Okay, so I saw this little bit on the news late yesterday afternoon. But it was a busy day for me, and by then, I had already published two blog entries. So there was no real opportunity to talk about this. But this news story is what everybody seems to be talking about right now.
About a month and a half or so ago, a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion obtained by Politico showed that the Supreme Court was leaning in favor of reversing the Roe v. Wade decision that made abortions legal across the land. Roe v. Wade, of course, was one of the most famous and consequential court cases in American history, and it has stood for nearly half a century.
This is a Supreme Court that has been packed with three ultraconservative justices from the Trump years. Trump has perhaps been the luckiest man in the United States, getting away with things time and time again. He also got more Supreme Court nominees in his four years in office than most presidents ever get, even if they serve two terms. One of Trump's biggest promises was to reverse Roe v. Wade, and that is apparently what a very right-leaning court has now done.
It has officially happened now. The landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling of Roe v Wade made abortions legal across the land. Ever since, religious fundamentalists and Republicans have been making every effort to reverse the decision. They were relentless and played a long term game, keeping their eye on the ball, looking always to reverse the decision. They finally managed the feat. There was a bit of luck. Again, who could have known that Trump would win the 2016 election, and that he would then get three Supreme Court nominations? But that is exactly what happened. And now, Roe v Wade has been struck down.
And so, we have gone back quite literally 50 years in this regard. Officially, religious views are not supposed to impact judges, who are, of course, part of the government. In writing about the impending reversal days after the news of it was leaked to the public, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd made a very good point:
The Supreme Court’s impending repeal of Roe will be owed to more than judicial argumentation. There are prior worldviews at work in this upheaval.
Yes, Dowd rightly points out the rather unbelievable and lopsided dominance of the Supreme Court by Catholics. She goes on to say:
There is an astonishing preponderance of Catholics on the Supreme Court — six out of the nine justices, and a seventh, Neil Gorsuch, was raised as a Catholic and went to the same Jesuit boys’ high school in a Maryland suburb that Brett Kavanaugh and my nephews did, Georgetown Prep.
Historically, abortions are particularly hated by Catholics, and it was predominately Catholic Justices who were behind this historic reversal. It does indeed appear that religious leanings were in play here. In fact, the whole anti-abortion side of the debate has seemingly always been fueled by the religious right. They hardly even try to hide this seemingly inconvenient fact. That begs the question: whatever happened to the separation of church and state?
Too Much Church in the State by Maureen Dowd Opinion Columnist for the New York Times, May 14, 2022:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/14/opinion/catholic-roe-abortion-supreme-court.html
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