We were warned

She warned us. We took up the warning.

The Supreme Court yesterday allowed Texas' restrictive abortion law go into effect. Not by actively voting for it, but, like cowards, simply by refusing to take a stand one way or another.

We told people what was at stake in 2016. We told them that everything, from Roe on down, was at stake. We told them what would happen if a Republican got into office. And it didn't matter. "Should have voted for Bernie." "The DNC did this to itself." "Don't threaten me with the courts. We can just vote them out."

The "get over 2016" crowd has finally reaped what it has sown. No, Roe isn't dead. But it's on life support. And this coterie of conservative Supreme Court justices may just run this playbook: not hearing the cases brought up as red state after red state follows Texas' lead, and the Court simply allows the laws to take effect without ever ruling on them.

Yes, that means that blue states will keep their access to abortion. That's cold comfort to a poor Latin woman who lives in Texas, or a poor Black woman in Mississippi. Their wealthier, white peers will be able to jet to California or down to Mexico to receive abortion services. They won't. 

And urging people to move from these states is adding insult to injury. Are you going to have jobs and housing waiting for them? A support network? Family connections. Fleeing your home is traumatic, whether you flee Texas or flee Afghanistan. Most people simply cannot practically do it. Instead of condescension, what people in red states need is support: Support to get voters registered and to the polls, support to overthrow the politicians who enact these laws via the ballot box. They don't need lectures on how their state should be expelled from the Union. They need to feel as if liberals across the country haven't abandoned them.

This is going to be along fight. We had better be ready for it. Roe is merely the first battle. The fascists will try to roll back any advances we've made in the past few decades. We have to meet them, face to face.