Last week, I grappled with the 213-page Dobbs decision, attempting to understand an official documents that regulate our real lives.
What I understand is this – for the first time in our nation’s history, a fundamental right has been taken.
The Dobbs decision left me feeling helpless. In its official opinion, our nation’s highest court chooses emotionally charged words like “daughter or son” instead of medically factual terms like embryo or fetus. It favors holding women to legal practices from as far back as 1300s England. And it attempts to absolve itself of the impact of its decision by feigning ignorance-“We do not pretend to know how our political system or society will respond to today’s decision” – while simultaneously, and wildly, predicting that keeping abortion as a right could lead us down a path where “illicit drug use, prostitution, and the like” also become fundamental rights.
But fundamental rights are meant to be protected, as the dissenting side points out; to be placed “beyond the reach of majorities and officials.” Equal Protection Rights, for example, are in place to protect various minority groups.
When Dobbs was leaked, I abandoned stigma that surrounds abortion. By doing so, I have found many people in our community who support abortion rights.
We are not helpless. We are tired, and it feels easier to disassociate from the melee of these past few years, but things will only get worse if we do that.
So, women, minorities, LGBTQ+ folks, and other minority groups, knowing that we are grossly underrepresented politically, we must ban together to protect each other.
We act. Attend the Abortion Rights Rally this Saturday, July 09 in Central Park, Mansfield from 12-2pm. Vote, campaign, contact your officials, donate, follow abortion rights groups, and interrupt abortion stigma wherever you encounter it.
