianism. The Democrats abandoned social reform decades ago and transformed themselves into a vehicle for the race- and gender-obsessed upper-middle class, which the Democrats view as a necessary constituency for waging imperialist war. The politics of identity does not represent an opposition to the right-wing degeneration of the Republicans; it is merely another expression of the rot at the heart of the entire two-party system.

Fair use is up so read at the source for what I’ve left out.

Democrats started selling out the working class during Reagan, but they totally abandoned it when Clinton sold the party out to the Koch brothers, Wall Street and big business. Then democrats started their attack on the working class and the poor with welfare reform, NAFTA that saw thousands of factories closed and millions of jobs sent offshore. Glass-Steagal was rescinded setting up the global economic crisis during Bush. Obama tried to pass the hideous TPP that would have cost more jobs and erased national sovereignty. Biden might try passing it again. Republicans gave the rich enormous tax cuts and after democrats promised to roll them back they instead made them permanent.

Democrats have held all branches of government 3 times now and could have settled abortion rights, but they were never serious when they promised they would do that. As I mentioned previously Obama had a majority for 72 days and had promised to pass the Freedom of Choice Act on day 1, but never did.

Democrats are controlled opposition on abortion

On abortion rights, Democrats out themselves as controlled opposition

What is the most cynical aspect of this whole situation, however, is how the Democratic Party is using it as a rallying cry – despite the fact that they’ve fallen on their face continuously. The Democratic Party claims to be a champion of women’s rights and always warns voters that Roe could be overturned if they don’t vote Dem. But every time Democrats have had the ability to pass an abortion bill, they haven’t done so. For me, this issue is just another example of how the Democratic Party is controlled opposition.

For example, in 2007, candidate Barack Obama promised Planned Parenthood that “the first thing I’d do as president” would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. Even when holding a federal trifecta for 72 working days, President Barack Obama did not do that – and then said later that the bill is “not my highest legislative priority.” After four years in office, it never happened; abortion went from a day one priority to never.

Democrats again effectively control the government, with the White House, a majority in the House and a tie-breaking vote in the Senate. Yes, it’s true that legislation effectively needs a supermajority in the Senate thanks to the filibuster – but mechanisms, like a reconciliation, do exist that could see abortion snuck through.

Instead of actually taking action to codify abortion rights, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi along with James Clyburn were just in Texas campaigning for anti-choice Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar instead of his pro-choice opponent Jessica Cisneros. Meanwhile, that same day her office was sending out fundraising emails talking about how important defending abortion rights are. Is there not a more perfect example of how hypocritical Democrats are on this?

With heated and extremely consequential mid-term elections coming up this November, Democrats are absolutely going to make the repudiation of abortion rights a key issue. They will craft their messaging to suggest that they are the party that will do anything to protect women and the other groups that could be thrown under the bus in the coming years. It’s all bogus. Democrats will do nothing – just like their track record suggests.

But sure it’s because people didn’t vote hard enough. If you have shitlib friends show them this.

Let’s not forget that Hillary chose Tim Kaine for her VP and boy didn’t that send a message? She also said that she could compromise with republicans on abortion if they promised to make sure that there were exemptions for mother’s health, rape and incest. Biden stated that he didn’t think Roe went far enough. Democrats have never tried to rescind the Hyde act either leaving women who were on Medicaid to fund their abortions themselves. Democrats did absolutely nothing when the Supreme Court didn’t shoot down Texas' abortion bounty hunting scam. That’s when the country got the heads up that abortion rights were in the crosshairs. But then democrats were never that serious about keeping pro life justices off the court. Shitlibs should have been outraged when democrats did their very least to keep Barrett off it, but instead just yawned and went back to stuffing their faces.

From the comments:

corvo •

The first challenge should be Loving v. Virginia. I’d love to see how Justice Thomas would rule on that one!

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shifts the burden onto a defendant to prove their innocence is the day I walk away from the practice of law.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

I have one more practical. There is no statute of limitations on murder. Have an abortion in 1975? Help pay for an abortion in 1975? Donate to Planned Parenthood in 1975?

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On to Biden since 1973

"Democrats did absolutely nothing". Everything you quoted and commented on comes down to that. Obama was the starkest example. It wasn't only choice, DACA received the same treatment. He promised health care and gave us an expensive and crappy insurance policy.

Legal challenges will be lined up for the Supreme Court with care to maximize the domino effect of falling rights and protections. What will the democrats do? Probably fight over micro aggressions and pronouns. Don't forget about dunning the populace to send money, every little bit helps.

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