The spate of electoral victories, many of them in politically crucial swing states, for the Democrats reinforces that the decision of the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe versus Wade, the landmark judgment of the US Supreme Court which said that women have a constitutional right to an abortion, would remain at the centre of next year’s US President’s elections. The judgment, which many had thought could be the proverbial lifesaver for the divided Republican Party, is actually hurting it, electorally.
What is interesting, however, is that the original judgment was possibly built on a false premise. This false premise was that the plaintiff – Norma Leah Nelson McCorvey better known by her more-popular pseudonym Jane Roe – had been raped as a result of which she became pregnant. Truth is, which she later herself admitted, she had never been raped nor was she facing any threat to her life due to the preganancy – the ground on which she was seeking to be allowed to terminate her pregnancy.
It is also a fact that Roe, despite the January 22, 1973-judgment of the United States Supreme Court in Roe v Wade – Wade being the then Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade, in which the court by a majority of 7-2 ruled that women had the right to an abortion “free of interference by the State”, actually gave birth to the child – her third – that she desperately was trying to abort.
In her later years, from a staunchly pro-choice or women-have-the-right-over-their-body activist, she became a anti-abortion or pro-life campaigner, something for which she was paid handsomely.
But, now that the US Supreme Court, packed with consertative justices, many of who proudly wear their pro-Republican political leanings on their gowns, has decided to over-turn the landmark judgment by a 5-4 majority, the response of the US Government and its citizenry will decide if the world’s strongest democracy retains the right to be the policeman of the civilized world or be the bully in the classroom.
While yesterday’s ruling does not make abortion illegal nationwide, it does empower all US states to make their own rules with regard to abortion, including making it completely unlawful or putting in place restrictions to it.
Unless the US Congress takes steps to legislate to somehow overturn the Supreme Court judgment and give back to women the right over their body, it will be extremely difficult for the US to lecture the world about what’s right and what’s wrong.
The moral high ground that the US so enjoys and likes to brandish, just like many Americans like brandishing their weapons, will no longer be unequivocal and will be looked at with suspicion.
The US Supreme Court’s judgment is the third instance in the last about a year or so that has taken the sheen off the US’ right to lecture anybody else about morality and freedom.
The slide began with the withdrawal of US armed forces from Afghanistan after over 10 years, a decision that brought the Taliban back to power along with the accompanying blood-shed and butchering of innocent Afghans.
Then came the Russian attack on Ukraine, which again showed how the US could no longer be trusted by its allies to help them in case of unwarranted attacks by expansionist powers like Russia and China.
The overturning of Roe v Wade is the final nail in the proverbial coffin of the sanctimonious leadership of the US.
It is also a clear signal, as if one was required, of how, world-over, a right-wing shift is taking place and being cemented. Most of the liberal ecosystem, meanwhile, has no idea how to deal with it.
President Joe Biden has so far made the right noises against the SC judgment, but it is the masses, including those who support the Republican Party, who have, through their votes, shown that the Supreme Court was wrong.
For the US as a nation, that the judgment will besmirch US’ standing in the civilized world is a no-brainer. The bigger headache for the superpower is: Not doing anything concrete to overturn the SC judgment and give back the power to choose to the women will show to the rest of the world that it doesn’t necessarily practice what it preaches.
