I think we’ll see the end of the country as a unified polity in a generation or two. The west coast, the northeast, plus a few other regions will not stand for being dominated forever by an increasingly entrenched right wing federal government.
Just wanted to point out for those commenting on my posts that the $5000 figure I cited above was for those WITH insurance. I don’t want to discount the physical and mental toll of being forced to carry a child against one’s will but I do think that the financial toll is often ignored. I do think that abortion differs from other issues of privacy as many abortion opponents truly believe that they are preventing mass murder. These are people who don’t necessarily have a problem with contraception but really have been swayed by the thought that abortion is killing an innocent child.
I have had a very bad feeling about this country lately and this only exacerbates it. I don’t think this will energize voters. I suspect Democrats will be so disillusioned that they don’t vote. Every day all I hear about is another demographic that the Democrats are losing and in the long run, Democrats don’t vote on social issues.
As to how far the Court will go in revoking privacy protections, I don’t know. Since a lot will now depend on which state you live in, I see the country becoming more and more divided. My interest now is in how far the Court will go to regulate states’ control of actions in other states. Can an abortion ban extend to someone crossing state lines for treatment? Since many abortions are done with medications, are they going to regulate interstate shipment of medications?Hiw aggressive will states be in investigating miscarriages? I fear for women undergoing the trauma of a miscarriage and being suspected of an illegal abortion.
Yeah, believe me, I fully understand the advantages and luck that allowed me to make this move, and I feel no small amount of guilt about leaving the country behind. If it were just me, I probably would have stayed — but my naturalized-citizen wife and children took priority. So I moved a couple of mountains to make the relocation happen, and I accepted the predictable stress of being the out-of-place immigrant parent with the weird habits and broken language in order to give my children this opportunity to adjust early and localize as semi-natives. I have a sense of happiness and security for their future, but at the same time my heart breaks and my gut churns for the young women, especially, who will have no alternative except to live out their lives trapped in what the US is now inexorably becoming.
Which is why the GOP spends so much effort making it harder for some Americans to vote. Democrats win elections by getting more votes, Republicans win elections by preventing blacks from voting.
And students, and city dwellers, and …
You don’t say.
Yes. As soon as she heard the news of this leak, my wife said “damn you, Bernie Bros!”.
(I’m not here to rehash that argument about WHY Clinton lost. It was a mix of reasons.)
They’re not real Americans.
Not all Bernie Bros. Back in 2012, 2013, I was really trying to get my older teenaged foster kid engaged in politics and he was just apathetic. Then along came Bernie, and he became fully energized.
Then Bernie lost. I wondered how he would take it, but only for a few minutes because his social media post came right away. This is a disappointment but we must continue the fight, etc and it was tagged #ImWithHer.
I know this is anecdotal, but I’m not convinced the Bernie Bros were a drag on Hillary. I know some of them became whiny little bitches and people on the other side amplified those voices, but I think he engaged a lot of political apathetic young people who stayed engaged.
I am hoping this will provide some midterm energy, especially among young people. I think it will resonate with every woman whose ever had a pregnancy scare, and every man whose girlfriend or wife has had one.
I’ll confess that this turn of events does have me a little tweaked at that segment of young progressives who are convinced that both sides are the same, and who dismiss the power of slow incremental change. Because things have changed a LOT since I was young. I think a lot of the gains made by my generation are going to be lost, in part because some people that are ostensibly on my side took them for granted and didn’t understand the need to protect them.
Yeah, yeah, I’m mad at the Republicans, too. I understand it’s mostly their fault. But they are the opposition, doing what enemies do. It’s the difference between getting shot by an enemy soldier and getting shot by the soldier on your side. One is way worse than the other.
This conspiracy theory has no attachment to reality. If GOP congresspeople have this document, it’s already been leaked.
I started a companion thread to discuss this issue
But yeah, the people who had access are the supreme court justices, their aides, and various supreme court staff who have physical access to the building.
Then that person should have got a job at a news medium. Not at the Supreme Court.
Which I suppose were just regular technically-open meetings of the sort that they just don’t publicize because it’s convenient to them, so good for you. But not the same thing.
Sure, but who’s going to do the sweeping? Certainly not the same (in practice) bunch that made the ruling in the first place.
Early May vs. late June to early July…So, close to two months. I am a bit confused as to why you think this extra two months is irrelevant for voter memories but relevant for time to organize.
Just to add one more thing to what DrDeth said in response: I think there has been an enthusiasm gap in regards to abortion. Anti-abortion voters have been very motivated to elect Republicans, often having this be their primary or only issue determining who they vote for and also why they turn out to vote. I don’t think that has been as true for pro-choice voters. There has certainly been a lot of attempt to warn them of the dangers of the clock being set back to a previous time, but up until now that hasn’t seemed to have been a major motivator. Whether that changes now remains to be seen.
I wonder what they are saying today. IIRC, when telling those folks that look at how different the sides are on abortion, gay rights, etc., there was this response that the power brokers in the GOP are just pandering and there is no way they’d actually end abortion. Well, we stand on the precipice of it happening.
I am an old liberal but I really don’t care much about abortion. People running around with coat hangers are just as bad as the anti abortion nuts with fake fetuses. I’m a guy and against abortion but it should be legal.
Have the hanger-people killed many doctors? No? Then they’re not “just as bad.”
Ha ha ha ha…
No, really - while many or even most Republicans today may not want to overturn Loving v. Virginia or think about it much there exists a contingent within the party who very much want to ban such marriages. In addition to the links provided by @madmonk28 in post #262 about Senator Mike Braun of Indiana I am acquainted with probably a half-dozen people in Lake (the most liberal/Blue Indiana county) and Porter counties who are very much opposed to “race mixing” and want it outlawed with steep penalties for all parties involved.
There may be fewer of these people than in the past but they very much exist.
For extremists “states’ rights” means “we get to do this in our little fiefdom”.
Later this year Out of 9 justices 2 are in interracial marriages. Thomas and Jackson. A liberal and a conservative. Also recently every justice was jewish or catholic. That’s not true now.