Re: Cash-Strapped States Spend Millions Trying To Defend Anti-Abortion Laws[W:61]
Similar to the post I just wrote above, the reason why I like Roe v. Wade is because it doesn't make a judgment about abortion itself, which really is the most inclusive way of forming policy. There are very obvious definitions of homicide that everyone can agree on... like if I kill my neighbor, everyone will agree that I committed homicide. Whether or not it's murder, manslaughter, etc... is up for debate. But I killed a person.
Putting aside political prejudices, it's obvious that fetal "homicide" does not have the same universality. We have one group pushing that a single definition should be made universal when there is no real sociocultural precedent for doing so.
So what concerns me is that future SCOTUS rulings will probably be forced to define fetal homicide itself, rather than sidestep with a privacy ruling. Regardless if their decision is in line with my views or not, it will represent an exclusive opinion being codified into law when it's not appropriate to do so. That means less room for exceptional cases, more women and children being put at risk, implications in family planning, the list goes on.
I hear ya. And I think you're voicing some legitimate concerns.
As you discussed in a previous posts regarding our legislative and judicial bodies, it certainly appears that over the last few decades that they've been infiltrated with hard-right sectarian members. They aren't shy. They don't try to hide their presence or agendas. I would opine that they subscribe to excessive authoritarian values that, for the most part and don't really represent the national consensus/standards/values/beliefs - nor complies with the ideology and foundation of our system of government. For the more aggressive hard-right members, logic and reason doesn't see to fit with their modus operandi. It's almost like we're seeing a revival of the early day Puritans that made their way from Europe.
And it looks like to me that...
Government (regardless of party majorities) has learned over time to divert the attention of the citizens by using tactics to avoid accountability by dumping unsubstantiated, unrealistic fear on the public regarding issues like "war on religion", "war on guns", "abortion", "sexual orientation", just to name a few. This allows them to conduct their agendas, their business with special interests, which have managed to usurp the interests of the electorate.
However, our more authoritarian members, it appears, have a mission that revolves more around social control, not governing, in order to achieve their goals.
Especially since the early 80s we've seen our Supreme Court shift its role to be used as a legislative body rather than judicial. And that has degraded our 3 branch system of government. And our check and balance system as well. It's pretty obvious that each party has been attempting to post Justices who subscribe to their specific political ideologies rather than for their talents to perform their intended roles as unbiased, objective jurors who weigh our legislative and legal behaviors against the Constitution.
I think that it's pretty obvious that the core beliefs behind pro-life's tenets regarding abortion come from their religions (directly and indirectly). When I say "indirectly", I mean that it's a form of generational beliefs that are taught within family systems with handed down religious beliefs, but not necessarily coming directly from any religious institutions.
If pro-life advocates were individually a living example of their beliefs, without believing that they have some duty to their higher power to infringe on the rights of others "because of their beliefs", then we wouldn't see that types of activism to control women's reproductive roles. Or if they could produce some kind of compelling evidence that abortion has had, currently has, or will in the future have significant social impacts on the well-being of humankind, but no such evidence has ever been presented. And it's pretty obvious that since they can't really produce such evidence the most effective way for them to achieve their goals - is by working damn hard to secure positions within government, legislatively and judicially in order to peddle their beliefs.
