Where Does the Anti-Abortion Movement Go after Roe?

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Supreme Court draft opinion signals a new era for the 50-year effort to end the constitutional right to abortion. Next goals include a national ban and, in some cases, classifying abortion as homicide.

Anti-abortion activists at the 49th annual March for Life in January. The movement to restrict or banish abortion is entering a new era. | Kenny Holston for The New York Times
For nearly half a century, the anti-abortion movement has propelled itself toward a goal that at times seemed impossible, even to true believers: overturning Roe v. Wade.

That single-minded mission meant coming to Washington every January for the March for Life to mark Roe’s anniversary. It required electing anti-abortion lawmakers and keeping the pressure on to pass state restrictions. It involved funding anti-abortion lobbying groups, praying and protesting outside clinics, and opening facilities to persuade women to keep their pregnancies. Then this week, the leaked draft of the Supreme Court opinion that would overturn the constitutional right to abortion revealed that anti-abortion activists’ dream of a post-Roe America appeared poised to come to pass.

The court’s opinion is not final, but the draft immediately shifted the horizon by raising a new question: If Roe is struck down, where does the anti-abortion movement go next? » | Elizabeth Dias and Ruth Graham | Saturday, May 7, 2022

If this draconian ban on abortions is passed in the USA, we will have to look to Saudi Arabia for some enlightenment on the question of abortions! Abortion in Saudi Arabia. Whoever would have ‘thunk’? – Mark

Lawrence: Samuel Alito's Lies Did Not Stop in His Confirmation Hearing

May 6, 2022 • MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell details the years of lying and hypocrisy from Republicans and Republican-appointed Supreme Court Justices on abortion rights.

Abortion and the Supreme Court: What’s at Stake? | The Economist

May 6, 2022 • A leaked draft opinion suggests the Supreme Court is poised to overturn the right to abortion in America. If this ruling goes ahead, women's rights are in danger.

This is one of the most ridiculous, retrograde steps I have ever heard of in a so-called first-world country. If this is passed, if abortions are made illegal, women will have to return to less scientific methods such as the use of hot baths, bottles of gin and knitting needles, or else go to some back street joint to get fixed up! America is truly falling into darkness. Sad! – © Mark Alexander

Overturning Right to Abortion in US an Attack on Freedoms, Says VP Kamala Harris - BBC News

May 4, 2022 • Overturning the legal right of all Americans to abortion would be an attack on freedoms, the US Vice President Kamala Harris has said. …

Robert Reich : The End of Roe v Wade?

What does the leaked opinion mean for abortion access right now? Will it affect other privacy rights? What can be done to protect abortion? Here's what we know.

Joy Reid: McConnell’s Stolen SCOTUS Poised to Rip Away 50 Years of Rights

May 4, 2022 • The Supreme Court opinion draft showing the court’s intent to overturn Roe v. Wade has sparked calls for immediate action from the Democrats. Joy Reid and her panel discuss.

Through the Trumpian Looking Glass, Forcing Women to Die from Illegal Abortions Is ‘Pro-life’

THE GUARDIAN: The US supreme court leak shows that the levers of power are pulled by those with no skin in the game, at the expense of those with an entire uterus in it

An American girl born this week will have fewer rights than an American girl born in 1973. This is the likely import of the leaked US supreme court draft opinion on abortion rights – and cause for a huge thank-you-very-much to all those guys who suggested that women marching on Washington in January 2017 were “overreacting” to the election of Donald Trump. Please make sure to tell women again when they are being overemotional – even as they sit and watch one of Trump’s justice picks scream and sob his way through his own confirmation hearings. In the meantime, resign yourself to yet another “quirk” of the looking-glass world Trump has created. Of course – OF COURSE – women’s access to abortion would end up being restricted or removed by the deliberate decisions of a man widely imagined to have personally helped to keep the Manhattan abortion sector afloat for decades. » | Marina Hyde | Tuesday, May 3, 2022

‘It’s Dehumanizing’: Texas Valedictorian Goes Off Script to Attack Abortion Ban

THE GUARDIAN: Paxton Smith criticizes near-total ban that makes no exception for rape or incest

The valedictorian at a Texas high school went off script while delivering her graduation speech, criticising the state’s extreme abortion ban in an address that has since been widely shared on social media.

School administrators had signed off on Paxton Smith’s pre-written speech on how TV and media have shaped her worldview. But, when it came time to address the graduating class of Lake Highlands high school, she pivoted.

“In light of recent events, it feels wrong to talk about anything but what is currently affecting me and millions of other women in this state,” she said, her voice shaking as she began. » | Maanvi Singh | Thursday, June 3, 2021