Matt Gaetz, who recently refused to vote in favor of lowering insulin prices and tweeted that fat people should just lose weight, recently tweeted this about the overturn of Roe v. Wade:

"How many of the women rallying against overturning Roe are over-educated, under-loved millennials who sadly return from protests to a lonely microwave dinner with their cats, and no bumble matches?"

It should be quite apparent to people what the GOP thinks of women and the rights they should be accorded as part of society. Essentially, women are human chattel. Nothing more. Next stop: Gilead. And this is not mere hyperbole. If you are paying attention, you will already know that.

We'll start with what the infamous 'leak' revealed. Samuel Alito's use of a 17th century English jurist, Sir Matthew Hale, to justify that prohibiting abortion has a long legal history is patently absurd and should speak volumes to any intelligent woman (and man, for that matter).

Hale's contribution to society consisted of laying the legal foundation for protecting husbands from criminal liability for raping their wives. He also sentenced to women accused of witchcraft to death, setting a precedent for the Salem Witch Trials that would follow 30 years later. Is that where we seriously want to go here in America? Didn't we actually fight against the British for our freedom?

Then, there's Matt Gaetz, under investigation already for sex-trafficking underaged girls with his buddies in Florida, had his say. This is highlighted in the left-hand column. Clearly, he prefers his women under-educated as well as underage, and he's a testament to toxic masculinity.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has nothing but "ugly sides" to her personality. In one video rant she not only insulted transgender women, but women in general with her comment:

“I’m going to tell you right now what is a woman .. We came from Adam’s rib .. We are the weaker sex, but we are our husband’s wife.” 

(Yes, there are many grammatical errors in the above statement, but these are her words and they will not be changed.) She would repeat the statement that women are the weaker sex again when extolling the virtues of maleness to her compatriot in ignorance, Matt Gaetz.

And while both Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski have stated that they are dismayed by leaked SCOTUS preliminary ruling (and yes, they were both misled by statements made by the Trump appointees), they should have known better.

Former president Trump openly stated that he would appoint judges to overturn Roe v. Wade as far back as 2016. Why would you trust the words of any of those appointees? Any time you are dealing with a man who has absolutely no respect for women on any level, and admits openly that he has no respect for women or their rights, his appointees should be rejected out of hand.

To learn more about the influence that Christian fundamentalists wield in Washington, we recommend Jeff Sharlet's great book. There is also a Netflix documentary.

The GOP party line is that they are out to protect the life of the unborn fetus; it's all about the children. In fact, it's really all about political expediency. The GOP long ago opened the door to the religious right, whose ultimate goal is to destroy the line separating church and state. That goal is not about faith. It's about power.

The Christian right are major donors to the GOP. They have financially supported not only the overturn of Roe v. Wade but also the fight against same-sex marriage.

In reality, the GOP doesn't care about children, particularly once they are outside the womb. In the womb children provide a political benefit to the GOP. Outside the womb, the GOP views children as a liability.

The GOP does not care about poor children, children of color, transgender children or LGBTQ children. Legislation passing in GOP-run states more than proves that. Denying transgender children life-affirming medical care, putting them at risk of suicide, is not 'caring' about children on any level.

The GOP has defunded Head Start and stood in the way of continuing the free school lunch program put in place during the COVID pandemic. Most recently, they rejected the Biden administration's proposal for universal prekindergarten.

The child tax credit which was put in place by the Biden administration as part of the American Rescue Plan resulted in a double-digit drop in the number of children and families living in poverty. This was a problem for Mitch McConnell who worried that the bill would be too popular to reverse if the GOP took back the House in 2022 and, therefore, refused to support it. Again, as a nation we offer cheap rhetoric about caring for children.

We also recognize that Democratic senator Joe Manchin rejected the child tax credit, expressing concern that parents would use the extra money to buy drugs, and showing us all what he thinks of poor people, many of whom he represents. We have long stood against him and believe he should be primaried and dumped. Manchin spends most of his time crossing the aisle to vote with the GOP and standing in the way of progress.

Although this report (The Insidious Power of The Anti-Choice Movement) was written in 2018, prior to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, the material it presents about the insidious nature of the anti-choice movement is relevant. Not much has changed except the ruling itself. You can download this report below.

Prior to the Roe v. Wade decision, there was a movement by several religious groups to a pro-choice stance, joining most of Judaism. These included The United Church of Christ in 1971, The Presbyterian Church (US) in 1971, and The Episcopal Church in 1967. The conservative Southern Baptist Church was even somewhat pro-choice at that time.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, has always been opposed to contraception, abortion rights, and access to both. Cardinal John O'Connor of New York was often the face of the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion in the 1980s. However, in order to achieve his goals, he knew that he needed allies.

Likewise, conservative evangelical theologian Francis Schaeffer whose books, films and anti-abortion campaigns helped galvanize evangelicals to confront the secular world. His works had sent the evangelicals on a journey to the politics of theocratic dominion. Yet, he also knew he would need an alliance with the Catholic Church to prevail against abortion, so he came up with the idea of "co-belligerency".

Then, along came Randall Terry, leader of anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, who was touting the works of Schaeffer, and claiming that if you read his work, you will understand the mission of Operation Rescue.

The unholy alliance had begun, mobilizing and politicizing the Christian right movement The alliance would have to overcome many theological differences to achieve its goals, but those discussions had already quietly begun. Eventually, their three-point platform of "life," "marriage," and "religious freedom" became the agenda for the Christian right, the Catholic Bishops and the Republican Party.

The presidency of Donald Trump was the pinnacle of their success. As the Christian right helped elevate him to the presidency, he promised to appoint judges that would overturn Roe v. Wade. All three of Trump's appointees, Gorsuch, Coney Barrett, and Kavanaugh are right-wing Catholics and members of Opus Dei, a secretive, fascist Catholic organization whose members are encouraged to apply Catholic doctrine through their chosen professions. The rest, as they say, is history.

You can read all the details here in this great Ms. Magazine article.

You can read or download the entire leaked PDF document here. The document was released by Politico.

You can read or download NARAL's rebuttal to Alito's talking points here.

Supreme Court justice or not, Alito's interpretation of the Constitution where Roe v. Wade is concerned is not just "flawed." Like so many other conservatives, he uses alternative facts to make his arguments. Read a rebuttal here.

The majority of Americans support legal abortion, regardless of some differences in the details. This has been confirmed by a Pew Research poll in 2019, and again in a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll. If that isn't enough for you, FiveThirtyEight gives it to you in graphic detail. In a Democracy, majority rules, but not anymore. In America, the tail is wagging the dog once again.

Adrian Walker, columnist for The Boston Globe, states what is going on here about as well as anyone can:

"Part of the shock here is the thumping triumph of minority rule. The fact that the country overwhelmingly disagrees with this decision means nothing. If this happens, nine people with lifetime tenure get to tell the other 330 million of us how we can live our lives, right down to what women can do with their bodies."

All of Clarence Thomas' ruminations about the erosion of faith in American institutions is just more right-wing blather. Like his compatriot, Lindsay Graham, he is insinuating that the "left" is causing that problem. The erosion of people's faith in institutions is entirely a  right-wing project.

Take a look around.  Anti-vaxxers have caused fear, uncertainty and doubt about our medical institutions. The right wing has convinced people that being asked to wear a mask during a killer pandemic is medical tyranny. The right wing created The Big Lie about the 2020 election being "stolen" from Donald Trump. This is just a sampling. The list goes on and on.

As for the Supreme Court? Donald Trump's admission that he was nominating judges for the express purpose of overturning Roe v. Wade is enough reason to stop believing in the SCOTUS as a legitimate institution. The claim that it is non-political is utter fallacy. While the GOP accuses the Biden administration of plotting to stack the court, the GOP has actually done it under the Trump regime.

The three justices appointed by Trump, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, are all young with lifetime appointments, giving the SCOTUS a 6-3 super-conservative majority, which will not change when Ketanji Brown Jackson joins.

The GOP blocked Merrick Garland's appointment by Barack Obama using the excuse that he was an outgoing president and the new president, whomever that was, should make the appointment. That rule, however, didn't apply when Trump pushed through Amy Coney Barrett. Mitch McConnell has already stated that he will not commit to hearings for any future Biden nominee if the GOP takes back the Senate in 2022.

Make no mistake that Barrett was the icing on the cake for the right wing. Daniel Bennett is a professor at John Brown University, a Christian college in Arkansas who studies the relationship between faith and politics, told the New Yorker that Amy Coney Barrett is “more embedded in the conservative Christian legal movement than any Justice we’ve ever had.”

As we have already pointed out, the oppression will not stop with Roe v. Wade. More is already afoot. In fact, McConnell is saying a national abortion ban is possible. All the GOP needs is the majority rule in 2022. 

Louisiana has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the nation but, according to Senator Bill Cassidy, that's only because black women are counted. Yes. He said that. It also has a trigger law in effect should the SCOTUS overturn Roe v. Wade, but that didn't stop some from proposing a bill that would make all abortions "homicides" punishable by prosecution. For the moment, that appears to be a step too far for some legislators as that bill has been removed from consideration.

To listen to Amy Coney Barrett wax poetic about the safe haven laws, you'd think it was a breeze going through what amounts to being a forced pregnancy. That's where we are at. All you've got to do is get through the nine months, then you can drop off your unwanted child for adoption at a safe haven site.

However, when you step out of Coney Barrett's land of rose-colored glasses and into reality, things are quite different. Not all pregnancies are about baby showers, lavish gender reveal parties, pregnancy yoga, or lamaze classes. For almost all who choose to have children, pregnancy is life-altering. However, for many other women, it's life-threatening. 

Not only does the United States have the highest maternal mortality rate of the developed world for various reasons, but those rates continue to rise. It should be no surprise that black women have a mortality rate three to four times that of white women. While the reasons for maternal deaths vary, one that has come to light is pregnancy-related homicide.

A recent study shows that more women die from pregnancy-related homicide and abuse than they do from medical conditions. This fact has come to light because of changes in reporting methods.

 Most at risk are those who are young (24 and under) and black women who, again, are at three times greater risk for pregnancy-related homicides than their white counterparts. For these women, abortion can mean the difference between life and death.

And for those who manage to survive pregnancy but suffer from partner abuse, there are a host of long-lasting psychological and emotional problems.

Reproductive coercion is also a form of abuse women suffer. Again, the statistics show that black, Latina, multiracial, poor, and young women are the most likely victims here. This generally exists alongside other forms of abuse. One study showed that women in abusive relationships are five times as likely to be forced or coerced into sex without the male using a condom, and eight times as likely to be pressured into a pregnancy. 

We're quite sure that Amy Coney Barrett and her counterparts on the Supreme Court do not care about whether or not these women can access contraception. They also do not care about protecting women or their babies. It's about controlling women.