“Do as I say and not as I do”
Hypocrisy. Double standard. Put more simply, “do as I say and not as I do.” If someone decides they know what is better for you than you do for yourself, we have a problem. Republicans constantly harp on smaller government and how the government shouldn’t interfere in the lives of Americans. Yet, when it suits their needs, it is perfectly alright for the government to interfere. In the case of the leaked Supreme Court opinion, if it passes into law, government will control the right of women to make choices concerning their health and wellbeing as it relates to controlling their own bodies. This is not acceptable.
If indeed Roe v. Wade is overturned, 26 Republican-led states stand poised to overturn legal abortion. Apparently, these (predominantly) men do not remember the days of backroom abortions, when many women died trying to control their own bodies. Perhaps they don’t care. History is filled with stories of the horrors of illegal abortions. Make no mistake: Women will get abortions if they want them, even at the risk of their own lives. While Republicans crow about the lives of fetuses, they care little if anything about the women who carry those fetuses, and they care nothing about the fetuses after they become babies and are born. They consistently try to take aid from families that cannot feed themselves. Those numbers will explode once women are forced to carry babies for whom they cannot care. Have Republicans even thought of that? Of course not. They care only about what a minority of Americans have been complaining about for years: Legal abortion.
The Guardian shared the reactions of senators and others, with the most striking and telling coming from Eric Swalwell of California: “If you think they’ll stop with a woman’s right to choose, you haven’t been paying attention. We have to fight like our lives depend on it, because clearly, they do.” No, it won’t stop here. This is merely the beginning of dictatorial rule for which Republicans have been clamoring. This explains the hypocrisy of Mitch McConnell allowing a vote on Amy Coney Barrett 20 days before an election while blocking a vote on Merrick Garland when President Obama still had over a year left in his term. This is the dream for which Republicans hoped. They had better hope that it doesn’t come back to bite them in the ass.
Democrats are not taking this lightly. President Joe Biden has made clear that he is not down with the decision. While younger Senator Joe Biden disagreed with the passage of Roe v. Wade according to Washington Post, things have changed; the world has changed. President Biden has changed with it. He reacted to the leaked opinion: “The idea that we’re going to make a judgment that is going to say that no one can make the judgment to choose to abort a child, based on a decision by the Supreme Court, I think, goes way overboard.” Yes, it does, but that is, unfortunately, the world in which we find ourselves. This is an issue we need to fight. If we don’t, what will they try to enforce on us next?
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years