title taken from “Adjust Your Crown” by Rae

We Need NOW Now!

So let's recap America’s first six months of 2022:

• Over 250 mass shootings including the Buffalo massacre, the elementary school shooting in Texas, a gunman opening fire on a crowded NYC subway, and the attack on a church in California

• The number of deaths from COVID-19 surpassed 1 million

• Eric Adams becomes Mayor of New York City (smh)

Are we great yet? No? Okay, how about this, we just decided to revoke a woman’s right to chose when and if she wants to become a mother.

Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States generally protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion. On Friday, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, despite the dissent of 3 liberal judges (Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Stephen Breyer). The judges expressed concern that the judgment “places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage.”

But why stop there? For those considering getting in vitro fertilization (IVF) to start a family, you might also want to pay attention to this ruling.

“To improve the chances of the IVF treatment being successful, doctors often extract more than one egg for fertilisation in a lab. But, normally only one of the embryos is implanted in the woman’s womb to develop. The remaining fertilized eggs are typically discarded.” (Indian Express)

Laws that ban abortion from the moment of fertilization could start criminalizing the discarding of embryos, which is part of the IVF process. This includes freezing embryos as well - a concern for many young women. Clinicians have expressed apprehension over being criminally liable and are therefore moving to stop offering IVF and egg-freezing services.

But wait, there’s more! Justice Clarence Thomas took this moment to call for the Supreme Court to “reconsider” gay marriage and contraception.

The scary thing about this statement is that Thomas has the votes based on the “Rule of Five.” It takes five justices to hold a majority on the Court. Justices Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Thomas currently hold the majority (with Justice Roberts leaning conservative as well) and “can do anything” since our current process does not have any formal power to overrule a 5-justice decision short of the adoption of a constitutional amendment.

While Justice Thomas wants to call into question same-sex marriage and birth control, it’s weird that he didn’t bring up the 1967 case of Loving vs. Virginia which decriminalized interracial marriage. Wonder why?

In our 10th episode of Season 6, SocaSaySo and I get unfiltered and RANT about how America’s gun problem has not shaken lawmakers, but the protection of women’s reproductive rights is fair game. When will the government stop putting politics over people?