Tuesday, June 25: REMINDER: This Election Is About Protecting Women’s Right

Posted on June 26, 2024 at 12:00 AM

by Karen Pataky, Chair, Health Policy Taskforce

The 2024 election will determine more than who will serve as our next president. Just as important, it’s about who will be our next Supreme Court justices and what their loyalties will be. It is likely that the two oldest justices will retire within the next four years, and the next president will replace them.

We know that President Trump has already appointed three justices specifically for their backgrounds with the Federalist Society and their opposition to reproductive rights. Their far-right political and religious views became evident within their first Supreme Court session and resulted in the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and ended federal protections for abortion rights that had stood for over half a century.

At first, the court told us not to worry, because contraception and abortion exceptions for incest and “protecting the life of the mother” would still be in place. But we have discovered that in many states, decisions about protecting women’s health are being decided by politicians, not physicians. We have heard the tragic stories of a pregnant women reaching the edge of death before traveling to a different state where physicians are still free to end an ectopic pregnancy or one that risks a septic infection or other life-threatening complications.

Now we are hearing of the far right’s plans to reverse the 1986 Emergency Medical and Active Labor regulation, crafted to ensure proper emergency treatment for patients with life-threatening medical conditions who might not have insurance, the ability to pay for care, or U.S. citizenship. Some far-right politicians in Texas are considering resuming enforcement of the 1873 Comstock Act, an anti-vice law that could be used to ban sending abortion or contraceptive information through the mail. State judges and legislators are also seeking ways to outlaw medical procedures including in vitro fertilization and sexual revision treatment.

It is cruel and un-American for judges and politicians with no medical expertise to force their beliefs on the entire medical system. Politicians do not belong in our medical offices or hospitals. Their efforts to control women’s bodies smack of fascism.

The Supreme Court is the last defense against further erosion of women’s rights and the encroachment of politicians in health care decisions. To restore a court with justices dedicated to protecting our constitutional rights, VOTE DEMOCRATIC!!!