Today, I live in a country not governed by the rule of law. Never in our nation’s history has a constitutional right been taken away. On June 24, six Supreme Court justices took away a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body.
Six justices overturned 50 years of established law, not because of fundamental changes in society, but because of personnel changes on the court. Women’s rights were abolished because of religious and political beliefs. When justices decide cases and overturn longstanding laws based on personal preference, the United States is no longer a nation of laws. We are now a nation of judicial whim—the whims of one woman who is a religious cult member, one man married to a political extremist and four middle-age males born into wealth and entitlement.
A mere six people, who do not represent the breadth of American diversity, struck a blow to the 14th Amendment’s equal protection guarantee. These justices now have blood on their hands – the blood of women dying from forced pregnancies and botched self-abortions, the blood of starving children accidentally conceived in poverty and the blood of violence that is sure to follow. Laws do not make abortions disappear. They make them unsafe and illegal. They make abortions available only to the privileged, those who can travel, take off work and pay for a safe medical procedure.
I will not stand by as my daughter and granddaughter are forced to be pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen. I ask all women to protest and fight for the rights we are guaranteed, to vote for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot, and if all else fails, to follow in our forebears’ footsteps and urgently demand our rights.
Deni Dickler
Rindge