Will Supreme Court conservatives overturn Roe? Their casual contempt for women is not a good sign

The GOP justices compared women's rights to white supremacy and spoke of adoption like it's donating used clothes

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
DECEMBER 1, 2021

Despite all the legalese about "stare decisis" and "reliance interests," the abortion rights hearing held at the Supreme Court Wednesday morning came down to one question:  Can women's rights simply be disappeared, with the ease of shaking an Etch-A-Sketch?

Unfortunately, 6 out of 9 members of the Court seemed to strongly believe that yes, it's time to hit the reset button on that whole "treating women like full human beings" experiment after nearly 50 years, since Roe vs. Wade, of women having full human rights. Through the two hours of questioning in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health, one word came to mind to describe the stance of the conservative judges: Contempt.

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2021/12/01/will-conservatives-overturn-roe-their-casual-contempt-for-women-is-not-a-good-sign/


USA – These Aren’t Justices. They’re Used Car Salesmen, and They’re Coming for Your Abortion Rights.

The Supreme Court’s new conservative majority doesn’t just want to take your rights away—they want you to thank them for doing it.

Erin Gloria Ryan
Updated Oct. 26, 2021

One of the oldest sales tricks in the book is the one where the salesperson presents the potential buyer with an extremely crappy option first, and follows that up with an only moderately crappy second option. The potential buyer, dazzled by the jump in quality between options one and two, won’t scrutinize option two as much, because it’s so much better than option one. This has been employed by slimy realtors, wedding planners, and used car salesmen.

And now, we’ve reached the point in the American experiment where the Supreme Court’s new conservative majority has resorted to a cheap sales tactic in an attempt to rehabilitate its image. Lower the customer’s expectations enough, conventional wisdom goes, and they’ll thank you for ripping them off.

Continued: https://www.thedailybeast.com/these-arent-justices-theyre-used-car-salesmen-and-theyre-coming-for-your-abortion-rights


UN experts condemn Texas abortion law as sex discrimination ‘at its worst’

Exclusive: human rights lawyer criticizes the supreme court and says new law will ‘make abortion unsafe and deadly’

Ed Pilkington in New York
Tue 7 Sep 2021

United Nations human rights monitors have strongly condemned the state of Texas for its new anti-abortion law, which they say violates international law by denying women control over their own bodies and endangering their lives.

In damning remarks to the Guardian, Melissa Upreti, the chair of the UN’s working group on discrimination against women and girls, criticized the new Texas law, SB 8, as “structural sex and gender-based discrimination at its worst”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/07/un-experts-condemn-texas-anti-abortion-law


USA – Why Only the Republicans Are Talking About Abortion

The G.O.P. convention featured an extreme anti-abortion activist. The Democrats mostly kept mum.

By Lauren Kelley
Aug. 26, 2020

Ahead of her speech at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday evening, Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned prominent anti-abortion activist, said she hoped to deliver “the most provocative, impassioned, memorable” anti-abortion speech in history.

“It’s pretty graphic,” she said in a recent podcast interview teasing the speech.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/opinion/rnc-abortion-republican-party.html


USA – The National Right To Abortion Is Facing An Intense Threat. This Group Has Been Preparing For This Fight For Decades.

The National Right To Abortion Is Facing An Intense Threat. This Group Has Been Preparing For This Fight For Decades.
The Center for Reproductive Rights will argue in the first major Supreme Court case over abortion in the Trump era, which could gut Roe v. Wade

Ema O'Connor BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on March 1, 2020

It is no exaggeration to say that the Center for Reproductive Rights was made for this moment.

Around 30 years ago, Nancy Northup, the center’s current president, was outside an abortion clinic in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, linking arms with the people around her to form a human barricade to protect patients trying to get inside. Hundreds of anti-abortion protesters faced them down, chanting, saying prayers, and attempting to block patients from entering the clinic.

Continued: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emaoconnor/abortion-supreme-court-trump-center-reproductive-rights


USA – The Next Big Abortion Case Comes Down to John Roberts

The Next Big Abortion Case Comes Down to John Roberts

By Irin Carmon, The Intelligencer
Feb. 28, 2020

Almost four years ago, I sat on a cable-news set waiting for the Supreme Court to hand down a ruling on a Texas abortion law that, reputable medical organizations agreed, amounted to a bogus justification for shutting down abortion clinics. The live feed was trained on candidate Hillary Clinton’s Cincinnati rally, featuring Elizabeth Warren, who had just endorsed her.

Alike in blonde bobs and jewel tones, if not much else, the two raised their clasped hands to the sky in a show of party unity and the hint of an all-female ticket, or at least a future in which reproductive autonomy, along with everything else, didn’t depend on the whims of a tiny number of white men. The particular man we were waiting on that day was Justice Anthony Kennedy. Minutes later, the networks cut away to announce that his vote in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt would keep the clinics open, ruling that the Texas law placed an unconstitutional burden on women.

Continued: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/john-roberts-choice.html


As Trump Fans the Flames of Anti-Abortion Rhetoric, Kansas Offers a Cautionary Tale

As Trump Fans the Flames of Anti-Abortion Rhetoric, Kansas Offers a Cautionary Tale

Jordan Smith
August 2 2019

A sheriff’s deputy was waiting in his car along Interstate 35 just outside Kansas City, Kansas, on the afternoon of May 31, 2009, when the powder-blue Ford Taurus rolled by.

The deputy pulled out behind the car and followed it. He took up two lanes and put on his hazards so no one would try to pass as he called for backup. Minutes later, a four-car posse pulled the Taurus over. Inside was 51-year-old Scott Roeder. He got out of the car with his hands raised. There was blood on his pants and one of his shoes.

Continued: https://theintercept.com/2019/08/02/anti-abortion-violence-kansas/


USA – When Judges Defy the Supreme Court

When Judges Defy the Supreme Court
The chief justice faces a time of great testing, both of himself and of the institution he heads, as the lower courts move rapidly even to his right.
Linda Greenhouse

By Linda Greenhouse, Contributing Opinion Writer
Feb. 14, 2019

No, I wasn’t surprised last week, as most people apparently were, when Chief Justice John Roberts cast the deciding fifth vote to preserve access to abortion in Louisiana for at least a little while longer. In fact, I had predicted it (and I have witnesses).

Why? Not because I think the chief justice has developed a soft spot in his heart for the right to abortion. He has not. Not because he wants to minimize the Supreme Court’s role as a combatant in the culture wars. I think he does, but that’s not the point.

Rather, circumstances compelled the chief justice to stand up to a stunning act of judicial defiance.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/opinion/abortion-supreme-court-louisiana.html


USA – John Roberts plays a waiting game on ‘Roe v. Wade’

John Roberts plays a waiting game on ‘Roe v. Wade’

By Harry Litman, Contributing columnist
February 13, 2019

The Supreme Court last week suspended a Louisiana abortion law, the justices' first significant action in an abortion case since the appointment of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. What does the decision portend for the future of Roe v. Wade in particular and reproductive rights in general?

The case, June Medical Services v. Gee, centers on a challenge to a provision in the Louisiana law (named, tellingly, “the Unsafe Abortion Protection Act”) requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of the clinic where they perform abortions. The ostensible idea is to have quick access to a hospital in the event something goes awry, threatening the health of the mother. Critics argued that the effect of the law would be to reduce to one (from the current four) the number of doctors who can perform abortions at the state’s three operating clinics.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/13/john-roberts-plays-waiting-game-roe-v-wade/?utm_term=.86f409a981e2