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Roe v Wade is on deck

Hillary is the most overrated politician of her generation.

What generation were you referring to, certainly not one that includes Donald J Trump!

Trump has never won a popular election.
Not ever!

He is the first one term president to get in office since 1988.

I'm not sure what you mean by "overrated". Hillary won a Senate seat representing Trump in 2000. She got the most votes in the presidential election in 2016.

Seriously, if you think she's the most overrated politician in a generation, where does that put Donald J Trump?
Biggest Loser in U.S. politics in a generation? Never won an election when the American voters could express their opinions? Most corrupt politician, best at cadging support from our enemies like Vladimir Putin? Least inclined to support U.S. interests?

Exactly what makes Clinton overrated, compared to other politicians like Trump?
Tom
Absence of the dangly bits.
 
It just means that any time Derec can invent a way to dig at a woman who is strong, intelligent, well educated and accomplished, he’ll give it a try.
Hillary is the most overrated politician of her generation, if not ever. People keep exaggerating her accomplishments (like calling her the most qualified presidential candidate ever even though that is not even remotely true) or her intellect (I have not seen much evidence she is smarter than those around her). I wonder why so much defensiveness over her.

Face it, she was a horrible candidate with a bad strategy. She would have been heads and shoulders a better president than the Orange Menace, but that is not saying much.

In motorsports they have a saying: "in order to finish first, first you must finish". In politics it's: "in order to have a chance to govern, first you must win your election".

You could have just said “Yes, I will”.

We didn’t need a fresh demonstration.
 
But it is his right to challenge a heiress apparent to the nomination, and challenge her on her record and her views. If she can't handle Bernie, how could anybody expect her to handle Trump?
It was his right, sort of.

She didn't have to let him do so, the Democratic party aren't any more democratic than the Republican party. Political parties are private organizations.

But she did.
Tom
 
Absence of the dangly bits.
I know you like to believe that.

Believe that everything that happens to women is because men are evil patriarchal assholes.

I don't see the world in such simple and sexist terms.
Tom
 
Hillary beat Sanders. Easily.

In the Dem primary. Not hard to understand given that she was an experienced Democratic politician, and Sanders wasn't even a Democrat.

Sanders beat her in the presidential election. He made sure that enough Democratic voters considered her terrible that Trump won the White House and appointed three scotus judges.
Tom
 
Hillary "Vote For Me Because I Am a Woman" Clinton lost an election because she was a horrible candidate and had too big an ego to recognize that and not seek the presidency.
She never said that. Your quote is bullshit.
 
Would anyone be surprised if there isn't a real attempt to assassinate a SCOTUS judge? The one a couple weeks ago doesn't count.
 
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From The Guardian,
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was escorted by police on Friday as she walked the short distance separating the Capitol and the Supreme Court buildings to join pro-abortion rights groups protesting there.

The New York representative addressed the crowd amid chaos through a bullhorn calling for people to go ‘into the streets’ and ‘keep abortion safe and legal’.

...
New York City’s Washington Square Park was packed with what appeared to be more than 1000 abortion rights protesters early Friday evening as the US Supreme Court handed down a decision this morning that overturned the landmark court decision Roe v. Wade.
Also,
The phones started ringing, as they always did, moments after Houston Women’s Reproductive Services opened for business at 9 a.m. on Friday — with patients in need of abortions calling to secure a spot on the schedule.

Then, 12 minutes later, it all came to a stop. The Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade.

“Can we still do abortions today?” asked patient advocate Marjorie Eisen, thinking about the 20 women they had booked for appointments.

Several were already in the waiting room, scrolling through their phones as they waited.
Boise, ID
(2) Katie Terhune on Twitter: "Several hundred people are in front of Boise City Hall right now protesting against the overturning of Roe v. Wade. (pic link)" / Twitter

Charlotte, NC
Brandon Hamilton on Twitter: "Protesters shouting “my body, my choice” — we are nearing the EpiCentre in uptown #Charlotte (vid link)" / Twitter

New Orleans, LA
WGNO-TV (ABC) New Orleans on Twitter: "Crowds protest Roe overturn outside New Orleans courthouse (links)" / Twitter

Houston, TX
John Wayne Ferguson on Twitter: "More than 100 abortion-rights demonstrators gathered outside the federal courthouse in downtown Houston. Speakers expected to begin in a few minutes. (pix link)" / Twitter

Also Topeka, KS

Victoria Bekiempis on Twitter: "To give a sense of how many people are here, this is the scene up Park Avenue South.... (vid link)" / Twitter
 
Elsewhere in the world, "In London, protesters gathered outside the US embassy holding signs and chanting. Demonstrations also took place in Edinburgh, the Independent reported, while sympathy protests were also reported in Berlin."

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he’s “concerned and disappointed”. Writing on Twitter, he called the ruling was “both reducing women’s rights and access to health care.” He said there was “irrefutable” evidence that restricting legal abortions can drive women and girls to unsafe and sometimes deadly procedures.

Meanwhile, the French president Emmanuel Macron tweeted that abortion is “a fundamental right for all women” that must be protected. The French Foreign Ministry urged US federal authorities “to do everything possible” to ensure American women can have continued access to abortion, calling it “a health and survival issue for young girls and women.”

The end of constitutional protections for abortions in the United States on emboldened abortion opponents around the world, while advocates for abortion rights worried it could threaten recent moves toward legalization in their countries.

The US Supreme Court’s overturning of the landmark decision “shows that these types of rights are always at risk of being steamrolled,” said Ruth Zurbriggen, an Argentinian activist and member of the Companion Network of Latin America and the Caribbean, a group favoring abortion rights.

In Kenya, Phonsina Archane watched news of Friday’s ruling and said she froze for a while in a state of panic.

“This is being done in America, which should be an example when it comes to the women’s rights movement,” said Archane, an activist for abortion rights. “If this is happening in America, what abou
 
Absence of the dangly bits.
I know you like to believe that.

Believe that everything that happens to women is because men are evil patriarchal assholes.

I don't see the world in such simple and sexist terms.
Tom
I was simply answering your question to Derec regarding his opinion of Clinton.

As to your world view and how simplistic or sexist it might be, that would hardly be for the likes of me to have an opinion about,
 
Hillary beat Sanders. Easily.

In the Dem primary. Not hard to understand given that she was an experienced Democratic politician, and Sanders wasn't even a Democrat.

Sanders beat her in the presidential election. He made sure that enough Democratic voters considered her terrible that Trump won the White House and appointed three scotus judges.
Tom
How interesting an opinion that is: Sanders beat Clinton in a race for POTUS. He lost in the primaries to her.

I should think that such a rebel as Bernie Sanders would be horrified to think that he played any role in maintaining the status quo by helping to defeat Mrs. Clinton. What a terrible thing for you to suggest!
 
Katie Lannan on Twitter: "Under an executive order Gov. Baker signed today, Mass. "will not cooperate with extradition requests from other states pursuing criminal charges against individuals who received, assisted with, or performed reproductive health services that are legal in [MA]," per his office." / Twitter
noting
No. 600: Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Services in the Commonwealth | Mass.gov

Tracking Where Abortion Is Now Banned - The New York Times
  • Abortion outlawed immediately in AL, AR, KY, LA, MO, OK, SD, UT, WI
  • Abortion outlawed "within days" in MS, WY
  • Abortion outlawed after 30 days in ID, ND, TN, TX
  • Abortion may soon be outlawed in WV
  • Abortion only before 6 weeks: GA, NC, OH
  • Abortion only before 15 weeks: AZ, FL
  • Uncertain status: IA, IN, KS, MI, MT, NC, NE, PA, VA
  • Abortion protected: AK, CO, IL, MA, ME, MN, NH, NM, NV, RI
  • Abortion access expanded: CA, CT, DC, DE, HI, MD, NJ, NY, OR, VT, WA
 
Kavanaugh Gave Private Assurances on Roe v. Wade. Collins Says He ‘Misled’ Her. - The New York Times
“Start with my record, my respect for precedent, my belief that it is rooted in the Constitution, and my commitment and its importance to the rule of law,” he said, according to contemporaneous notes kept by multiple staff members in the meeting. “I understand precedent and I understand the importance of overturning it.”

“Roe is 45 years old, it has been reaffirmed many times, lots of people care about it a great deal, and I’ve tried to demonstrate I understand real-world consequences,” he continued, according to the notes, adding: “I am a don’t-rock-the-boat kind of judge. I believe in stability and in the Team of Nine.”

Persuaded, Ms. Collins, a Republican, gave a detailed speech a few weeks later laying out her rationale for backing the future justice that cited his stated commitment to precedent on Roe, helping clinch his confirmation after a bitter fight. On Friday, Justice Kavanaugh joined the majority in overturning the decision he told Ms. Collins he would protect.
Sen. SC said that she was "misled" and Sen. Joe Manchin expressed similar sentiments.
“I trusted Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh when they testified under oath that they also believed Roe v. Wade was settled legal precedent and I am alarmed they chose to reject the stability the ruling has provided for two generations of Americans,” said Mr. Manchin, who himself is anti-abortion.

Thousands Gather in N.Y.C. to Protest After Supreme Court Overturned Roe v. Wade - The New York Times

Supreme Court’s Abortion Decision Roils Midterm Elections - The New York Times - "Democrats hope the fall of Roe v. Wade will jolt abortion rights supporters into action in midterm elections. But is it enough to turn voters’ attention away from inflation?"

Roe v. Wade Decision Prompts Closures and Confusion at Abortion Clinics - The New York Times - "Some clinics vowed to carry on providing abortions in states with limits or outright bans, only to reverse course midday and halt procedures over concerns about whether their actions were suddenly illegal."

How G.O.P. Support for Decriminalizing Abortion Faded Over Decades - The New York Times - "Before the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, more Republicans than Democrats backed decriminalizing the procedure. But a political and religious coalition rose and took the party in a new direction."
Greenhouse and Siegel tell the story of how G.O.P. strategists in the early 1970s decided that the party could attract new Republican voters by making a play to Catholics and evangelicals centered on abortion.

It took about 10 years for this new political coalition to coalesce along with the rise of Ronald Reagan, they write — powered by the emerging alliance between evangelical Christians and Catholics.
Because of the Southern Strategy and wanting to get the votes of disaffected Dixiecrats.
 
June 24, 2022: The Day Chief Justice Roberts Lost His Court - The New York Times - "Outflanked by five impatient and ambitious justices to his right, the chief justice has become powerless to pursue his incremental approach."

Are Abortion Medications Delivered by Mail Illegal? - The New York Times
"It is still legal in most states to receive abortion medication by mail, which has been allowed since December 2021, when the Food and Drug Administration lifted a restriction that required patients to obtain the pills from a certified provider."

Abortion Funds Raise Millions in Donations to Help People Seeking the Procedure - The New York Times
As of Friday afternoon, the National Network of Abortion Funds, which has 97 member organizations, had received more than $3 million from about 33,000 new donations — more than 4,500 of which were recurring — since the Supreme Court’s decision became public this morning, said Debasri Ghosh, the fund’s managing director. In May, when a draft of the Supreme Court’s opinion on Roe v. Wade leaked, the fund received about $1.5 million in donations over a week.

“It’s an incredible outpouring of support,” Ms. Ghosh said.

The fund had not actively sought these donations, Ms. Ghosh said, because its website temporarily crashed Friday morning due to “an unprecedented, massive spike in traffic that we just couldn’t prepare for.” She said the donations were “entirely organic.”
Politicians React to Supreme Court’s Ruling on Abortion - The New York Times - "Democratic leaders condemned the court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, while some Republican lawmakers celebrated the ruling."
and
Video: Members of Congress Voice Mixed Opinions on the Roe v Wade Ruling - The New York Times

In the video:
D: Sen. Chuck Schumer, VP Kamala Harris, Sen. Dick Durbin
R: Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Michelle Fischbach

Speaker Nancy Pelosi was visibly shaken at her weekly news conference, saying, “It’s just stunning — and again as a woman, as a mother, as a grandmother, to see young girls now have fewer rights than their moms or even their grandmothers, is something very sad for our country.”

Separately, she described the ruling as “cruel,” “outrageous” and “heart-wrenching.”
On the other side,
Some lawmakers expressed satisfaction with the court’s ruling, including Representative Majorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, who walked into the House chamber with a smile and said the decision was “a blessing.”

“People need to understand this doesn’t end abortion and just simply gives it back to the states, allowing the states to make their own laws,” she said.

The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who has played a major role in shaping the Supreme Court, said he shared the joy of those celebrating the ruling.

Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, declared on the House floor: “God bless the United States Supreme Court, and God bless President Trump for the people he selected for our highest court.”
Some exceptional good sense from MTG, I must concede. It's not going to be good enough for anti-abortionists when several states not only accept abortion, but actively defend it and offer their clinics to people from anti-abortion states.

Scene Outside Mississippi Abortion Clinic After Roe Is Overturned - The New York Times - "Clinic escorts directed traffic outside the Jackson Women’s Health Organization as a small group of anti-abortion demonstrators gathered outside after the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade."

Trump, the Man Most Responsible for Ending Roe, Worries It Could Hurt His Party - The New York Times - Donald Trump
 
Sounds like gay rights, right to contraception and other such rights will also come under threat:


You'd better also reconsider interracial marriage while you're at it, Clarence. Otherwise people will think you're a hypocrite.

My wife thought this, too, but I immediately thought that the Constitution forbade discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion. However, there is nothing in the Constitution to directly forbid that kind of discrimination at the state level. The 14th amendment might be invoked to claim that there is such a ban on discrimination, but that was the position of previous Court decisions.

This decision pretty much turns those previous precedents on their heads. No past Supreme Court decision is cast in stone, and this Court is quite willing to overturn any past decision that it disagrees with on ideological grounds. They seem to view their power as a grant to exercise the nuclear option on a great many laws that had previously been considered based on rights unenumerated in the Constitution. The 14th amendment doesn't apply here, according to this decision. Justice Roberts thought that the 14th amendment could possibly justify some cases of abortion, but he decided to apply a "what the heck" principle in this case and side the the majority position that the 14th did not apply here. Perhaps he didn't want to see abortion banned without at least having his fingerprints on that decision.

Bans on racial discrimination are based on unenumerated rights. So, if a state decided to ban interracial marriage, would the current Court agree? To be consistent, they should, but it isn't logic or law that is driving their decisions. It is their power to simply block laws that offend their personal sense of morality. Such a ban would break up Thomas's marriage, so he would never agree to it. Breaking up same-sex marriages--that's a different story.
 
Key Passages From the Supreme Court’s Decision Overturning Roe - The New York Times

Democrats Turn to Donors After the Roe v. Wade Decision - The New York Times

NY State Governor Kathy Hochul:
Hochul Calls Supreme Court’s Abortion Ruling ‘Repulsive’ - The New York Times - 'Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York condemned the decision, saying extremism had “infiltrated the Supreme Court of the United States of America.”'

How Women Who Support Abortion Rights Are Reacting to Roe v. Wade - The New York Times
  • Thinking of the next generation of young women
  • ‘Women should have the choice’
  • A fear that a lack of access to abortion will lead to deaths
  • ‘The decision has set women back at least 100 years’
  • A Mississippi woman reacts with anger, but not disbelief
  • ‘The nation is on fire’
Abortion Rights Firewall Under Way in California, Oregon, Washington - The New York Times
noting
Multi-State-Commitment-to-Reproductive-Freedom_Final-1.pdf
stating
  • Protect against efforts by states hostile to abortion rights to target patients who receive legal reproductive healthcare services in our states, those who support patients in accessing reproductive healthcare services in our states, and licensed medical professionals who provide legal reproductive healthcare services in our states; and
  • Protect against judicial and local law enforcement cooperation with out-of-state investigations, inquiries, and arrests regarding the provision of, receipt of, inquiry about, or assistance with obtaining abortion and other reproductive healthcare services that are legal in our states; and
  • Refuse non-fugitive extradition of individuals for criminal prosecution for receiving legal reproductive healthcare services in our states, supporting patients in accessing reproductive healthcare services in our states, or providing legal reproductive healthcare services in our states, and charge our state judiciaries with not issuing subpoenas or summons in cases where prosecution is pending, or where a grand jury investigation has commenced or is about to commence, for a civil or criminal violation of a law of another state involving the provision or receipt of or assistance with lawful reproductive healthcare services accessed in one of our states; and
  • Protect against the misuse of medical records and other personal and sensitive health information to target patients who receive legal reproductive healthcare services in our states, those who support patients in accessing legal reproductive healthcare services in our states, and licensed medical professionals who provide legal reproductive healthcare services in our states; and
  • Protect against adverse actions by personal or professional liability insurers against those who assisted an individual from out-of-state in receiving an abortion or other reproductive healthcare services in our states, solely on that basis; and
  • Defend and protect licensed medical professionals in continuing to provide reproductive healthcare, in compliance with state and federal law, including by supporting legislative and executive actions to protect licensed medical professionals from adverse actions by licensing boards and liability insurers solely because the professionals provided reproductive healthcare services in our states consistent with state and federal law and standards of care, when the claims are based on laws in other states that are hostile to abortion rights and are contrary to the public policy of our states; and
  • Promote greater access to abortion care services, including by expanding access to medication abortion, removing barriers to telehealth for reproductive healthcare services, and growing the pool of qualified practitioners who may provide abortion and other reproductive healthcare services; and
  • Defend against false and misleading reproductive healthcare information.
In effect, making those states into abortion sanctuaries.
 
World Leaders React to Roe Ruling - The New York Times
noting
As Abortion Rights Expand, the U.S. Joins a Handful of Telling Exceptions - The New York Times - "Recent shifts on access to abortion suggest democracy and women’s rights go hand in hand — and that the inverse might be true as well."
The liberalizing trend, from Britain’s Abortion Act, passed in 1967, through Mexico’s ruling this week, has usually followed a pattern.

A women’s rights movement will arise somewhere, often as part of democratization, in which such groups may play a prominent role. Medical groups and United Nations agencies might voice support. Public opinion on abortion will soften.

A partial or local-level legalization will prove popular, as happened in Mexico, paving the way to more. The legislature or high court, perhaps bowing to public pressure, will step in.

And each breakthrough will inspire others. Mexico’s campaigners wore green handkerchiefs, a nod to Argentine activists who pushed successfully for legalization last year.

Seeing what they’ve done in Latin America, 10 years ago we’d have thought it was impossible,” said Serra Sippel, the president of the Center for Health and Gender Equity.
Then about opponents of abortion finding new allies. "Still, in most countries, forces like partisanship or nationalism only slow the expansion of abortion rights. It takes something more drastic to roll it back."
High courts are generally thought to incorporate public opinion on contentious social matters. Mexico’s is an example: It jumped ahead of public opinion on abortion, but in a direction that Mexicans were slowly trending.

But last week’s United States ruling may be symptomatic, some political scientists argue, of a significant change in democracy there and elsewhere. Its major institutions increasingly empower minority rule.

“Thirty-five, 40 percent of the electorate,” said Steven Levitsky, a Harvard University scholar on democracy, “now can be enough, given the electoral system,” to win power.
The US Senate and Electoral College give some voters more weight than others, but for the first time in US history, this division corresponds to political-party divisions, with the more-weighted voters being typically Republican.

"Republicans won the national popular vote in only one out of the last eight presidential elections, but have appointed six of the nine current Supreme Court justices."
In societies with high polarization, he has found, parties often fight bitterly for control of the courts. These contests tend to send a message, intended or not, that courts exist to serve partisan interests, rather than guard against them.

Rulings at odds with public opinion, Dr. Levitsky said, can become “very likely in a period of polarization and hardball politics.”

This may help explain why all three countries to roll back abortion rights this century — Nicaragua, Poland and the United States — did so amid bare-knuckle fights for control of the high court.
 
The US and Poland followed very similar trajectories about abortion. The two countries are alike in another way: strong regional divisions:  Poland A and B - Poland A is mostly ex-German and Poland B is mostly ex-Russian and ex-Austrian, and there are other differences, like Poland A being more secular and more pro-Western than Poland B.
In both, high courts rolled back abortion rights that were favored by national majorities.

And both rulings were preceded by the rise of populist leaders who widened social divisions and promised to smash or co-opt independent institutions.

Conservative groups have long sought to overturn abortion laws. But they have been “radicalized” by the populist surge, Dr. Levitsky said, of voters who see themselves as besieged minorities fighting for the survival of their way of life.

...
Curbs on women’s rights tend to accelerate in backsliding democracies, a category that includes the United States, according to virtually every independent metric and watchdog.

In more degraded democracies, the effect is more extreme. Around the globe, the rise of right-wing populism has been followed by extraordinary reductions in women’s rights, according to a 2019 report by Freedom House.

Strongmen often curb civil society as a whole, of which women’s groups tend to be leading members. And they rise on appeals to nationalism, with its calls for rigid social hierarchies and mores.

“There is a trend to watch for in countries that have not necessarily successfully rolled it back, but are introducing legislation to roll it back,” Rebecca Turkington, a University of Cambridge scholar, said of abortion rights, “in that this is part of a broader crackdown on women’s rights. And that goes hand in hand with creeping authoritarianism.”
 
Back to World Leaders React to Roe Ruling - The New York Times

Prime Minister of Canada:
Justin Trudeau on Twitter: "The news coming out of the United States is horrific. My heart goes out to the millions of American women who are now set to lose their legal right to an abortion. I can’t imagine the fear and anger you are feeling right now." / Twitter
then
Justin Trudeau on Twitter: "No government, politician, or man should tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body. I want women in Canada to know that we will always stand up for your right to choose." / Twitter

President of France, posting in English:
Emmanuel Macron on Twitter: "Abortion is a fundamental right for all women. It must be protected. I wish to express my solidarity with the women whose liberties are being undermined by the Supreme Court of the United States." / Twitter

UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that the ruling “a huge blow to women’s rights and gender equality.” and “Access to safe, legal and effective abortion is firmly rooted in international human right law and is at the core of women and girls’ autonomy and ability to make their own choices about their bodies and lives, free of discrimination, violence and coercion.”

Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson: the decision was a “big step backward.” and that “clearly it has massive impacts on people’s thinking around the world. It’s a very important decision.” “I’ve always believed in a woman’s right to choose, and I stick to that view. and that’s why the U.K. has the laws that it does.”

Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, wrote that her “heart cries for girls and women in the United States”, calling the decision “a huge setback.” “We must never compromise on women’s unrestricted right to decide over their own bodies and futures.”

Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez: “We cannot take any rights for granted. Social achievements are always at risk of going backwards and their defense has to be our day to day. Women must be able to decide freely about their lives.”

everal countries have liberalized restrictive abortion laws in recent years, through either legislation, court rulings or administrative action, including Ireland in 2018, Northern Ireland in 2019, Argentina in 2020, Mexico last year and Colombia this year. Hours before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling was released on Friday, Germany’s Parliament repealed a law that, while often ignored, had long prohibited doctors from advertising abortion services, effectively making it a crime to provide public information on the procedure and how to get one.
On the other side,
While Pope Francis, who has an active Twitter account, did not immediately post a response or issue a statement, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, praised the ruling.

“In the face of Western society that is losing its passion for life, this act is a powerful invitation to reflect together on the serious and urgent issue of human generativity and the conditions that make it possible,” he said in a statement. “By choosing life, our responsibility for the future of humanity is at stake.”

South of the Rio Grande,
In Mexico, where the Supreme Court decriminalized abortion last September, activists watching the mounting restrictions in the United States have been preparing for months to help American women obtain the procedure. They plan to send pills across the border that induce abortions, and help Americans cross in the other direction to clinics in Mexico.
 
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