We all know about the leaked decision to overturn Roe, and how Justice Breyer retired 3 days after the timestamp on that leaked document, and then the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization announcement, overturning Roe.
As the Federalist Society looks to insert government into personal decisions, one penumbral effect the decision has is that people might think their rights are more limited than they actually are. In essence, SCOTUS is intimidating doctors, pharmacists, healthcare organizations, and pregnant people into assuming certain rights are not protected. So, President Biden’s team has put up a website, ReproductiveRights.gov, to inform people. Pass that link on to other people so they know.
Also, another good way to inform yourself and others is to read this cogent post by nuclear scientist Cheryl Rofer who digests the Executive Order. Here is just one part of Rofer’s post:
1. The President has directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to take the following actions and submit a report to him within 30 days on efforts to:
- Protect Access to Medication Abortion.
- Ensure Emergency Medical Care.
- Protect Access to Contraception.
- Launch Outreach and Public Education Efforts.
- Convene Volunteer Lawyers.
I particularly like that last bullet point about volunteer lawyers and pro bono representation.
The Attorney General and the White House Counsel will convene private pro bono attorneys, bar associations, and public interest organizations to encourage robust legal representation of patients, providers, and third parties lawfully seeking or offering reproductive health care services throughout the country. Such representation could include protecting the right to travel out of state to seek medical care. Immediately following the Supreme Court decision, the President announced his Administration’s position that Americans must remain free to travel safely to another state to seek the care they need, as the Attorney General made clear in his statement, and his commitment to fighting any attack by a state or local official who attempts to interfere with women exercising this right.
Read the whole thing.
We need to inform ourselves so that if our friends and family members need to make a decision about their own bodies and lives, we can counteract the fear, uncertainty, doubt, and abuse of government power that Republicans are using. Spreading good information is important, and I will tell you why I think that.
A couple decades ago, my friend X asked me for help because friend Y had a birth control failure one night and did not know what to do. I said, “Have they tried Plan B, the pills you can take to prevent pregnancy?” They had not heard about that. Long story short, Plan B worked for them, and they have had healthy, happy, meaningful lives because they could make their own decision about their bodies.
The Executive Order is a good move, considering the circumstances, and is one positive step until we can elect more and better Democrats to the House and Senate, and #abolishthefilibuster to #expandtheCourt, so the Court is aligned with the majority of voters. Remember that Republicans lost the popular vote in all but one Presidential election after 1988, so they should not have 6 out of 9 Justices on the Court.
So happy to see another diary front-paged!