Cruelty is the point.
The Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson that overturned Roe v Wade and delegated abortion’s legality to the states is essentially the same fire-breathing statement as the earlier leaked draft, which historians ridiculed because Justice Samuel Alito cited two 17th century judges, who were recommending death for convicted witches, as his guidance.
I suspect Alito left that historical irrelevance in purposely; this was not a mistake.
The court majority is expressing brazen misogyny.
This decision casts a broad shadow over the lives of women, not only by the denial of abortion access, but with the omission of any floor of protection within anti-abortion states.
There is no mention of the life of the mother, or of the torments of rape and incest; no acknowledgement of the suffering and dangers of pregnancy.
The life of the fetus gets a lot of verbiage from Alito; but of women, none.
This willful cruelty will be noticed internationally, by friend and foe alike.
Women in anti-choice states now will be surveilled for any sign of pregnancy.
They will be persecuted.
If there are signs of miscarriage, they might be chained to a hospital bed.
I mention these possibilities because they have already happened, long before Dobbs.
Who might perpetrate these horrors?
Anybody.
But I especially worry about the hyper masculine militias roaming our country, forever in search of purpose; these brown-shirts may find explicit support for their viciousness.
Judith Parker
Sequim