Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade

The course of American history has changed.  The Supreme Court today overturned Roe v. Wade by a 6-3 decision.  The landmark 1973 case had legalized abortion in the United States as a constitutional right.  Today's ruling leaves state legislatures free to restrict, forbid, or criminalize abortion.  

As a gay man, the abortion question has never been an issue for me; but I do know that my late mother and other female relations thought a woman should definitely be able to get an abortion, and I think no man should have a say in that: it's up to the woman who has to bear that child, and in nearly all cases, raise that child.

But today's ruling, supported by all three of the conservative justices Trump appointed to the Supreme Court, is another landmark case that bodes ill for many other rights that we have come to take for granted in the last half-century.  A new era begins today, and it's not going to be pretty.

Read the full Supreme Court ruling here (PDF); the first 8 pages are a summary of the actual 200-page opinion.

This is only the first domino to fall.  You fellas who are married - you do realize that you could now be un-married by the Supreme Court with the stroke of a pen, don't you?  You fellas who aren't married - you could now be prosecuted as felons for having gay sex, the way it used to be here in Texas, if the Court continues to apply today's legal reasoning to other cases.  What the Supreme Court gives, it can also take away.

It seems to me that today's ruling is just the first step in establishing a totalitarian, right-wing, one-party government that fuses religion and politics, and crushes the life out of all dissent.  Don't think it can't happen here.  It just did.

With a two-to-one majority on the Supreme Court - and with a Republican majority in both houses of Congress the likely result of this year's elections - a new dark age looms ahead.  Wake up, guys.  You Have Been Warned.

Mark my words:  the right-wing wolves have tasted blood now, and they won't stop with abortion rights.  Better enjoy Pride month while it lasts.  Here's live coverage of today's events:

 

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Pope Says Lay Off the Gays, God Is in Everybody

Whoa, this is big news, and a big breath of fresh air. Pope Francis, in an interview he granted last month to an Italian Jesuit magazine, says the Catholic Church needs to find a new balance. The New York Times reports:

Pope Francis, in the first extensive interview of his six-month-old papacy, said that the Roman Catholic Church had grown “obsessed” with preaching about abortion, gay marriage and contraception, and that he has chosen not to speak of those issues despite recriminations from some critics.

In remarkably blunt language, Francis sought to set a new tone for the church, saying it should be a “home for all” and not a “small chapel” focused on doctrine, orthodoxy and a limited agenda of moral teachings.

“It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time,” the pope told the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a fellow Jesuit and editor in chief of La Civiltà Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit journal whose content is routinely approved by the Vatican. “The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.

“We have to find a new balance,” the pope continued, “otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.” . . .

The new pope’s words are likely to have repercussions in a church whose bishops and priests in many countries, including the United States, often appeared to make combating abortion, gay marriage and contraception their top public policy priorities. These teachings are “clear” to him as “a son of the church,” he said, but they have to be taught in a larger context. “The proclamation of the saving love of God comes before moral and religious imperatives.” . . .

“A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality,” he told Father Spadaro. “I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person.” . . .

"I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life. God is in everyone’s life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else — God is in this person’s life. You can, you must try to seek God in every human life. Although the life of a person is a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God."

You can read the full interview in English at America magazine, a weekly Catholic journal.

In another story reported by the Huffington Post, a 25-year-old gay man from Toulouse, France, claims that the Pope called him on August 29 after receiving a letter the man wrote, telling of his experiences with bullying and self-doubt. The Pope supposedly said to him:

"I received the letter you sent me," he said. Then we talked about the situation in my life. He told me: "Your homosexuality, it does not matter. You must remain brave, you must continue to believe, to pray, and be good. "

He encouraged me to continue the volunteer work I mentioned in my letter. He encouraged me, told me to be strong. He told me this: "One way or another, we are all children of God. This is why we must continue to be good. We all return to God, and only God knows if we are good. "

A Vatican official later denied that the Pope had called the man, who nevertheless maintains that it was indeed the Pope who called him. But still, in your Head Trucker's opinion the story does seem very much in keeping with Francis's public expressions so far.


Update, 9/20:  On the CBS This Morning program, New York's homophobic Cardinal Dolan, full of porcine pep and cheer, says it was no biggie - the Pope was just talking about doing a makeover on the Church's PR strategy, 'cause the old one ain't pulling in the demographics like it used to.  I wonder . . . .

Power to the People

Amid our rejoicing over the marriage cases at the Supreme Court, your Head Trucker is sure that all his readers will admire what happened on Tuesday night in Austin:  the story of the triumph of Texas state senator Wendy Davis (D-Ft. Worth) and her legion of supporters over the pigheaded Republican good ol' boys who control Texas politics.  Rachel reports:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Straight White Male God Demands Human Sacrifices

Preferably sexually active females, please - yum. 

Oh, and pay no attention to that little man behind the curtain.  Merely an assistant, don't bother him.

My truckbuddy Heretic Tom will tell ya all about it, check it out if you dare.

Today's Quotes: The Christianists' Aim

A reader who is a Kansas minister writes to Andrew Sullivan about the horrific murder of Dr. George Tiller, shot dead at his church in Wichita yesterday:

I have come to the conclusion that the Christianists' aim is the simple denial of God’s grace to anyone who may have a broader vision of the love of Christ.

Do they not understand that each day that Dr. Tiller lived was another opportunity for grace to prevail? For some that grace may have meant he saved the life of a woman needing access to a safe abortion, to others perhaps that grace would’ve been his own turning away from his practice. But the point is whenever we presume to be the gatekeepers of God’s love and grace, we ourselves are turning away from God.

Another abortion doctor, Warren Hearn, had this to say in an interview with the Colorado Independent:

We don’t have to invade Iraq to find terrorists. They’re right here killing abortion doctors. Every doctor that does abortions has been under an assassination threat for decades. The anti-abortion movement message is, "Do what we tell you to do or we will kill you," and they do. This is a fascist movement.

Sullivan is blogging extensively on the murder, and publishing numerous moving letters from readers whose poignant stories clearly show why sometimes a late-term abortion is the most merciful choice that can be made, like this story and this one.