Dear America: We Had A Good Run ...

The trajectory of American life is moving in one seemingly inexorable direction — toward a nation separate and unequal.

I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If you received this email - or you are a free subscriber - and you’d like to subscribe: you can sign up below.

Abortion is Not a Women’s Issue … It’s a Human Rights Issue

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There are many ways to analyze the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday, overturning Roe v. Wade. There’s the fundamental lawlessness of the Court; the hypocrisy of the decision; the exacerbation of America’s already intense political divisions; the economic and social costs of ending abortion in half the country, and the political repercussions close to four months before midterm elections. But it’s important to remember that, first and foremost, abortion is a human rights issue. It is about women's bodily autonomy, the right to control what happens to their body, the right to decide when and how they procreate, and, in overturning Roe, the Supreme Court has told the approximately 166 million women in the United States: “you are second-class citizens.”

A country that tells women (or as the conservative majority of the Court views them: the crunchy outer shell of a fetus) that their rights are secondary to an unborn child does not prioritize women’s rights. And we’re not talking about half the country here. In effect, the Court’s decision tells all women in America that their rights are not inalienable but are upheld only by the whim of elected representatives or voters. It would be akin to telling Black Americans that their rights are conditional and dependent on where they live in America. It would be akin to creating laws restricting the right to vote or gathering with people of a different race. Oh wait, that was the case in the South for decades before Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act.

While I realize comparisons to Jim Crow might seem a bit extreme, consider the current situation. A woman in Tennessee or Oklahoma, or Arkansas could wake up tomorrow, take a pregnancy test, find out they are pregnant, and have virtually no recourse within the borders of the state where they live to terminate it. They would have to drive hours out of state, get on a plane, or figure out how to get abortion medication. If there’s a problem with the pregnancy, doctors within their state could face restrictions on how far they can go to protect the mother's life, particularly if it means putting the unborn child's life at risk. If they lack the resources to travel, they will have even more limited options. They could be forced to bring a child to term against their will simply because their elected leaders say they must. That is the new reality in America. And it’s why the Court’s 5-4 decision is not about abortion or politics or federalism; it’s about denying women the fundamental rights spelled out in the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The End of the American Experiment?

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