The night before my 20th birthday, I was first made aware of truly terrifying news. Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision granting the nationwide right to terminate a dangerous or unwanted pregnancy, is on the chopping block. This was revealed via a leaked draft of a majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, and this draft is a doozy. The decision is not final until the Court themselves release a ruling, but it is likely to hold. Reading the words themselves reveal an argument that is legally questionable at best. Reading between the lines reveals the extent of elitist political interference in the Supreme Court’s proceedings. This draft deserves thorough dissection, and that’s what this entry will try to accomplish.

In one word, the main argument this draft uses to justify overturning both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey is rancid. It’s arguing that because the Constitution makes no explicit reference to abortion, the matter should be left entirely to the states. I’ll even be generous and mention that if we look only at the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution, that claim makes sense. However, if we look at various other parts of the Constitution, this argument falls apart like a sandcastle in a tsunami.

Take, for example, the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion. It’s common knowledge, after all, that the anti-abortion movement frequently uses religion as justification for its beliefs. Since this religious bent is often kept in the actual political rhetoric, one could argue that their policies are unconstitutional based on that alone. However, that would be the cheap way of explaining that, so I have to dig deeper. Let’s look at the Bible itself and turn their argument on its head. For one thing, the Bible mentions life as beginning at first breath several times. I mention this because in the womb, the fetus is dependent on its mother for oxygen because it can’t breathe until birth. 

Not to mention, there are other religions than Christianity in America, and only certain kinds of Christians are generally pro-life in the first place. In fact, a prominent group of Jewish rabbis came out swinging against the SCOTUS’ draft decision, saying that the opinions of some Christians were being forced upon everybody. If that isn’t a flagrant violation of religious freedoms, we might as well all be legally forced to go to evangelical megachurches. After all, if forcing a single belief of a single denomination of a single religion onto a nation with great religious diversity isn’t against the 1st Amendment, nothing is.

Also, the Ninth Amendment, which allows for rights not listed in the Constitution to be protected, exists. I’m amazed that people whose literal job is to interpret and enforce the Constitution would screw the pooch like this. Enough legal justification for keeping Roe v. Wade is quite literally with that amendment, but no, a right to privacy is apparently entirely fabricated by the courts. Throwing 50 years of precedent down the drain is totally the most legally sound decision here, right? Who am I kidding, it’s not.

It’s not just women’s rights on the line, but LGBTQ+ rights, in addition to many other things we now take for granted. However, only time will tell the extent of any possible damage. That said, I am now deeply frightened for the future of this country. If five or six unelected, conservative Justices can dictate the lives of every American, I would finally be ready to say that this s*** isn’t true democracy. While America isn’t quite as authoritarian as Russia or China, I can see that in our future. I just hope to all our gods that such a fate is averted.