In voting to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the case that for nearly fifty years guaranteed federal protection for the right to abortion, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas provided a glimpse into future right-wing attacks that are on his agenda.
Thomas wrote that the basis upon which Roe was overturned is the same as that which would give reason to eliminate the right to contraception, the right to consensual sexual activity and the right to gay marriage, stating that all of these were “were demonstrably erroneous decisions.”
The Supreme Court has been totally transformed into a tool of right-wing, evangelical Christian political forces that are hellbent on providing the legal justification for reactionary laws to be passed around the country that will bring the views of their churches straight into our bedrooms. In response, the Democrats have tried to position themselves as the opposition to these attacks that we should trust and look to. But what have they really done to oppose this radicalization of the Court as a vehicle to advance this Christian fundamentalist and right-wing agenda? Could the Democrats have been more timid when the Republicans refused to confirm Merrick Garland to replace Antonin Scalia more than 9 months before Obama was to leave office? Or when they refused to confirm more than 100 judges Obama nominated during his last years in office?
In a way, we can be grateful to Thomas for spelling out exactly what they plan to do. We can have no illusions that they will stop with Roe. More attacks are coming, and how we respond will define the future rights that we have as people!
