USA – Why Same-Sex Marriage Wins and Abortion Keeps Losing

It’s all about family values.

Judith Levine
December 12 2022

ON DECEMBER 8, President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, which codifies federal protection of same-sex and interracial marriages and requires every state to extend “full faith and credit” to such licenses granted by other states. The bill passed with bipartisan support: 39 Republican representatives and 12 Republican senators joined all the Democrats to vote yea.

A USA Today op-ed by Evan Wolfson, leader of the Freedom to Marry campaign, called the Respect for Marriage Act “a triumph for families [and] freedom.”

Continued: https://theintercept.com/2022/12/12/abortion-same-sex-marriage-rma/


USA – Abortion rights might soon be gone. Activists worry same-sex marriage is next

June 2, 2022
Mary Louise Kelly, Michael Levitt, Courtney Dorning

On June 26th, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage. It was a historic ruling that signified a turning point for LGBTQ+ rights in the United States.

Fast-forward seven years, and a lot has changed. The Supreme Court is vastly different, and another landmark decision is pending, this time pertaining to the federal right to an abortion.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2022/06/02/1102491352/abortion-rights-roe-wade-same-sex-marriage-obergefell-leaked-supreme-court


If Roe v. Wade Is Overturned, What’s Next?

After building toward such a moment for half a century, pro-life legal efforts aren’t likely to stop there.

By Jeannie Suk Gersen, The New Yorker
April 17, 2022

In 2003, when the Supreme Court held, in Lawrence v. Texas, that criminalizing gay sex was unconstitutional, it insisted that the decision had nothing to do with marriage equality. In a scathing dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, “Do not believe it.” Then, in 2013, when the Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act’s definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman, emphasizing the tradition of letting the states define marriage, Scalia issued another warning, saying that “no one should be fooled” into thinking that the Court would leave states free to exclude gay couples from that definition. He was finally proved right two years later, when the reasoning on dignity and equality developed in those earlier rulings led to the Court’s holding that the Constitution requires all states to recognize same-sex marriage.

Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/04/25/if-roe-v-wade-is-overturned-whats-next


Republicans won’t be satisfied with overturning Roe

Ketanji Brown Jackson’s hearing offered a glimpse of upcoming culture war fights at the court

By Melissa Murray
March 25, 2022

For more than two decades, confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justices have revolved around a single question: whether the nominee would uphold or overrule Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that recognized nationally a woman’s right to choose an abortion. As far back as the ill-fated confirmation hearings for Robert Bork in 1987, abortion has always been the elephant in the room, prompting thinly veiled questions about fidelity to precedent and “unenumerated rights” — rights not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution.

With this in mind, the hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson were unlike those that came before. Not only is Jackson the first Black woman to be nominated to the high court, but she is also the first nominee to be vetted in a soon-to-be post-Roe landscape.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/03/25/ketanji-brown-jackson-roe/


Is ‘listening’ enough? Feminists assess Robredo’s conservative stand on gender issues

Vice President Leni Robredo, presidential candidate, has fallen short of supporting some progressive causes that gender advocates have long fought for, but some are willing to bank on her track record of consulting and listening

MAR 23, 2022
MICHELLE ABAD

MANILA, Philippines – Lone female presidential candidate Vice President Leni Robredo has disappointed some of the women she claims to empower.

As media interviews, debates, and forums went into full swing with the election season, the presidential candidates were asked what they thought about divorce, abortion, and same-sex marriage – three issues the country is deeply divided about.

Continued: https://www.rappler.com/nation/elections/feminists-assess-robredo-conservative-gender-stance/


Guatemala congress shelves abortion law passed previous week

Guatemala’s Congress has voted to shelve a controversial law stiffening penalties for abortion, prohibiting same-sex marriage and banning discussion of sexual diversity in schools

By The Associated Press
15 March 2022

GUATEMALA CITY -- Guatemala’s Congress voted Tuesday to shelve a controversial law stiffening penalties for abortion, prohibiting same-sex marriage and banning discussion of sexual diversity in schools, acting a week after it passed by a wide margin.

The reversal came after President Alejandro Giammattei threatened a veto because elements of the legislation were considered unconstitutional and in violation of international treaties that Guatemala has signed.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/guatemala-congress-shelves-abortion-law-passed-previous-week-83470946


Guatemala Congress bans same-sex marriage

Published Mar 9, 2022

Guatemala's Congress has voted in favour of a law which prohibits same-sex marriage. The law will also prohibit the teaching of sexual diversity in schools and raise the prison sentences for women seeking abortion.

Abortion is banned in Guatemala except in cases where the woman's life is at risk.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-60675472


Poles becoming more socially liberal, with growing support for LGBT rights and abortion: poll

AUG 6, 2021

Poles are becoming more socially liberal and opposed to the privileged status the Catholic church enjoys in relations with the state, according to the latest findings from long-term polling by CBOS, a state research agency.

Support for legal access to abortion has reached 41% – a rise of 12 percentage points since 2019 and the highest figure since 1999. By contrast, 29% favour the legal prohibition of abortion, down 10 percentage points since two years ago, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2021/08/06/poles-becoming-more-socially-liberal-with-growing-support-for-lgbt-rights-and-abortion-poll/


Justice Alito takes aim at abortion rights, gay marriage and Covid rules

Supreme court justice warns freedom of speech becoming ‘second-tier constitutional right’ in partisan address to Federalist Society

Tom McCarthy
Fri 13 Nov 2020

The inability of people to say, without fear of being branded as bigots, that marriage is exclusively between a man and a woman is threatening to make freedom of speech “a second-tier constitutional right”, supreme court justice Samuel Alito said at a virtual conference on Thursday.

In a bleak address, Alito took aim at abortion rights, same-sex marriage, gun control and other conservative bugbears.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/nov/13/justice-samuel-alito-supreme-court-liberty


Abortion to be decriminalised in Northern Ireland

Abortion to be decriminalised in Northern Ireland
Much to the chagrin of the DUP, Northern Ireland will be brought into regulatory alignment with the rest of the UK.

Oct 21, 2019

Women in Northern Ireland will have a legal right to safe abortions from midnight local time (23:00 GMT) on Monday, after a last-ditch bid to maintain the illegality of terminations fell apart in the regional legislature.

MPs at Westminster successfully amended a bill in the summer to include measures to end the near-blanket prohibition on abortion and introduce same-sex marriage, bringing Northern Ireland into regulatory alignment with the rest of the United Kingdom.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/abortion-decriminalised-northern-ireland-191021163130462.html