Supreme Court Issues Dystopian Decision, Reversing Roe

We knew this day would come. The Republican Party has been laying the groundwork for years to reverse Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed abortion rights (if not actual access) to all Americans. That six Supreme Court justices—three of whom were nominated by a twice-impeached, two-time-popular-vote loser—would strip millions of Americans of their reproductive freedom is unprecedented and grotesque.

And now, here we are. Living in a country that just went back on the idea held for the past half-century that all genders should have equal rights to privacy, bodily autonomy, and reproductive freedom. Abortion is now illegal in the 13 states that had trigger bans waiting for Roe to fall. Another dozen or more states are poised to outlaw abortion as soon as possible.

That leaves a patchwork of states to somehow continue providing abortions for their own residents while also taking on the necessary task of providing care to patients coming from more restrictive states.

It also leaves people in restrictive states who need or want an abortion with the undue burden of arranging the payment, time off work, childcare, transportation, lodging, etc. to travel out of state to get one. And it forces people who assist them to risk legal charges for violating tattletale laws such as those already on the books in Texas and Oklahoma.

How astonishingly dystopian.

When people say elections don’t matter, they need to look no further than Roe’s reversal to see how wrong they are. Presidents nominate federal judges and Supreme Court justices. Senators vote to confirm or reject them. Both Houses of Congress vote on laws such as the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), which could have saved national abortion rights despite the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. (WHPA passed in the House in 2021. It was defeated twice this year in the Senate — in February and in May — with every Republican voting to kill the bill and every Democrat except Joe Manchin of West Virginia voting in favor of it.) Legislatures and governors determine whether states have regressive, unconstitutional laws like the ones mentioned above or whether they have laws that protect residents’ basic human rights.

The vast majority of Americans who support legal abortion need to be as dogged in their fight for abortion rights as the religious right has been in its decades-long effort to achieve its vicious and volatile “victory” in quashing those rights.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 8, and there are 35 Senate seats up for regular election. Here’s a list of the candidates we’ve endorsed so far—check back regularly because there will be more to come as the midterm election nears. We’ve also endorsed a number of candidates for the House of Representatives, where Democrats currently hold a thin majority.

If you’d like to get involved with our Get Out The Vote efforts (we’ll be phone banking and canvassing to support progressive campaigns in the coming months), please text FIGHT to 83084. If you’d like to donate to our efforts to help pro-choice candidates get elected, click here.

We knew this day would come. We also know that a new day will come when abortion rights are returned to all Americans, either through legislation like WHPA or through a new, more progressive Supreme Court. Let’s work together to make that day arrive sooner rather than later.