Bypartasionship: One Reason That Might Be Impossible During Trump’s Term or Ever Again
In a recent conversation, I was told by a man, and I’m paraphrasing, that I needed to think positively about what is currently happening in the world and that everyone needed to try to work together. I wish that was possible.
Unfortunately, the overturning of Roe V Wade has made it impossible for a large section of our population to trust that our government will ever be open to compromise when they can’t even obey the people’s will. The purpose of having leaders who represent the different sides of the populace is to ensure that our laws don’t entirely favor one group and that the freedoms of one group of people aren’t taken away to aid another. They weren’t placed in office to spend their entire time in Washington, blocking everything the other party proposes because it comes from the other side. They are supposed to take what the opposite party proposes and find a way to make it work for both, and both are supposed to make sure the law is in line with the people’s wishes. Just because the party’s representatives don’t like something, they shouldn’t override their people’s will. The laws are supposed to be as fair as possible to the entire population. They should never overwhelmingly favor one group over another while at the same time following the will of the majority. In all cases, everyone should walk away with some part of the law they don’t like.
When I was first old enough to pay a tiny bit of attention to politics, I felt our representatives did their best to ensure every law passed benefitted both parties. Then Obama was elected president, and Mitch McConnel blatantly said his job was to block everything Obama did and make him a one-time president. Now, we can debate his exact meaning, and I’m not saying he was the first to think this or set out to it, but his words appeared to set a precedent for both parties to stop working with each other, which, as I’ve said is not the purpose of their position. After making this statement, McConnel blocked Obama from appointing a Supreme Court Judge with a lie (see this Bookings article for more information) which paved the way for Trump to place justices who according to NPR swore under oath :
"I would tell you that Roe v. Wade, decided in 1973, is a precedent of the United States Supreme Court. It has been reaffirmed," he (Neil Gorsuch) said. "A good judge will consider it as precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court worthy as treatment of precedent like any other."
“It is settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court, entitled the respect under principles of stare decisis," he (Brett Kavanaugh) said. "The Supreme Court has recognized the right to abortion since the 1973 Roe v. Wade case. It has reaffirmed it many times."
"Roe is not a super-precedent because calls for its overruling have never ceased. But that doesn't mean that Roe should be overruled. It just means that it doesn't fall in the small handful of cases like Marbury v. Madison and Brown v. Board that no one questions anymore," she (Amy Coney Barrett) added.
Now, people can argue semantics, but as the same article by Becky Sullivan on NPR says,
“As nominees, those justices consistently avoided direct statements about Roe, including whether they'd vote to overturn it. Instead, they often commented on the importance of precedent and constitutional guarantees to privacy.”
Therefore, their overturning Roe goes against everything they led people to believe they would do. In my opinion, they should lose their seats for perjury, and any other law they had a say in needs to be reviewed, not necessarily overturned, but reviewed. They and the other justices who voted with them should also be punished for blatantly going against the people’s will. Whether anyone likes it or not, a majority of the people in this country think Roe should be settled law, meaning they shouldn’t have touched the law. By doing so, they’ve told the entire country they don’t care about their right to privacy. Their decision sets a precedent for overturning other rulings that are settled law without new information that disproves the findings of the past ruling. Some of those laws will be laws that even that fraction of our society who opposed Roe would like to keep.
Remember, the critical part of Roe isn’t just abortion rights but privacy rights. Losing Roe means we’ve lost the right to privacy, and privacy affects everyone.
Our government can’t ask people to work with them then go against what most people want, and the fact that they did should worry even those who are against Roe because it removes their freedom as well. Because of the overturning of Roe, we are no longer a free country. Period. No matter how you feel about the situation, the majority ruled, and our government ignored us.
Here are some polls for those who want to proof about how the population feels about Roe.
According to Peer Research. Org
“Currently, 63% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 36% say it should be illegal in all or most cases.”
And
“About three-quarters of White evangelical Protestants (73%) think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. By contrast, 86% of religiously unaffiliated Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as do 71% of Black Protestants, 64% of White non-vangelical Protestants and 59% of Catholics.”
According to Forbes
“Gallup polls show 85% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in at least certain circumstances as of May, higher than when polling began in 1975 (76%), while an Associated Press/NORC poll conducted in June found 70% think abortion should be legal in all or most cases.”
And
“Americans’ support for abortion being broadly legal has largely remained steady since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, with polling from Pew Research Center finding that it went up from 61% in March 2022 to 63% in 2024, while AP/NORC’s polling found a higher jump from 64% to 70% just from July 2023 to July 2024.”
According to AP
“Around 6 in 10 Americans think their state should generally allow a person to obtain a legal abortion if they don’t want to be pregnant for any reason, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s an increase from June 2021, a year before the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to the procedure when about half of Americans thought legal abortion should be possible under these circumstances.”
According to https://www.vox.com/a/abortion-decision-statistics-opinions/abortion-polling-mistakes
“Our Vox poll shows a similar divide: close to half (46 percent) said abortion should be legal in "almost all" or "most" cases. Fifty percent said abortion should be legal "only in cases of rape, abuse, or if the woman’s health is at risk" (34 percent) or "never legal" (16 percent).”
And
“Half (53 percent) said they do not want to overturn Roe v. Wade. Keep in mind: these are people who say they think abortion should only be legal in rare circumstances. Wouldn’t you expect most of them to disagree with the Roe decision?”
According to 538
“What percentage of Americans do you think said abortion should be legal in all or most cases in June 2015 versus in February 2024? 45% June 2015 55% February 2024”
According to PRRI:
“Nearly two-thirds of Americans support abortion legality in all or most cases; partisans remain deeply divided.
More than six in ten Americans (64%) say abortion should be legal in most or all cases; by contrast, 35% of Americans say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases.”
And
“A majority of residents in most states say that abortion should be legal; in no state do more than 16% of Americans support a ban on abortion.
A majority of residents in most states say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases; there are only five states where a minority of residents support abortion legality.
Roughly one in ten residents in most states say abortion should be illegal in all cases. This belief is most common in Kentucky and North Dakota (both 16%).
Majorities of residents in blue states (70%) and red states (57%) and nearly two-thirds (64%) of residents in battleground states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.”
I could go on with more polls and studies, but I don’t think I need to. What the Supreme Court did wasn’t bipartisan, which they were supposed to be. It also shows they can’t be trusted to make laws based on the people's will.
To be completely honest, I don’t believe abortion is a legal issue. There shouldn’t even be a law on it one way or another. It’s a medical procedure. Plan and simple. Do all doctors have to perform them? Of course not. Private practices and hospitals can choose not to perform them, but those willing should have just as much right to do so because every medical procedure should be available to every person who decides.
No one has the right to tell anyone what to do with their own body. Every human being can make a decision about their body. If they want to smoke, they smoke. If they want to refuse chemo, they can. If they want tattoos, they can get them. If they want body piercings, they can get them. If they want to eat all the sugar in the world despite being diabetic, then let them. There is no excuse for not knowing the pros and cons of anything in our world.
If you want to know the statics on the number of people who died of lung cancer due to smoking, ask Google. If you want to see if you can get pregnant after an ablation and tubal, google it. I just did. You can. However, it is extremely rare. I didn’t know that.
Therefore, there is no excuse for not making educated decisions. I say that to reinforce the idea that women who have abortions don’t make the decision lightly, as so many who are against the procedure think, which most who are for Roe understand.
While I have your attention, I also want to share some more information about abortion to further explain why so many people believe Roe should be reinstated and codified even if they would never have one and do believe it's killing a person.
One of the biggest things I hear from Pro-life people is that women are using it as birth control. No, they use birth control as birth control.
Side note: Plan B and all other emergency contraceptives are birth control. Plan B and other pills like it are taken within 72 hours after having sex. The pills delay ovulation, nothing more. They are taken as preventative because an egg can be fertilized 3 to 5 days after sex, so the delay allows time for the sperm to die off to prevent fertilization. They do not affect a fertilized egg or implantation.
Back to my point about using abortion as birth control. According to the National Abortion Federation, it is a myth that
“Women are using abortion as a method of birth control. In fact, half of all women getting abortions report that contraception was used during the month they became pregnant1. Some of these couples had used the method improperly; some had forgotten or neglected to use it on the particular occasion they conceived; and some had used a contraceptive that failed. No contraceptive method prevents pregnancy 100% of the time. If abortion were used as a primary method of birth control, a typical woman would have at least two or three pregnancies per year -- 30 or more during her lifetime. In fact, most women who have abortions have had no previous abortions (52%) or only one previous abortion (26%)5. Considering that most women are fertile for over 30 years, and that birth control is not perfect, the likelihood of having one or two unintended pregnancies is very high.
Also according to the NAF, it is a myth that:
“Women have abortions for selfish or frivolous reasons. The decision to have an abortion is rarely simple. Most women base their decision on several factors, the most common being lack of money and/or unreadiness to start or expand their families due to existing responsibilities. Many feel that the most responsible course of action is to wait until their situation is more suited to childrearing; 66% plan to have children when they are older, financially able to provide necessities for them, and/or in a supportive relationship with a partner so their children will have two parents8 . Others wanted to get pregnant but developed serious medical problems, learned that the fetus had severe abnormalities, or experienced some other personal crisis. About 13,000 women each year have abortions because they have become pregnant as a result of rape or incest1 .”
Now, I’m not saying that some women haven’t lied about their reasons, but I know that deciding to have an abortion wasn’t a simple decision for any person I know who had one, and each person had one for a completely different reason. Not that a woman or anyone should have to justify their decisions about their body to anyone. Not even to those who think it’s murder.
To those primarily religious and predominantly Christian people who oppose abortion, remember God gave us free will. Repeat it, FREE WILL. I won’t argue what the Bible does or doesn’t say about abortion because it doesn’t matter. Despite all the “laws” in the Bible, one of the biggest takeaways from the book is that we were given FREE WILL to do what we want to ourselves. You can’t take away something God gave people. For those non-religious people, remember, our country was formed on the idea we have freedom of religion, free speech, the right to privacy, etc. Once you start removing a person’s freedoms and rights, you go against the purpose of this country and the God many believe created humans.
For those who claim that abortions take away the rights and freedoms of the fetus, you’re reaching too far.
According to the CDC, “In 2021, the majority (80.8%) of abortions were performed at ≤9 weeks’ gestation, and nearly all (93.5%) were performed at ≤13 weeks’ gestation.”
Which is interesting because according to the Mayo Clinic, the majority of miscarriages “happen during the first trimester of pregnancy, which is about the first 13 weeks.”
Another interesting piece of data is, according to the https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/99facts/pregrate.htm#:~:text=Overall%2C%20U.S.%20women%20are%20currently%20averaging%202.0,the%20woman%20when%20the%20child%20was%20conceived , “Overall, U.S. women are currently averaging 2.0 live births, 0.7 induced abortions, and 0.5 miscarriages and stillbirths”.
The reason for miscarriages and stillbirths is that the embryo is still in the developmental stage. It isn’t a person who breathes on its own, can think independently, and can live outside another person’s body. Therefore, not a person. I’m not saying the miscarriages aren’t heartbreaking for the women who wanted babies. They are. However, during this period, it is common for an embryo to stop developing; most women don’t even know they are pregnant, and the cells are not human. It doesn’t get a say in anything the person carrying it or God does to it.
So, for all of you who believe that God created every one of us individually and that miscarriages are also God’s plan, he/she/it is “killing” just as many as the women whom he/she/it gave free will to are doing. Possibly even more if you consider the fact that a portion of those aborted could have very well been miscarried if the person hadn’t chosen to take action and considering the fact that an unknown percentage of miscarriages happen without the woman even knowing so are therefore not being reported.
I’ll leave you with one last thing to think about. Guttmacher.com says that 73% of women report that the reason they had an abortion was “that she could not afford a baby now.” 73%! Meaning money was the reason they needed an abortion. If you want to prevent abortions, vote for people who want to pass laws to help care for pregnant women by feeding them, housing them, giving them a livable wage, providing health insurance, and laws that will continue to such help to the mother and her child or children until the child/children are eighteen. If you make having children affordable, more women will keep their children, and more people might try to have one.
Unfortunately, so many people seem too selfish to pass such laws. Because of this and because laws are growing even stricter, we're going to see childhood poverty rise. We will see more parents and grandparents raising their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We’re going to see crime go up. Loving people with children will do anything…ANYTHING…for their children. We’re also going to see child abuse cases rise as women who’ve been mentally destroyed by rape take out their emotions on their children. I’m not saying all women who are raped will do this, but a percentage do, and the cases will rise. A few men who aren’t the fathers of these children will see the child as an object and vent their anger on the child.
Not only will we see all that rise, but maternal deaths are already slowly rising. Women are losing the ability to have children after miscarriages that were improperly treated or after DIY abortions. We were going to see many things, things most men have never heard of, nor have many women, because the society that most of our grandmothers came from didn’t talk about anything personal. Women then were objects. Their health…their feelings…their lives didn’t matter. Overturning Roe sends us back down that path.
Throughout my teens, twenties, and thirties, my lack of female hormones deformed my uterus and destroyed me and my body. No one cared. I begged for a hysterectomy. The doctors refused. I nearly had cancer. I lost a large chunk of my cervix in surgery before I ever knew about my uterus and was told to be careful conceiving because my cervix wouldn’t stretch big enough to carry a baby to term. The doctor said they could put a basket in there to help, but that was no guarantee of the baby’s survival. I asked for a hysterectomy. They said no because I might want kids.
One day, I started having this debilitating pain in my stomach. I was told by my doctor, very nonchalantly, that it was probably an ectopic pregnancy and that I should come to the office in a few days for an ultrasound. Did you read that? I said, “IN A FEW DAYS.” Do you know how quickly that type of pregnancy can take your life? Quick. At the time, I’d never heard of such a thing. My sister was freaking out, but because my doctor wasn’t, I ignored her warnings. Luckily, I only had a cyst burst. It caused more damage to my insides, but it wasn’t as life-threatening as option A. Just because I was lucky doesn’t justify the lack of urgency in my care. I should have received immediate medical attention. Because as I said, the cyst bursting did damage. It twisted one of my tubes. It flipped one of my ovaries and adhered it to my colon.
For years, I continued to have one issue after another. Years of pain, years of horrific bleeding, miscarriages even though I was on multiple forms of birth control, etc., all of it I would have been saved from had they done proper testing and figured out what was wrong with me when I was young and put me on the appropriate meds. I might not have had the cyst to begin with. My metabolic system wouldn’t be completely nonexistent. I wouldn’t have suffered two miscarriages. I wouldn’t have bled for an entire year after both miscarriages. You have no idea what kind of mental damage having miscarriages does to a person, let alone the damage a year of bleeding can do. The bleeding alone exhausted my body to the point that I really started gaining weight, and nothing I did really helped.
If you’re wondering why I told you everything about myself, it's because, as I said earlier, before Roe V Wade, women were objects. Our bodies and health issues were barely discussed, let alone studied. If our society hadn’t treated women that way, we’d be a lot further along in women’s health than we are. If we’d treated women as people, the second I started having issues at twelve years old, or at the least by the time I was eighteen, people would have known what was wrong with me and how to treat me. Roe opened our society's eyes to many things. It made us start talking about how normal or abnormal something was. It made it easier for women to talk to doctors about their issues. We haven’t come far enough, as you can see by my story, and by overturning it, we’ve set all that back, and more women, probably more than any amount of “babies” we’ll save, will die or surfer. That alone proves that overturning Roe wasn’t about saving lives.