For every woman who might read this, welcome to being a second-class citizen. No matter your age, your ethnicity, your income status, your location in the country, this is what happened to all of us on June 24, 2022. For the first time in history, the Supreme Court of the United States took away a right. Women may no longer make their own healthcare decisions.
Some people say there is a lot to unpack in the Supreme Court decision. Not really. It’s simple. The court is on track to roll back our rights as citizens and this may just be the first of them.
But we should be clear – it’s not all about the final decision. It has been in the works for years, but recent actions helped the right be successful. When it couldn’t be done legitimately through well-established norms, they did it by lying to the country and changing the rules.
During the confirmation process, the truth was devalued by the three justices confirmed in the previous administration. To put it more bluntly, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch lied openly in their confirmation hearings to the committee and all of America when they claimed Roe v. Wade was established and reaffirmed precedent. They lied to become a part of the most powerful court in the country where they would never be held accountable as unelected justices. They were appointed by a president who we now know perpetrated lie after election lie, and they followed his lead.
Sen. Mitch McConnell spent the last years as majority leader bastardizing democracy. First, he denied Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to the court, a hearing and an up-or-down vote in the U. S. Senate. His reasoning was that seven months was too close to the presidential election. Then he fast tracked all of the twice-impeached president’s nominees confirming Coney Barret just eight days before the election. EIGHT DAYS.
More than half of white women (53%) and the anybody-but-Hillary crowd gave us President Donald Trump. They green lighted the repeal of Roe v. Wade by voting for him or just not voting. They just couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Hillary – they didn’t “like” her. And polls show they didn’t believe that if Trump became president that Roe v. Wade would be overturned. Now here we are and the rights of women, members of the LGBTQ Community, and others are on the chopping block. Maybe now they get it – everyone’s rights are at risk.
Since the ruling there have been protests in almost every city. But this is the time for something different. People who support the right to privacy and don’t want to return to burning witches at the stake, as Justice Samuel Alito suggests, can’t just protest, lament and whine.
With every disappointment there is opportunity. This is ours. We know women, young people, and underserved groups can organize and turn out votes. The GOP has thrown up as many obstacles as possible, but we have done it before, and we can do it again.
Americans who are reviled and frightened by this decision need to once again, step up. The 70% of Americans who want our rights protected need to show up. We must organize to make sure every single person who is enraged or marginalized goes to the polls, wherever they live. We must talk to those with whom we live, work, and play and remind them that what is happening is not democracy. It is not equality. It is not equal just under the law. It is not America.
Diane Denish was the 28th lieutenant governor of New Mexico. She was elected in 2002, running on the same ticket as Governor Bill Richardson, and was re-elected in 2006. Denish is the first woman to hold that post.