Order in the court...please

It is painfully clear that abortion rights are about to be ripped out from under the feet of millions of American women soon. Many of them live in states where abortions will become instantly illegal in the event of an adverse decision by the United States Supreme Court.

We already know that decision is coming. The only question left is when. The first week in October, when the court begins to meet again? A month later, so that it will fall after the upcoming mid-term elections? It’s anyone’s guess.

What isn’t a guess is that this will cause massive pain and suffering.

Not all of it will fall directly on women, though most surely will.

Some of that pain will be borne by the children who have been “saved,” only to enter the world with birth defects, some quickly fatal, others that will be debilitating through the course of a long life.

Or they will enter a family that perhaps does not want or love them or cannot afford to properly care for them. Those who oppose abortion rights want us to believe that everything is going to be just fine with these children, that they will be happy.

Balderdash.

I acknowledge such a possibility might rarely occur, but the norm will abject misery for all. That was often the case in the years before Roe. Our medical advances can keep children alive when before they might have mercifully died in childbirth or soon after.

While those who oppose abortion rights “estimate” the number of unwanted pregnancies from both incest and rape to be “about 2 percent,” that appears to be the wildest of guesses.

Let’s try thinking of it another way. How many of these pregnancies occurred when the woman didn’t want to have sex but believed — for whatever reason — they could not say no?

That is not an infrequent situation.

Men play a pivotal role in the pregnancy process but all of society’s laws, judgment — and responsibility — fall on women, particularly when it comes to caring for and rearing a child for several decades.

I’ve been around since before the Roe vs. Wade decision and I never remember a single attempt by Texas lawmakers to seriously hold men responsible for their actions. Don’t talk to me about child support. Enforcement of that process is a joke that is, again, tilted toward men.

None of the politicians who make such laws — predominantly, but not all, men — will ever be faced with living with the consequences. The same is true for the Supreme Court justices who are making the rulings.

Yet, as outlandish as the expected abortion ruling might seem, even worse is this court’s seemingly cavalier attitude about precedents already set. Those could go far, far beyond reversing Roe vs. Wade. A whole host of possibilities await being retried.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was quick to think of another: The court’s 1982 ruling that said Texas had to educate the children of those who had illegally crossed the border. That single ruling has kept many thousands of children from growing up without an education.

Abbott would love to undo it because it would supposedly “save money,” without regard for the cost in human terms. It’s also doubtful that it would save a nickel. The uneducated children in those 40 years would have likely grown up to be costly underclass. Abbott is not so good when considering unintended consequences. (See: Truck inspections, Mexico-Texas border).

In the mid-term elections, vote your conscience but I suggest picking candidates who think more about building a solid future foundation as opposed to those who seem intent on fighting culture wars of the past.

It’s unlikely that Abbott is ever going to want to deal the present, much less the do anything that will be useful for Texans of the future.

There might be a clear delineation between the parties now, but it has not always been that way and certainly does not have to be. Republicans might have different ideas but surely they can have some that doesn’t revert us into the last millennium.

Well, we can always hope.

There are so many other scenarios from this Supreme Court decision that it takes your breath away.

Will marriage equality disappear, or become a right only recognized in certain places? For that matter, many are still opposed to the idea that those of different races should be allowed to marry.

What about the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education ruling? That is the only reason most East Texas school districts are racially integrated and that all races have the same chance at an education.

Don’t say it couldn’t happen because it could. The next time you think your vote does not matter consider the possibilities. The Supreme Court is not elected but those who choose the justices are.

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