By Drew Sheneman
Originally published on NJ.com on December 3, 2021
The decades-long Republican assault on abortion rights seems to be coming to a head in this year’s term of the Supreme Court. If the questioning of the justices at this week’s hearing is any indication, Roe is very much in danger of being severely weakened if not overturned entirely. It should horrify, but not shock you, that this is where we stand because, after all, many of the conservative justices were handpicked for exactly this reason.
Access to abortion services is, as of this writing, a fundamental right protected under the constitution. The right was established decades ago under Roe v. Wade and has been the law of the land ever since. It would be unprecedented to have such a fundamental right, granted by the Supreme Court decision, reversed by the same court. There are plenty of legal scholars who worry such a move would delegitimize the court and cast it as a purely political body, none of those scholars are on the court.
Public perception of the court used to be that it was a deliberative body of the nation’s finest legal minds charged with ensuring the nation’s laws didn’t run afoul of the constitution. That was never true, especially the part about the nation’s finest legal minds. Appointments were always partisan to a certain extent, but justices were expected to tamp down their personal beliefs and defer to the law and constitution. That’s no longer true. Appointments are explicitly political, with right-wing organizations like the Heritage Foundation providing Trump with a pre-approved list of justices willing to serve as flying monkeys.
Mitch McConnell stole seats and Trump filled them with justices who have no shame in dictating the reproductive health care of American women.
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