Backyard and Beyond

The sheer awfulness of Susan Collins rings out in her speech on her vote for alleged rapist Kavanaugh “In short, his views on honoring precedent would preclude attempts to do by stealth that which one has committed not to do overtly.” Not that I’m going to spare the execrable Joe Manchin, the only Democrat to vote for Kavanaugh, or the 11 Democrats who voted for Thomas (thank you, Joe Biden!); the 22 for Roberts; the 4 for Alito; the 3 for Gorsuch….

The reactionary Catholics on the Supreme Court, far more conservative than most Catholics in the U.S., essentially voided Roe v. Wade the other day. The Texas law they refused to consider even though it violates two solid precedents makes abortions illegal at six weeks. Six weeks is a very short time after a woman may realize she’s pregnant. The pea-sized bundle of specialized cells at that stage isn’t even a fetus yet. But the Talibanesque hypocrites and misogynists of Texas have added even more poison to this law: there’s a fugitive slave law-worthy tool now in the arsenal of sociopathic fundamentalism: anyone can sue those who help (like a taxi driver) a women in search of reproductive heath care. Vigilantism is now a tactic of the Republican fascist movement.

Texas, mind you, where sociopaths scream “MY BODY MY CHOICE” over the commonsensical public health measure of masking. Where the murderous governor has banned local attempts to mask and vax. At least six children dead of COVID in Mississippi, where the theocratic governor recently said Christians aren’t worried about this life because they have the afterlife to look forward to, epitomizes so-called “pro-life” politics. It’s never been about life. Mississippi has some of the worst infant mortality outcomes in the country and its white oligarchic leadership is fine with that. The fetus-fetish isn’t about children or families. The anti-abortion crusade has always been about controlling women by controlling their sexuality and punishing them for it. (Griswold has always been in their sights, too, by the way–that’s the 1965 decision that threw out Connecticut’s ban on married people using contraception.)

Here’s a way to fund Texas reproductive rights organizations.

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