SCOTUS & GOP To Women – Get Your Butts Back Into The Kitchen!

Look, ever since McConnell shoved Amy Coney Barrett onto SCOTUS (even as early voting was underway and then Trump “bigly” losing re-election) we knew this was coming.   It wasn’t a question of if, but rather when and the case was already teed up when Barrett was confirmed.  (It only takes four Justices voting for Cert for them to formally hear a case) Still, the bombshell news of Alito’s draft opinion (dated February 10 I might add!) that went beyond the parameters of the actual Mississippi case banning abortions after fifteen weeks to go beyond what Mississippi asked for and overturn Roe v Wade is a gut punch.   Roberts I’m certain would have preferred to chip away at abortion rights, but the fact he isn’t the author of what will be the majority opinion indicates even he thought Mississippi went too far.

I mention that tidbit because if you didn’t know the senior Justice of the majority customarily gets to decide who writes the opinion and from the time he went before the Senate for his confirmation hearing Alito has dreamed of doing what he’s doing.   Thomas was happy to let him have it – he’s got issues of his own to deal with and let’s face it – he’s not been prolific in his career on the Court.  So expect this to be a 5-4 vote.   However, the bottom line is that SCOTUS will overturn Roe and over half the states already have so-called trigger laws on the books to enact draconian laws up to and including not just outright bans (with no exceptions) but even criminalizing abortion that will kick in immediately after the decision is handed down.   If the GOP retakes both chambers of Congress they will be under enormous pressure to pass a federal law outlawing abortion.   And if they get the WH too in 2024 they will get it done.

As I noted in a comment elsewhere it’s not going to stop there.   Bans on most forms of contraception will follow within a couple of years.   Maybe sooner than that.   Again, to the anti-abortion zealots the instant a sperm fertilizes an egg a whole new human life that HAS to be protected at all costs (well, until it is actually born – after that they don’t give a crap about it!) has been created.   IUDs, birth control pills and other medical forms of birth control prevent a fertilized egg/zygote from implanting in the uterine wall and is therefore what they call an Abortifacient – the same as an abortion.   If anyone reading this doesn’t believe these religious nuts are locked and loaded with a whole new set of laws, and that their legal machinery isn’t equally ready to move it through the federal courts at the speed of light PLEASE send me some of whatever it is you are smoking!   I really need it.

Even barrier birth control like condoms might wind up getting outlawed and we will again see vending machines in public bathrooms like I saw when I was a kid that had bold letters that were far more prominent than the brand name that said “FOR THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE ONLY” – sort of the old school “rubbers” as birth control version of Prohibition bathtub gin kits.

But what I’ve said so far only scratches the surface.   Women, and their partners too have become accustomed to family planning from birth control to abortion.   It’s allowed countless women to join the workforce, whether by choice or necessity.   Think how many women with dirtbag husbands or partners have managed to escape bad, even abusive situations.   Think how many loving couples that have started a family and from the get-go have to (these days) be setting aside money for college someday.   Or even the way the cost of even modest housing has shot up to even have a halfway decent place to live?   A second income is for the majority of couples, even with only one or no children at all a necessity.   With family planning as they know it GONE, a whole lot of people including Republican voters are going to be astounded.

In theory it all sounded sooooo good.   Reality is something they are going to find will suck in ways they never imagined.

It gets worse.   We already had a SCOTUS controlled by Justices appointed by minority Presidents chipping away at rights whether it be voting rights, that of workers to collectively bargain, consumer rights and even basic access to the federal courts via forced arbitration clauses as a condition of employment.   Now, for the first time in history we have SCOTUS taking away rights that had not only been granted but cemented through precedent in subsequent opinions!    Even if Roberts wants to continue what is now a fool’s errand to protect his legacy we have a Court poised to completely strip away more rights.   And continue to make it even harder for voters to choose legislators who will rein them in.   While it’s true you can’t gerrymander a statewide election you CAN do away with the rights of voters who would vote for non-Republican aka Fascist candidates.

As for women, a whole lot of them who’ve spent their entire working lives dealing with gender discrimination will find a new level imposed on them.   They will lose jobs or, if lucky “only” be reassigned into a lesser (and lower paying) position when they get pregnant.   Maternity leave?   It will either be a case of “be back on the job next week or don’t bother coming back.”   And yes, a LOT of men will freak out about the loss of household income.

There will be one group of people who are tickled pink though.   Men who want their women home playing June Cleaver.   Wearing a very nice dress as she cleans the house and cooks the meals.   In HER place so to speak.   Hell, there are plenty of women who if their hubby happens to make enough money be happy to crank out babies and play housewife.   However, the vast majority of women and even a majority of men are going to be very unhappy in the America we are headed for.

However, a bunch of wingnut preachers and a bunch of (mostly) men in elected office and in the judiciary have yearned for a return to 1950s America.   They have systematically gone about making it happen.   Women returned to “their place” as wives and mothers.   Some women will still be allowed to work as teachers and nurses.   And of course secretaries and I do mean secretary in the old-school sense of taking down memos and typing & answering phones.  For minimal pay of course.   As you consider that, think about this – forced pregnancy to full term and bearing a child will cut off countless women from education and ability to earn their own living.   Again we are talking about a return to an America where the average woman will be coerced into “marrying well” instead of being able to chart their own course in life.

I am sick inside over what’s coming and I’m an old white male.   I can’t imagine how much of a blow this is to women regardless of their age.   And to my fellow males regardless of skin color I say again some of you might think right now this is no big deal or that it’s actually a good thing and “your” woman should be at home or only working part-time so as to better take care of you that YOU are going to wind up hating how this all turns out.   It will take a generation at least to undo the damage, if it happens at all.

RICH, powerful and mostly white men (yes, there are some token blacks and women in the mix including on SCOTUS) want to roll back the clock to the 1950s.   When men ruled the roost and women knew their place.   If not barefoot and pregnant at least being homemakers and looking after the kids.

I’ll close with again noting that more is coming.   By more I mean LESS rights for people in both their personal and work lives.   And a final thought.   Abortion and birth control are soon to be things of the past but so will women in the military and gay rights.   And guess what “Justice” Thomas?   You think someone isn’t going to push to get a case overturning Loving v Virginia to the Court?   Trump unleashed the goobers to let their racist freak flags fly and interracial marriage & especially black men married to white women drives a TON of both male and female MAGAts insane!    Much as I want you gone from the Court if you keep hanging on I so hope a challenge makes it up to you.   That you have to look around the conference table at not only your fellow Federalist Society Fascists but at an incredibly smart, talented and far more qualified than you black woman who is married to a WHITE guy stares at you to see what you have to say!