"Exclusive - Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows"

By artappraiser on Thu, 05/12/2022 - 9:02pm |

I can’t think of any precedent for a scoop like this from @joshgerstein and @alexbward. A draft SCOTUS opinion from Alito has the Court expressly overturning Roe https://t.co/vL0TU7BwoU
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) May 3, 2022

URL:

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473

24668 reads

Comments

The document leaked to Politico is almost certainly an authentic draft opinion by J. Alito that reflects what he believes at least 5 members of the Court have voted to support — overruling Roe. But as Alito’s draft, it does not reflect the comments or reactions of other Justices.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/02/2022 - 9:03pm

Normally, it is.

This is reportedly the first *ever* leak of a draft memo from SCOTUS. https://t.co/1gqaAemZup
— Angry Staffer (@Angry_Staffer) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/02/2022 - 9:06pm

Alito rests on text and tradition in concluding that reproductive autonomy no longer exists as a constitutional right—i.e., the Supreme Court has been wrong for fifty years. pic.twitter.com/KsuZz7uoJc
— Rᴏʙᴇʀᴛ L. Tsᴀɪ (@robertltsai) May 3, 2022

Overruling Roe, Casey, and all abortion-related cases but leaves other precedent-based rights untouched (for the moment). pic.twitter.com/gzgxCCvwuS
— Rᴏʙᴇʀᴛ L. Tsᴀɪ (@robertltsai) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/02/2022 - 9:17pm

Alito's draft opinion explicitly criticizes Lawrence v. Texas (legalizing sodomy) and Obergefell v. Hodges (legalizing same-sex marriage). He says that, like abortion, these decisions protect phony rights that are not "deeply rooted in history." https://t.co/4690k0KG1F pic.twitter.com/urF7A02INU
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/02/2022 - 9:25pm

Same sex marriage rightfully concerned.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lgbtq-rights-roe-v-wade-leaked-supreme-co...

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 5:37pm

If this story is true, the Court should issue its opinion right away. Otherwise the disgraceful leak wins. I would say that if my side lost. If we lose the integrity of the Court’s process, we lose the Court. That should be intolerable to all of us who live the country.
— Andy McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/02/2022 - 9:41pm

Liz Warren:

An extremist Supreme Court is poised to overturn #RoeVWade and impose its far-right, unpopular views on the entire country. It's time for the millions who support the Constitution and abortion rights to stand up and make their voices heard. We're not going back—not ever.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/02/2022 - 9:45pm

Just got to SCOTUS minutes after @politico broke news that justices have voted to overturn #RoeVWade

Barricades are up, but no folks yet. Feels like we should all be here tonight, no? pic.twitter.com/1IDZd0LhCF
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) May 3, 2022

Officers in front of #SCOTUS are now ensuring that the barricades in front of the Court are all linked together.

Seems like just tourists here now #RoeVWade
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) May 3, 2022

About 13 folks here now in front of #SCOTUS and we have begun lighting candles #RoeVWade pic.twitter.com/r1dA3yCGRj
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) May 3, 2022

Officers came over asking us to extinguish the candles. But then changed their minds, since it’s just a few for now…

About two dozen people out here #RoeVWade pic.twitter.com/8dRxxhaDFs
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/02/2022 - 10:01pm

Small disputes breaking out as some of the of those gathered are urging people to “get loud,” while others sit vigil-like.

In this video, a pro-life protestors also comes. “You lost, babykiller!” he yells. pic.twitter.com/07YuNXFCzA
— Gabe Fleisher (@WakeUp2Politics) May 3, 2022

Crowd is steadily starting to grow outside the Supreme Court.

Several women I’ve interviewed have been wiping away tears. “I’m shocked,” one told me. “We really did feel like this was a bit untouchable.” pic.twitter.com/zEJwOquh1v
— Gabe Fleisher (@WakeUp2Politics) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/02/2022 - 10:21pm

Since this thread started when there were less than 50 protesters outside the court, here’s a glimpse of who’s here at this hour.

I’d estimate around 500 here now. Some holding handwritten signs; others have joined with pre-made banners. Crowd definitely skews young and white. pic.twitter.com/UNH9PAHPL2
— Gabe Fleisher (@WakeUp2Politics) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 12:10am

Historian here to remind you that abortion was legal in the US when the Constitution was written in 1787.

Exclusive: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows https://t.co/Cbox4UT5Hn via @politico
— Karl Jacoby (@karl_jacoby) May 3, 2022

Quick summation of the history of abortion here:https://t.co/GhPTOxRpiF
— Karl Jacoby (@karl_jacoby) May 3, 2022

Reason this all matters? As the leaked draft of the Supreme Court's decision shows, Alito is distorting history when he claims there was "an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment…from the earliest days of the common law until 1973."
— Karl Jacoby (@karl_jacoby) May 3, 2022

Alito, a self-described "practical originalist," is trying to present legal abortion as anomalous in American life but in fact it is the outlawing of abortion in the latter half of the 19th century that is the deviation from the normhttps://t.co/wEzFppY9Cu
— Karl Jacoby (@karl_jacoby) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/02/2022 - 10:13pm

[....] Between 1800 and 1900, white married couples went from having an average seven children to fewer than four. The rate of extramarital pregnancy similarly plummeted during Poe’s lifetime.

Historians debate the causes of this shift, ascribing it to urbanization, war, and toward the end of the century, the beginnings of the women’s movement. So far, so plausible, but birth control’s role must be acknowledged. Techniques known in the Poes’ day included coitus interruptus, condoms, douching, and abortifacients (or pills to induce miscarriage that were advertised in a coded, if not coy, manner). Abortion was a relatively common practice, too, and broadly legal. My admittedly prurient best guess is that the Poes may have practiced one or more of these methods, with the lowest-cost methods the most likely.

And by the time their fortunes were looking up in the early 1840s? Virginia had grown ill with tuberculosis, which can cause infertility, while there are the secondary effects of grave illness to consider as well. The couple may have believed Virginia’s health too weak to risk a pregnancy after 1842, when she began to show symptoms. And in fact, Virginia would die in early 1847, closing the question forever.

In the end, there’s no way to prove this theory that the Poes didn’t have children because they couldn’t afford it. Perhaps factors in their diet and environment or some epigenetic cause made birth control unnecessary. Maybe I myself am the flaw in the rationale, inevitably seeing the history through the lens of my own millennial experience because I live in an era when economic crises and the rising cost of raising children have caused many people to delay or even forego parenthood. But my hunch, honed by research, is that a lot less has changed since the Poes’ time than we might hope [....]

from

Is This Why Edgar Allan Poe Never Had Kids?

@ TheMillions.com, by Catherine Baab-Muguira February 25, 2022

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 6:47pm

the SCOTUS Blog wants to make sure we know this:

It’s impossible to overstate the earthquake this will cause inside the Court, in terms of the destruction of trust among the Justices and staff. This leak is the gravest, most unforgivable sin.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/02/2022 - 10:17pm

'Appalling' and 'Unforgivable Sin': Leaked SCOTUS Draft Overturning 'Roe' Shocks Legal Community https://t.co/ejxpPbBnkX
— Law.com (@lawdotcom) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 12:00am

Clarence feeding Ginny Supreme Court skinny to plan and incite a revolution seems like a bigger deal than premature delivery of a miscarriage of justice.

New: Justice Clarence Thomas says in Atlanta: “We can’t be an institution that can be bullied into giving you just the outcomes you want” — though his wife Ginni Thomas attempted to do just that as she sought to help overturn Biden’s 2020 election win.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) May 7, 2022

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/07/2022 - 1:31am

More SC hypocrisy

I kid you not. The Supreme Court is violating the first amendment https://t.co/zZJYIdUFYt
— Outspoken™️ (@Out5p0ken) May 6, 2022

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/07/2022 - 8:42am

Re: Clarence. Maureen Dowd's op-ed is about all the conservative perverts of the 80'sand 90's trying to control wimmin's bodies, who set up what's going on now. She spends some ot the ink reminding us that Clarence is an aficionado of weird porn:

Marilyn Monroe v. Samuel Alito, a @maureendowd classic on the draft Supreme Court decision re Roe v Wade. https://t.co/MMtp1E12Px
— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) May 7, 2022

by artappraiser on Sat, 05/07/2022 - 7:09pm

Hillary Clinton tweet:

Not surprising. But still outrageous.

This decision is a direct assault on the dignity, rights, & lives of women, not to mention decades of settled law. It will kill and subjugate women even as a vast majority of Americans think abortion should be legal. What an utter disgrace. https://t.co/TNo1IX3Tl4
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 3, 2022

BTW she was an attendee at the Met Gala this evening and I can't imagine it's over. In any case, it's like an hour travel time from there to her house in Westchester

Hillary Clinton attended the #MetGala Monday night for the first time in more than two decades.

The former secretary of state’s dress was designed by Joseph Altuzarra and features 60 women’s names embroidered along the neckline and hem. pic.twitter.com/FTP9hMPvYg
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/02/2022 - 10:39pm

Yglesias on the political:

Roe has largely forced Republicans to legislate the kind of abortion restrictions that often poll well, with it gone their activists’ desire for very unpopular total bans is going to end up front and center.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 3, 2022

Another look at the political dynamic — there are more Republicans who say they tend to agree with Democrats on abortion than there are Democrats who say they agree with Republicans. https://t.co/OJpwyyCvHZ
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/02/2022 - 10:46pm

Bernie Sanders' tweet:

Congress must pass legislation that codifies Roe v. Wade as the law of the land in this country NOW. And if there aren’t 60 votes in the Senate to do it, and there are not, we must end the filibuster to pass it with 50 votes.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/02/2022 - 11:54pm

If the Supreme Court knocks down Roe v. Wade, the legality of abortion will be left up to the states, meaning abortion access is completely dependent on where a person lives. https://t.co/4PwAjtHzLi
— 19thnews (@19thnews) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 12:24am

That thread was great. Here’s a little more background too for anyone interested! https://t.co/s07GDdSQTE
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 2:23am

Klobuchar is on @maddow right now DEMANDING that Manchin and Sinema get behind the end of the filibuster so we can codify abortion rights.

It’s the only way out of this.
— Elizabeth C. McLaughlin (she/her) (@ECMcLaughlin) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 3:16am

yay, another historian willing to attack the grift directly:

You can literally turn any issue into one about racism if you have a mind to; including one that impacts women of all creeds & colours. Racism has also played a role in abortion rights activism, so don’t use one issue to crack another or it will explode in your face. https://t.co/oBgOPxURGu
— Cheryl Hudson (@HudsCheryl) May 3, 2022

(she is in the UK, however, so she doesn't have to worry as much about being brave...)

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 4:26am

This is going to change American culture overnight - a whole lot of things will look very, very different nearly instantaneously.

by Orion on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 5:01am

Beth Vial's abortion cost $14,202. Maleeha Aziz's cost $2,414.

And women who are denied a wanted abortion also face greater odds of their financial well-being being negatively affected. From December 2021: https://t.co/xkw4uPu88F
— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 1:17pm

fundamentally changes 2022 elections -

In a January CNN poll, almost 7 in 10 Americans (69%) said they opposed the Supreme Court overturning Roe.

That includes 86% of Democrats and 72% of independents.https://t.co/UJVDAxhwP9
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 1:20pm

This still takes my breath away every time. One of the reasons Lewis Powell voted for Roe in 1973 was he literally experienced someone waking him up in the middle of the night begging for legal help because his girlfriend had just bled out after a botched self-induced abortion. pic.twitter.com/gq5F9gkWu9
— Ben Bergmann (@bzbergmann) September 2, 2021

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 2:19pm

This is correct. A federal law protecting abortion rights is the right way to go. Yes it'll have to get past the filibuster, but that'll just make it more durable, less subject to quick repeal.

It will, unfortunately, take time. It won't happen next week, or the week after that. https://t.co/ctQYCI5QVo
— Noah Smith (@Noahpinion) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 3:25pm

Popular Trump-supporting psychologist with 75,000 followers:

Me in February 2021: Guys, I think the religious right is going to be a problem

Everyone: What are you talking about???? They have no power. Don't worry, we're still a big tent!

Today: https://t.co/XdZA30LLTx
— Karlyn Borysenko, unwoke cult leader (@DrKarlynB) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 3:29pm

Susan Collins & Lisa Murkowski:

Susan Collins: “If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 3, 2022

Asked if she was mislead by Kavanaugh, Collins told us: “My statement speaks for itself”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 3, 2022

Sen. Lisa Murkowski: "Roe is still the law of the land, we don't know the direction that this decision will ultimately take, but if it goes in the direction that this leaked copy has indicated, I will just tell you that it rocks my confidence in the court right now."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 3, 2022

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, one of the few Senate Republicans in favor of protecting abortion access, reacted with alarm to the Supreme Court’s draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade. “My confidence in the court has been rocked,” Murkowski said. https://t.co/PwerSeXFGj
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 4:12pm

Who could have predicted making women's rights contingent on the denial of biological sex was a risky strategy? Or that women would later get blamed for not going along with this? https://t.co/oh1m4IwAM9
— Victoria Smith (@glosswitch) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 5:10pm

Weren't Thomas & Alito the "go to" justices for Jan 6?

This @RuthMarcus theory suggests that a goodly number of Republicans knew what was going down.

Which, if true, suggests today's focus on the leak is pure cover-up. https://t.co/xkklC1U5Oa
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) May 3, 2022

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 5:50pm

When enough is enough?

Former Clarence Thomas clerk Carl Nichols may be rethinking his opinion that would protect, among others, Ginni.

Nichols wrote the sole opinion against 1512 after asking if it would apply to Trump. https://t.co/67TJHXDb1Y
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) May 3, 2022

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 5:53pm

New poll—70% of people believe women should be able to decide abortion with their doctor. And majority believe Roe v Wade should be upheld and legal. #SCOTUS #RoeVWade https://t.co/t6koEGPHbB pic.twitter.com/Kz3gNXeQU3
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) May 3, 2022

2) in the poll—Considering specific circumstances, substantial majorities say abortion should be legal when:

the woman’s physical health is endangered (82%)
the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest (79%)
there’s evidence of serious birth defects (67%). pic.twitter.com/MxygipAQjY
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) May 3, 2022

3) have “abortion should be legal in all or most cases” opinion changed much? Not for almost 2 decades— it’s been majority option for a long time. pic.twitter.com/D86h7PbC4Y
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 7:27pm

Rick Wilson is very suspicious:

1/ I've seen enough.

The Supreme Court leak looks, smells, and tastes like a giant kayfabe. Professional wrestling. It's not that I have some secret insight into the Court.

It's that I'm a damn anthropologist of the right wing media ecosystem in which I operated for decades.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) May 4, 2022

2/ The sweeping media and political class lockstep on the right -- histrionics hair-tearing about the leak -- are just too coordinated given the short timeframe from release-to-presser. The intervals are too tight and the messages too word-for-word.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) May 4, 2022

3/ To quote the political philosopher Ian Fleming, “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”

By 7am ET today, the usual suspects on the right-wing media gulag were on EXACTLY the same outrage "HOW DARE YOU SIR!" tone and message.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) May 4, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 10:18pm

Orthodox Jewish Rabbis rally today outside the US courthouse in #NYC, in support of the #SCOTUS decision to overturn #abortion rights, while protesters packed Foley Square to protest the Supreme Court’s decision, to overturn Roe v. Wade, a day after a draft opinion was leaked pic.twitter.com/mvJne7dY7X
— Jewish Desk (@JewishDesk) May 4, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/03/2022 - 10:22pm

Politico employees have been advised to be vigilant about who enters elevators with them at the office, and to consider removing any personal details from social media accounts that identify them as Politico staff, according to an internal memo
— Katie Robertson (@katie_robertson) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/04/2022 - 2:24am

how not to win more friends and influence people, preaching to an increasingly small debauched choir of incels who would like to keep women barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen?

There’s nothing that terrifies drunken pedophile sex trafficking coke-orgy enthusiast traitor dunce Matt Gaetz more than over-educated women. pic.twitter.com/iT7iLz34Mq
— The USA Singers (@TheUSASingers) May 4, 2022

edit to add: not even Putin, more like Taliban

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/04/2022 - 4:21pm

p.s. she pegs him well, it's a circa 1949 approach -

Still cracks me up that there are ppl out there who think the worst insult they can throw at a woman is that she doesn’t have a man to cook and clean for. Like, oh no, Kevin. I guess I’ll just have to piss on my own toilet seat.
— Kate Lister (@k8_lister) May 4, 2022

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/04/2022 - 4:59pm

Obama's statement on this (a reminder that he's a Constitutional lawyer) -

Here’s my statement with Michelle on the draft Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. pic.twitter.com/xBJJkLYGlQ
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 3, 2022

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/04/2022 - 5:07pm

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE MAIL WIRE HANGERS TO THIS ADDRESS:

Supreme Court of the United States
1 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20543
— I’m NotDevinsMom Moron (@NotDevinsMom) May 4, 2022

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/04/2022 - 5:15pm

Abortion rights are an important feminist concern, but also sort of underrated as an area of interest for their internet enemies the bros. https://t.co/FTTLy3C4Vt
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 4, 2022

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/04/2022 - 11:14pm

Banning abortion altogether is very unpopular but banning abortions after 15 weeks is very popular. https://t.co/fgKgQooPAj
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 4, 2022

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/04/2022 - 11:16pm

Abortion pills by mail pose challenge for officials in red states

Remote prescribing and overseas generics are among options as women manage their abortions

By Christopher Rowland, Laurie McGinley and Jacob Bogage @ WashingtonPost.com, Updated yesterday at 5:42 p.m. EDT

Very good article, explains both the legal and the medical and even where and how to get safely. Includes mentions of options like having a pre-emptive supply to insure timely use and off-label prescribing. Also things like Telemed service having become much more acceptable since Covid.and how an independent pro-abortion organization tests accuracy of the drugs from several online pharmacies in India.

States will indeed have a hard time regulating this angle. It's clearly going to be harder than it is for anti-gun states to regulate firearms purchases.

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/05/2022 - 8:45am

Horrible trend https://t.co/DNBCw1a0LG
— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) May 5, 2022

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/05/2022 - 9:03am

Crap decision on 17thC values - it's truly insulting just how shitty and total stretch this "judicial opinion" is - it's like theyve pushed for this for decades but brought in Beavis and Butthead to argue it. Surprising Alito didn reference the marvels of bloodletting and right to obtain and bear leeches. Who knew when they said "Conservative" they meant "Before the Enlightenment". At least he could've addressed the woke crowd/PoC by referencing Bill Cosby and OJ on the "right to choose" - a bit more recent than the virtues of Cromwell in Ireland keeping down the moral decay.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/supreme-court-leaked-draft-arguments_n_62...

by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 05/05/2022 - 11:51am

(longer thread)

Who knew "original intent" meant from the late Middle Ages

Sir Matthew Hale was a huge advocate for marital rape. Like many early modern men, he believed that women's bodies belonged to men, first their father when they were born and then their husband when they were married. WOMEN WERE NOT SEEN AS AUTONOMOUS BEINGS.
— Dr. Literature_Lady (@Literature_Lady) May 5, 2022

by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 05/05/2022 - 12:48pm

2/ The Alito draft says Hale “described abortion of a quick child who died in the womb as a ‘great crime’ and a ‘great misprision.’”
— Ken Armstrong (@bykenarmstrong) May 4, 2022

by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 05/05/2022 - 4:43pm

I know the argument of the time, this is what you get for teaching them to read

4/ To Hale, English gentlewomen were “the ruin of families.” Young women were a particular source of despair. They “learn to be bold,” he complained, and “talk loud.”
— Ken Armstrong (@bykenarmstrong) May 4, 2022

the whole Engish aristocratic system starting falling apart with this one thing! The females couldn't inherit anything, teaching them to read was a big big mistake, the beginning of the end

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/05/2022 - 6:10pm

I do think the cool thing about twitter is a supreme court justice will quote a 17th c English barrister, and multiple historians come out of nowhere to be like, "Let me tell you about this witch-burning piece of shit."
— April Wolfe (@AWolfeful) May 6, 2022

Little did I know, scholars around the country were crafting dissertations on this asshole just waiting for their moment in the spotlight. Incredible.
— April Wolfe (@AWolfeful) May 6, 2022

tbf, it did take them about 24 hrs to hit full (tweeting) speed.
— Alfie (@WndlB) May 6, 2022

Keeps me coming back.
— Democracy Enthusiast (@TerriIsSickOfU) May 6, 2022

This is EXACTLY what I love as well. I have learned so much from so many experts. I’ve watched experts argue amongst themselves. I’ve watched all of Twitter joke about the Worst Takes in ways that make my heart sing.
— Outside Voice (@_outsidevoice) May 7, 2022

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 10:07pm

Alito's approach to determining whether an unenumerated right is in the constitution is to ask whether it's rooted in the country's history and tradition. That is not outlandish. There are competing approaches, but the Court most frequently applies that sort of framework.
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) May 7, 2022

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/07/2022 - 5:12pm

New Democratic Party instructions alert: https://t.co/g7wd7KodFG
— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) May 5, 2022

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/05/2022 - 6:21pm

Yes, the left bears quite a bit of responsibility, attacking white women cuz not PoC, attacking all women cuz not trans, and basically making womens's issues - 50+% of the population - 2nd tier to tiny minority woke issues.

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/07/2022 - 1:40am

Big change: Americans want term limits for Supreme Court justices by 66% to 21%, and favor expanding the Court by 55% to 36%. (Morning Consult poll for @politico) When I tested public appetite for Court reforms in 2007 (part of "A More Perfect Constitution") resistance was great.
— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) May 4, 2022

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/05/2022 - 10:53pm

Pew:

Survey from @pewresearch, conducted Mar. 7-13, 2022, provides detailed look at U.S. public’s abortion views. It finds opposition to legal abortion increases at later stages of pregnancy.https://t.co/FJl39j3P31 pic.twitter.com/eKykmYrBL4
— Greg Smith (@GregSmith_Polls) May 6, 2022

At 6 weeks, twice as many say abortion should be legal (44%) as illegal (21%). 19% say “it depends,” remainder say how long a woman has been pregnant shouldn’t factor into abortion’s legality or decline to answer.https://t.co/FJl39j3P31 pic.twitter.com/EoI4eoD7WM
— Greg Smith (@GregSmith_Polls) May 6, 2022

At 24 weeks, twice as many say abortion should be illegal (43%) as legal (22%), with 18% saying “it depends.”https://t.co/FJl39j3P31 pic.twitter.com/eaEIRXgDu6
— Greg Smith (@GregSmith_Polls) May 6, 2022

Much more about the public’s abortion views available in “America’s Abortion Quandary.”https://t.co/FJl39j3P31
— Greg Smith (@GregSmith_Polls) May 6, 2022

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 11:11am

Law enforcement officials brace for potential violence around SCOTUS draft opinion - POLITICO https://t.co/qbekzMJjKn
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 6, 2022

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 11:28am

@JaneMayerNYer on the possible leaking of Roe v. Wade by Justice Douglas, enraged by CJ Burger’s delaying tactics https://t.co/oIS2dpl7xb pic.twitter.com/z4a8YPVdch
— Rᴏʙᴇʀᴛ L. Tsᴀɪ (@robertltsai) May 6, 2022

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 2:11pm

Gillibrand did a good job here:

You need to watch this immediately.

—Sen. @GillibrandNY on Roe. pic.twitter.com/MNgbxkDMbz
— Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) May 5, 2022

edit to add quibble: cut the transgender reference at the end for chrissake! how many transgender are involved with pregnancy much less abortion at this stage of medical science? just risks antagonizing friendlies with the woke shit while not accomplishing anything practical

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 7:05pm

like it, especially Woody's reply -

Perhaps it's time female politicians draft bills making male masturbation mass murder of potential fetuses.
Punishable by 10 years in prison.
— Woody Woodcasters (@WoodyWoodcaster) May 6, 2022

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 7:59pm

That's so last decade - no, it would open men practicing such abomination to private lawsuits from any citizen and allow citizen posses to catch and incarcerate them with no appeal to state courts allowed since it's a private matter.

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/07/2022 - 1:34am

Canadian women/Gov. have your backshttps://t.co/WnQuFNZHVC
— Janis.. (@janismullan) May 7, 2022

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 10:15pm

Republicans know overturning Roe isn’t popular pic.twitter.com/KJNh9kLPgd
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) May 6, 2022

(so important it deserves to be posted twice. what are they going to do about it? that is the question...)

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/06/2022 - 10:22pm

NEW: A glaring omission from Trump’s Pennsylvania rally speech: Abortion. By @ColbyItkowitz: https://t.co/RGSeCwezGP
— Dave Clarke (@davecclarke) May 7, 2022

by artappraiser on Sat, 05/07/2022 - 1:57pm

NEW: The pastor at St. Joe's Catholic Church on Capitol Hill has requested that police be present and "ready to intervene" in the event that pro-abortion protestors show up for Mother's Day mass, as @RuthSentUs has called on activists to do. pic.twitter.com/Eon4wyoTyq
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) May 6, 2022

by artappraiser on Sat, 05/07/2022 - 1:46pm

Nate Silver

Why Roe could matter, electorally: Voters like the status quo, and usually the party out of power doesn't get to enact major policy changes. Roe being overturned would be a *major* exception and would remind voters how much power Republicans have via courts and state governments.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) May 6, 2022

by artappraiser on Sat, 05/07/2022 - 2:26pm

Governers might think about the laws they sign more carefully:

Companies could opt to invest resources in states that allow for abortions to continue, which could redirect migration flows away from markets in places like Texas or Florida.

https://t.co/S5GYhWOqtg
— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) May 7, 2022

by artappraiser on Sat, 05/07/2022 - 7:48pm

One of these days this kid is going to make headlines but in the most horrible way https://t.co/3AcwV4Ug7A
— QUEEN OF SNARK (@Mizmorgan1313) May 7, 2022

by artappraiser on Sun, 05/08/2022 - 1:50am

How radicals purged abortion talking points - "rare" not good enough, needed "on-demand and whenever" as an attitude to piss off anyone mildly concerned about the line between zygotes and life.

And how they pushed out Leanna Wen to get Planned Parenthood to be an "abortion 24x7" machine rather than an org that might offer women (if i can use that term) other needed services and messaging.

(Sorry to find out it was Bill who coined "safe, legal, and rare" vs Hillary, but it was a great approach while it lasted. And we might consider how much Russia might have influenced pumping up internal divisions by backing or creating different fringe groups online)

2019 feels so long ago.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-democrats-purged-safe-legal-r...

by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 05/08/2022 - 3:50am

ugh I had no idea that zero sum game was going on. I can see the evidence on Twitter, tho, plenty more screaming illogical people, reviving the same old arguments I've read a 1,000 times for decades. Here's a factoid for lots of radicals with no recognition that it's rare to find a fully libertine country on this issue;

Netherlands, which has maybe the most liberal abortion law, has a mandatory five-day wait period https://t.co/bmNMl0JKOg
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) May 9, 2022

Also Netherlands, after 24 weeks: "a doctor may only terminate the pregnancy for serious medical reasons, for instance because the foetus is not viable outside the mother’s body."
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) May 9, 2022

a reminder that's the country people fly to for legal assisted dying!

the "on demand and whenever" crew seem very loud and counterproductive to me, like they want to get far righties to dig in their heels. furthermore they are laboring under the delusion that there are not laws currently regulating it everywhere here

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/09/2022 - 4:36pm

p.s. this hits me as related >

Progressives have gotten so used to deploying a kind of glib, superficial intersectional rhetoric to bully other people in intra-coalition battles that it’s short-circuited many people’s ability to think clearly or adopt broadly appealing solidaristic messages.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 7, 2022

and also makes me think of how it's nothing new and partly why the DLC was founded, to counter a lot of screaming harpie rhetoric that had taken over the rep of the Democratic party in the 70s and 80's. In Culture Wars I, it really was the lefties who started it, the whole Christian right was developed in counter-reaction to lefty rhetoric, they saw the opportunity of the majority being turned off by that and grabbed it.

I still miss old school elite intellectual liberals around calling their shit like Senator Patrck Moynihan every day. (I.E. no babies having babies is not a good cultural thing for "the black community", here's proof, now sit down and shut up.)

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/09/2022 - 5:17pm

Alito missed this historical anathem -
certainly not one of the explicitly
elaborated protections in the Constitution.
I'm sure Hale would be horrified at the thought
of accommodating these people,
bane to society that they are known to be.

pic.twitter.com/KY1iFvDA1l
— Melinda S. (@mindylee26) May 9, 2022

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 05/09/2022 - 6:05am

I went to the doctor because I had a lot of pain in my lower back and pelvis, and had been nauseous for weeks. A blood test confirmed I was pregnant – until that point, I didn’t know.
— Janneke Parrish (@JannekeParrish) May 9, 2022

Thread...

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 05/09/2022 - 9:59pm

A possible national ban on abortion got the thumbs down on Sunday from the governor of Arkansas, a prominent Republican, who said the policy would be “inconsistent with what we’ve been fighting for.”https://t.co/YZFUPvlLGZ
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) May 8, 2022

"Women who cannot make their own decisions about whether or not to have babies are enslaved." - Margaret Atwood https://t.co/goTHa74w26
— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) May 7, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/09/2022 - 10:01pm

NEW: Retired Judge Vaughn Walker, who overturned California’s Prop. 8, has harsh words for draft #RoeVWade ruling: "not a very impressive piece of work."

Walker spoke to me about his concerns w/ Alito's leaked draft, & his critique is scorching: https://t.co/hApqMsIR7T
— Dustin Gardiner (@dustingardiner) May 5, 2022

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 05/10/2022 - 10:25am

IVF affected by abortion laws

https://www.salon.com/2022/05/10/abortion-trigger-laws-ivf/

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 05/10/2022 - 5:33pm

meanwhile Rihanna's been working hard using all her influencer charms to make young women think pregnancy is the awesomest accessory one could have (escorted by baby daddy in public optional)

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/10/2022 - 7:57pm

The Dems' idiocy on this is just mind blowing. A more moderate bill could have also had Collins's vote, maybe even Murkowski
— Cathy Young (@CathyYoung63) May 11, 2022

I'm on board with this comment. What I can see happening is the same old same old "blame Manchin" syndrome as Yglesias has written ad nauseum.

In the real world, you have moderates and you have to deal with them.

Or you can remain pure (and have abortion outlawed) so you can bitch about Senators like Manchin, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Sinema as if bitching about them would make their constituencies disappear. More money from liberal donor activists for you and your more left constituencies, get re-elected and rinse and repeat, in reality your constituents lose big time, over and over. You get re-elected by what you mouth and who you blame for your failures.

Oh and deflect all the blame for all the divisiveness in this country to the righties when in actuality you are equally responsible, natch.

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/11/2022 - 5:20pm

from The Hill's report last night on the bill, I gotta give three cheers and more to Bill Casey for this:

Democrats made changes to the bill from earlier this year to try to assuage members of their caucus. In a win for that effort, holdout Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) announced this week that he supported the substance of the revised bill.

They removed a nonbinding findings section that, among other provisions, referred to restrictions on abortion as perpetuating “white supremacy” and called them “a tool of gender oppression.”

Nowadays you are a brave man for being a holdout on such language. Used to be Dems were smart enough to go after stuff that didn't turn off a majority, and offer fuel for culture wars trolling for the right, but those days are apparently gone. He actually had to be a "holdout" on that!! Fucking eh.

btw, this is the clarification they had lon Manchin's no vote, it was a no vote on the bill's procedure, not a no vote on codifying Roe v. Wade, he wanted to make clear he is very supportive of that -

“We’re going to be voting for a piece of legislation that I will not be voting for today,” Manchin told reporters.

“But I would vote for a Roe v. Wade codification if it was today. I was hopeful for that, but I found out yesterday in caucus that that wasn’t going to be,” Manchin added.

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/11/2022 - 9:47pm

Could the USPS become the nation’s largest abortion provider? https://t.co/ouM6bSdyfu pic.twitter.com/w23LqV7Gtl
— Curbed (@Curbed) May 12, 2022

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/11/2022 - 11:16pm

Senator Marsha Blackburn's comments about the use of contraception were misrepresented, fact-checkers say

There is no evidence that US Senator Marsha Blackburn wants to limit birth control to married couples only, Reuters and PolitiFact report. Senator Blackburn said in March that a 1965 Supreme Court ruling which overturned a state ban on contraception, citing a right to marital privacy, was "constitutionally unsound," but she did not explain further.

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/12/2022 - 12:17am

Is there room on @NPR for pro-life voices?

Over the past week I've traveled back and forth from NYC to Philly to care for a sick family member. In our Jesuit community car I've listened to hours of @NPR. Roughly 90% of the talk shows have been about abortion...
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

This is no surprise, given the leaked SCOTUS decision on Roe v. Wade. Also, though I am pro life, for some of my close friends this decision is an outrage. Thus, the heavy coverage. But I've noticed that there have been, at least in the hours I've listened, no pro life voices...
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

Usually I listen to @WNYC until about Exit 8 on the NJ turnpike and then switch to @whyy in Philly, so I've heard a lot of different talk shows. Each one features articulate and persuasive guests speaking about abortion and why the draft decision was wrong...
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

Missing (at least in the many shows I've heard) was an articulate voice arguing other side. The only attempts are when the host would present the pro-life position only to have it batted away by the guest(s).

Here are some questions I would have asked:
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

1) Obviously, many women (and men) are outraged by what they see as an assault on a woman's autonomy. But surely there some point when the fetus becomes a person. When is that? So how do you determine when that is a life worth protecting? Wouldn't it make some sense to...
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

...be a maximalist when it comes to assigning life?

2) Legal scholars point to the fact that as a society advances, rights advance. But science advances as well, and we know more about the inner workings of the child in the womb. Are those advances worth considering, too?
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

3) The Dred Scott decision is often mentioned as an example of a decision that was *rightly* overturned, as society came to understand more about human rights. Is it at least possible that we are seeing something similar in terms of understanding...
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

...the personhood of the child in the womb?

4) The decision is obviously an affront to those who feel that a woman's body is her own. And, from a religious standpoint, women have consciences and can make a moral decisions. Both are important arguments. But...
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

..when do the rights of the child come into play? And when? I.e., at what point does the child have rights? Obviously no one would countenance aborting a nine-month old child in the womb. One would say it was an assault upon the child's rights. So when are those rights...
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

... enjoyed by the child? When the child emerges from the womb? Earlier? And if earlier, based on what criterion?
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

5) Finally, do you see any value in arguments in favor of the protection of the life of the child in the womb? Can you see that in any way as an argument in favor of the vulnerable, even as the women themselves are often vulnerable?
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

As I see it, there are in public (and religious) discourse some strong, compelling and logical arguments used by both sides. Needless to say, several of them conflict with one another:
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

1) All life is sacred.
2) What is within the womb is either potential life or life itself.
3) An egg fertilized an hour ago is different than a nine-month old child about to be born.
4) Women have a right to privacy and self-autonomy.
5) Women have consciences.
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

On NPR, we hear arguments 3 to 5. I would invite them to consider arguments 1 to 2. And to invite guests who can give voice to those arguments clearly and articulately. It is, after all, National Public Radio, and many in the nation believe these things...
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

A calm, intelligent and articulate conversation with both sides might help others in this country enter into conversation in this time of division.
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 13, 2022

by artappraiser on Sun, 05/15/2022 - 11:44pm

It's not that tough - sometime after roughly 1st trimester the foetus starts growing life sustaining functions, including heart and nervous system, and presumably at some point feelings of pain, later early "feelings", primitive thoughts, expanding over the months. This does not yet mean a viable human being, but growing human-ish, and ever more so towards 9 months - 7 to 9 can often be saved as premature births so roughly already a human if all has gone well, below that the result is less human and more a danger of a horrid short painful life if survival for more than a few days/weeks is possible.

We largely base the 3 month period on when first organs, nerves, etc. start to appear and when they're starting to function together - limbs and such are also evolving, though thilese can mislead as to the level of life functions. But it's all pretty well documented science-wise. We'll know more in 100 years, but i don't expect too shocking a shift in the line between still just an embryo and what's starting to be human

From end of 3rd semester on we have decided that that "human-ish" development gains more and more importance as human rights, while the mother carrying that budding human also has human rights, so sometimes adverse development means careful awkward decisions balancing the 2. In general through month 7, tie goes to the mother in extreme cases (and these usually are extreme, not "abortion in demand"). Months 8 & 9 are much more complex and more effort will be made to save the now nearly-presumed "child" within reason for the mother (death or paralysis or other horrid side-effect would generally be show stoppers). These tough decisions are generally made with a doctor in tow, cuz they better know the odds and the possibilities. We see somewhat similar take-off-life-support decisions after accidents without a birth involved - it usually ain't that tough, even if heart-wrenching

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 05/16/2022 - 2:11am

He should know that - I would be surprised if he didn't - the "quickening" when a "soul" enters a fetus was pretty much standard folk tradition for millennia, at the end of the first trimester. No popes nor electronic scans needed to figure that out and everyone pretty much followed the implications of that in law and morality. (i.e., someone kills a heavily pregnant woman.) I think he's just trying to be a good Jesuit there and be fair to everyone, that one particularly passionate side wasn't being heard but presumed not to be worthy and I thought his point of NPR having an imbalanced approach on the topic was good.

I for one was shocked that someone as educated as writer Joyce Carol Oates expressed the view that pro-lifers seem just to be busybodies who want to regulate bedrooms, it's like she had no idea that some take abortion very seriously as killing an innocent life. I don't but still, how can she understand what their reasoning is if she doesn't have a clue and should shuddup until she has a better grasp of how some people think instead of slurring them all as unserious. I.E.what does she think, that all those holy anti-death penalty advocates are all for abortion on demand? You certainly can't solve something like this without addressing all serious points of view, people will fight forever if they think their view hasn't been considered. If she's an example of the kind of bubbles some people live in, they need to be burst.

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/16/2022 - 3:12am

Except not all pro-lifers are in good faith, and I'd say much of the shift since the 70s was to "own the libs" more than to protect or imorove life. (The cynicism with which many approach "do unto others" and "as you do to the least of my brethren you do to me" gives that away. - for many charity has become a 4 letter word unless it's thru a Falwell church donation)

But for a good some (many?) this is a real issue of murder from 1st signs of pregnancy. You can tell them how many pregnancies end in spontaneous miscarriages, often without knowledge of the mother even, but similar to people not wanting to wear masks for Covid, it's hard to reason for those who have faith alone (though often along with trust in some religious-political authority)

And for some, human sex and procreation is part of where we raise ourselves above animals, so the symbolism is more than important - for people who argue for transmogrification during the mass ritual, it will be hard to talk out of, whatever Martin Luther did 100s of years ago. Still, this is part of why we separate church and state - not to abuse and insult religion, but to allow development of social/scientific principles post-Enlightenment.

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 05/16/2022 - 4:27am

My mother, a holy Catholic rosary fan when young, got real cynical about all of it real quick as she birthed more babies while always struggling for money. She often brought up how ridiculous the old tymes were when people actually used to call a priest for Last Rites over the toilet when an early miscarriage happened. Yes, plenty of fertiized eggs get flushed down the toilet every day because they fail to sufficiently adhere to the uterine wall (and that is how the 'morning after' pill works, btw, it prevents ferti'ized eggs from implanting by inducing a 'period')

edit to add: by the time of Vatican II, top down Catholicism from Rome favored "natural family planning'. My parents actually had instruction pamphlets of using the rhythm method from the church. So it wasn't anti - planning of births,, married couples were just supposed to use will power to forgo sex during fertile periods, not artificial methods. Because, the theory was, if it happened even when you were trying your darnedest that it not happen, then it's god's will. Therein is the big flaw of Paul VI's Curriculum Vitae: the church hasn't been against scientific intervention being god's will since Galileo. I.E. They very much want sick people to take antibiotics so they don't die.

So the "life begins from conception" theory is faulty at its core. It's a natural everyday ocurrence that fertilized eggs get flushed down the toilet or thrown in the trash with menstrual pads/tampons and the woman doesn't even know.

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/16/2022 - 2:18pm

gotcha, Fr. Martin:

The are 6 Catholic’s on the Supreme Court. Will the #CatholicChurch now refuse them communion?
You know, ending a life.

The Supreme Court just condemned a man to die despite strong evidence he’s innocent https://t.co/H5QHtvyPm2
— Mr. Spock (Commentary) (@SpockResists) May 23, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/24/2022 - 8:22am

Abortion compromise?

.@RoryLittle , Professor, very smart guy, and former clerk who knows the court well has a concrete proposal for a middle ground that Kavanaugh and even Barrett could consider:

Can 5 Justices Preserve a Woman’s Right to Choose? https://t.co/jHmW8WuiWv via @RecorderTweets
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) May 13, 2022

by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 05/18/2022 - 12:36am

Abortion in the Founders’ era: Violent, chaotic and unregulated

By Gillian Brockell @ WashingtonPost.vom, May 15, 2022 at 7:00 a.m. EDT

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. calls himself an originalist, someone who thinks the Constitution should be interpreted only by how it would have been understood by the Founders when they wrote it. So it’s no surprise that his draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade is full of history.

At least seven times, Alito cited Sir Matthew Hale, a 17th-century jurist who didn’t think marital rape was possible because wives were the property of their husbands, and who sentenced at least two women to die for witchcraft. Alito also cited a legal text from 1250 by Henry de Bracton that, in another section, says women are inferior to men, and that they sometimes give birth to literal monsters.

Alito confined his exploration of the past to legal history and English common law. But to assess how the Founders would view abortion rights, it’s necessary to paint a fuller picture of what abortion was actually like in the time of the Founders.

And it was very different from how it might look in a post-Roe America.

Abortion in the Revolutionary War era

In the 18th-century United States and England, abortion was common enough that there were slang terms for it, like “taking the cold,” “taking the trade” and “bringing down the flowers.” It was less-effective and more dangerous than it is now; women seeking abortions often died from infected wounds or poisons. And it was generally unregulated, except for a few instances in England and one in colonial Maryland mentioned by Alito in the draft opinion.

In the late-18th and early-19th centuries, no states had laws against any form of abortion, though Alito averred that “manuals for justices of the peace printed in the colonies in the 18th century” sometimes "repeated Hale’s and [William] Blackstone’s statements that anyone who prescribed medication ‘unlawfully to destroy the child’ would be guilty of murder if the woman died.”

In the Revolutionary War era and the decades after, most homes would have had a medical manual like William Buchan’s “Domestic Medicine” or Samuel K. Jennings’s “The Married Woman’s Best Friend,” according to James C. Mohr in “Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy.” These books included recipes for concoctions that could induce menses that had been “blocked” or “suppressed” — a common way to refer to early pregnancy. One gave advice specifically for young women who had “what you call a common cold” (emphasis in original), before listing plant extracts believed to induce abortion. Another advised that if the concoctions didn’t work, one could try “violent exercise … jumping or stepping from an eminence, strokes on the belly, [and] falls.”

CAPTION: In the late-18th century and early-19th century, many American homes would have had a copy of “Domestic Medicine” by William Buchan, pictured here. The book included instructions to eliminate “obstructed menses” — a euphemism for early pregnancy. (National Institutes of Health)

One of these plant extracts, savin, which comes from juniper bushes, was particularly effective and also plentiful in the United States. But it came with high risk; too much could be lethal to the woman. Plus, there was the issue of murder: For some men acquiring savin for a woman they had impregnated, the “problem” was still solved if the woman died. (Murder, often at the hands of a romantic partner, is still the No. 1 cause of death for pregnant people.)

Beyond the ruling classes in England and America, there is also evidence of abortion among Indigenous American peoples and the enslaved, according to John Riddle in “Eve’s Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West.” Enslaved Black people likely brought this knowledge with them from Africa. A drink made of a certain type of cotton root native to Africa was used to induce abortion throughout the South.

Unlike many antiabortion activists today, most religious and legal scholars at the time did not think “ensoulment” began at the moment of conception but at the time of “quickening” — when a pregnant person can feel fetal movement, generally between 16 and 22 weeks. The vast majority of Alito’s historical references concern cases of abortion after the fetus was “quick.” He took pains to point out the few times his sources don’t mention it, but this isn’t necessarily evidence the people involved thought abortion before quickening was also wrong or a crime. Back then, a woman was simply not considered to be “carrying [a] child” before quickening, according to British historian Kate Lister.

The case of Eleanor Beare

In one of these instances, Alito introduced the English case of Eleanor Beare, writing, “In 1732, for example, Eleanor Beare was convicted of ‘destroying the Foetus in the Womb, and there-by causing her to miscarry.’ ” In the next paragraph, he wrote that “the judge said of the charge of abortion (with no mention of quickening) that he had ‘never met with a case so barbarous and unnatural.’ ”

But a read of Alito’s source for this quote, a contemporaneous trial summary in Gentleman’s Magazine, reveals that the judge was talking about more than just abortion. Beare was tried on three charges and convicted of two: giving a man poison for the express purpose of killing his wife, and ending the pregnancy of a servant who was raped in her home by inserting an iron skewer into the woman’s uterus.

But a read of Alito’s source for this quote, a contemporaneous trial summary in Gentleman’s Magazine, reveals that the judge was talking about more than just abortion. Beare was tried on three charges and convicted of two: giving a man poison for the express purpose of killing his wife, and ending the pregnancy of a servant who was raped in her home by inserting an iron skewer into the woman’s uterus.

CAPTION: Sir Matthew Hale (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The first antiabortion law in the United States

England passed its first law officially banning post-quickening abortion in 1800. The United States didn’t follow until 1821, when the Connecticut legislature banned giving a noxious substance to a woman “quick with child.” This was in the wake of a sex scandal involving a controversial preacher and a young woman he allegedly impregnated. The pastor gave her “poison” and, when that didn’t work, inserted “a tool” inside of her. She later delivered a stillborn child.

How a sex scandal led to the nation’s first abortion law 200 years ago

Authorities wanted to jail the preacher but couldn’t find any laws on the books he had broken. In this context, said Mohr, the “Abortion in America” author, the country’s first antiabortion law should be viewed as more of a “poison-control measure.”

Lolita Buckner Inniss, dean of the University of Colorado’s law school, who has studied the case in depth, had a different take when she spoke about it with The Washington Post in 2019. She pointed out that this first law banned only medicinal abortions, not mechanical ones. Medicinal abortions were more often administered by women — “grannies and midwives, many of them immigrants and formerly enslaved women” — while the mechanical abortions, the Beare case notwithstanding, were more often the purview of men in the burgeoning medical field.

When abortion didn’t work

There’s another aspect of pregnancy and childbirth during the Founders’ time not mentioned in Alito’s draft opinion: the prevalence of infanticide. Desperate women would sometimes dump a newborn in an outhouse or otherwise secretly kill the child and destroy the body.

It is impossible to know how many women got away with this undetected, but Lister pointed out that it too was common enough to have a grotesque slang term that made it into a 1785 lexicon book. She has found numerous British trial records for women accused of killing their newborns; between 1700 and 1800, there were 134 of these cases in a single London court.

“We must remember that this is only one court, in one area and these trials are the ones that were caught,” she wrote. “The actual figures of illegitimate infanticide will never be known.”

This was the case even with the presence of foundling hospitals, where women could safely abandon babies. These homes were perpetually over capacity, to the point where mothers had to enter a lottery to win a spot at one of them. Mothers were often required to leave a token with their babies, like a colored ribbon or unique button, in case they wanted to return for them. Of more than 16,000 babies brought to one hospital between 1741 and 1760, only 152 were reclaimed.

None of this resembles abortion today, whether or not it remains legal nationally. Abortion pills are regulated and safe to use. Surgical abortions have also become safe, and the “quickening” standard has shifted to a “viability” argument. We know more than ever about fetal development, and some states have permitted later abortions for medical reasons. Child-bearing without marriage, though still stigmatized, has become less so.

This is one reason critics of originalism say the historical understanding doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t, matter. The legal scholars Alito quoted lived in a world where women were property, babies could be “monsters” and abortion was dangerous.

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/19/2022 - 8:53am

To the extent that messaging matters, the best message is unlikely to be the one you like best — the target, after all, is a persuadable voter who probably doesn’t share your values or level of interest in politics.https://t.co/TT89lf5B9G pic.twitter.com/KRCrm8M1OQ
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 19, 2022

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/19/2022 - 10:40pm

White and nonwhite Democrats are divided on abortion.

While white Democrats oppose a 15-week ban by a solid 40 point margin, nonwhite Democrats are only opposed by 8 points. pic.twitter.com/Yp58sIw9uC
— Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) June 2, 2022

by artappraiser on Thu, 06/02/2022 - 2:14pm

"Exclusive - Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows"

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