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Now What?: The Fall of Roe v. Wade

June 24, 2022, will be remembered in infamy alongside January 6, 2021, and November 9, 2016.

A dark day in American history, a day when the rights of millions of women were stolen.

The implications of this are clear for everyone to see; in fact, the implications were known for decades.

I cannot forget or forgive anyone who had a role to play in this humanitarian, civil rights, and legal catastrophe, a decision that undermined decades’ worth of legal precedent. That not only includes the Republican Party, Trump and his base, plus the religious right, but also everyone who undermined Secretary Clinton in 2016. The betrayal of so many so-called Democrats in 2016 hurts even more than usual.

I was one of those who warned people about this over and over in 2016, yet they did not listen.

The blood of desperate women and girls will be on the hands of the far right and their collaborators on the far left—never let them forget it. I certainly won’t.

Out-of-the-Question Options

A lot of things have been floating around as options, and at least half of them are either illegal, counterproductive, impossible, or immoral.

Wasting time on these ideas will only cost money, time, and lives.

The idea of using Native American reservations as places to set up abortion clinics is out of the question. These reservations do not have any of the infrastructure in place to support these clinics right now with the resources they have on hand. Also, it is not on Native people to bail us out of years of bad decisions; they are already struggling with the consequences of what the US government has done and continues to do to them.

Some have suggested using military bases and national parks to set up these clinics. Accessibility is the big problem here, especially for emergencies like ectopic pregnancies. In addition, these locations don’t have the infrastructure to support these clinics.

Moreover, the Hyde Amendment makes it very illegal to use federal dollars to pay for abortions.

Packing the court has been brought up often as well.

It is true that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt attempted this maneuver in the late 1930s when the Supreme Court kept ruling parts of the New Deal unconstitutional. However, what often gets left out is the fact that FDR had a supermajority to work with at the time and that his efforts to expand the court failed. Not only that, when he lost his supermajority in the 1944 midterms, he was far less effective at legislating.

People bring up President Lyndon Baines Johnson as well. It is true that he resorted to acts of intimidation to get legislation passed. But keep in mind that he also had quite a large majority to work with, and his intimidation was less effective after heavy losses in the 1966 midterms and losing the bulk of his political capital to the Vietnam War.

By contrast, President Biden has the smallest of majorities in both chambers of Congress. He has no margin for even small dissent.

As for packing the court, do you have the votes to pull that off? If not, then drop it. Let’s also not forget what happens if the Republicans gain control with that genie out of the bottle.

It is not a good idea to propose something if you know that it will be defeated and turned down by members of your own party. That will only make a bad situation worse.

All that said, there are options for how to deal with this horrific situation.

Actual Options

First and foremost, make sure to support Democrats at the state and local levels. They are the last line of defense.

The Supreme Court just opened a Pandora’s box of vicious litigation between different jurisdictions.

For those of you living in solidly blue states, contact your state representatives and senators to enshrine reproductive rights in state law.

That means any readers living in Illinois, in the Northeast, or on the West Coast.

For those, like me, who live in a purple state that leans blue (like Minnesota, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Virginia), pay close attention to the various races you have this year, especially for governor. For people living in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, their governors are the last line of defense against Republicans who are prepared to burn down their own states for a demented agenda.

Things are going to get a lot harder for those of you living in toss-up states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. These states have a divided government but can go either way. With the fall of Roe v. Wade, anti-choice extremists are going to become more emboldened. This is why it is vital that you take the time to spread the word about why holding the gubernatorial mansions in these states is so crucial.

For those of you who live in purple states that lean red (like Georgia and Arizona), I advise you to pay close attention to the states with the closest abortion providers. Make sure to clear your web history or use private browsing when doing this.

For any women reading this, make sure to fly or use the train if you are able to from now on when traveling out of state. Gentlemen, do the same thing out of both solidarity and to starve these vicious states of money.

I, for one, will avoid traveling to these states so as to starve them of money. I would encourage everyone to make sure none of your money goes to states like Missouri and Arkansas. Any state that has immediately begun to enforce abortion bans must be starved of resources. This is one leverage blue states have over red states, economic power.

I would encourage everyone to use the same type of sanctions that have brought Russia to its knees against the red states. Contact your representatives about it.

Get familiar with a concept called “prosecutorial discretion.” That means a county attorney can choose what kind of cases to prosecute or not. Pay attention to these offices.

For those of you living in safe blue states, host women who are coming to your state for reproductive health care.

Make sure to spread the word and help the following candidates for governor. They are all a firewall.
Make sure to support and spread the word about the following Senate candidates.
Below, I will list the two most promising candidates for the Senate seat in Wisconsin, regardless of how I feel about them. Either way, they must defeat Ron Johnson in November.
If I was asked who I liked better, I would say State Treasurer Godlewski. Slight favorite toward her, but that can change.

This has been a rough time. Make sure to contain the damage and hold the line.

Stay frosty, everyone.
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