Draft Supreme Court Decision Charts Path For Outlawing Abortion Everywhere

[Nevilledog]

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Kate Riga
@Kate_Riga24
It's not gotten enough airtime that this opinion draft is permeated with support for fetal personhood, the theory under which anti-abortion activists push to outlaw abortion nationwide. Again, it's folly to think 'leave it to the states' is where this ends

talkingpointsmemo.com
Draft Supreme Court Decision Charts Path For Outlawing Abortion Everywhere
The leaked draft opinion that set America aflame Monday night contains more...
12:34 PM · May 3, 2022

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/draft-supreme-court-opinion-roe-abortion-outlaw

*snip*

The primary banner under which anti-abortion activists push for a nationwide prohibition of abortion is fetal personhood, the idea that fetuses are imbued with rights under the 14th Amendment.

The once-fringe argument has already permeated the rightwing bloodstream, though we’ve had few data points with which to guess how amenable the justices would be to it. Justice Clarence Thomas seemed receptive in a 2019 concurrence where he cited a belief that abortion is “racial genocide.”

Alito, in the draft opinion, provides more.

People argue, he writes, that fetuses shouldn’t get legal protection until they amass the necessary characteristics to count as a person, naming “sentience, self awareness, the ability to reason.”

After he uses the “some argue” framing to distance himself from that position, he takes it upon himself to rebut the argument personally.

“By this logic, it would be an open question whether even born individuals, including young children or those afflicted with certain developmental or medical conditions, merit protection as ‘persons,’” he writes, employing some classic anti-abortion linguistic maneuvering to compare fetuses to children.

He gets even more explicit.

“But even if one takes the view that ‘personhood’ begins when a certain attribute or combination of attributes is acquired, it is very hard to see why viability should make the point where ‘personhood’ begins,” he writes.

*snip*

[AlexSFCA]

1. it's been their goal from the start. The focus should be on SC. Federal law would do nothing

it would be placed on hold by SC via injunction overnight.

[SoCalDavidS]

2. They'll Still Make Sure That Female Fetuses Have Fewer Rights Than Male Fetuses

In keeping with their policy.