Roe v Wade: Advice for Protestors in the Streets

Dear Protesters in the Street, you’re rebelling against the wrong people and the wrong issue.

50 years have passed since U.S. Supreme Court wrote the Roe v Wade opinion. The ages of most of the protesters I see in all the photos being published are much, much younger than that.

Do they really understand what Roe v Wade is I wonder?

Roe v Wade was a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, an opinion, not a law. Congress makes laws.

Your elected officials had 50 years to codify the decision into law and didn’t.

The U.S. Supreme Court wrote this opinion 1973.

1973 was a very different time culturally, than today.

I was 13 and imprisoned in a Catholic school in 1973. Well I shouldn’t say imprisoned, but for my parents, as devout Catholics, it was the only choice, but I felt like a prisoner. I wanted to pick pretty dresses everyday for school like my friends in the public school, but no, we were Catholic, so there I was, clad in plaid every day.

My parents were appalled with the Supreme court decision in 1973 and at 13 I really didn’t understand why - or care.

Babies, sex, abortion were not issues on my mind at the time.

I remember the first time Right to Life speakers came to speak at the Catholic high school I attended in 1977. Babies, sex, abortion were on every 17 year old’s mind. Not having babies and having lots of sex was what mattered at the time. The only contraception at the time was, “no, wait, stop” and with 17 year old boys, abstinence didn’t fly.

For me, the funny thing about the Right to Life speakers was that they were men, fanatics, speaking at an all girls Catholic high school about abstinence. Sometimes they’d bring their mousey, obedient wives with them but the message was always the same, women didn’t get to decide what should happen if they accidentally got pregnant.

Why is it that men always seem to protest louder regarding this issue?

Look at discussion boards, comment sections, protests, photos of large protest crowds, lots and lots of men are involved with this women’s issue.

In fact, why is it men have ever had any say over what a woman does with her body?

Is it because women were viewed as property well into the 1960’s?

Did you know single women once weren’t allowed to own property, and married women weren’t allowed to own their own land once their husband died? This was true until 1839 when The Married Women's Property Acts was introduced in New York and started to be enacted by each individual state in the United States.

It took an amendment to the Constitution in June, 1919 for women to be able to vote.

It took strong women to make these events happen.

These are some of the the things a woman couldn’t do into the 1970’s:

• Get a credit card in her own name.

• Serve on a jury.

• Fight on the front lines in the military.

• Get an Ivy League education.

• Take legal action against workplace sexual harassment.

• Decide not to have sex with their husband.

• Obtain health insurance at the same monetary rate as a man.

• Be guaranteed that they would not get fired for getting pregnant.

• Take birth control pills.

As a woman, do you have a credit card? Ever served on a jury?

It took strong women to change this.

It’s funny how we didn’t get to say “my body, my choice” with Covid shots isn’t it?

Why didn’t anyone drag out Roe v Wade when we had shots forced on us, when we weren’t sure what they’d really do? In Roe v Wade, the court held that a woman’s right to an abortion was implicit in the right to privacy protected by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. What’s the difference?

Have you ever read the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?

It has helped shape many important laws over the years, why are there no federal laws regarding abortion?

When I look at Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Elizabeth Warren, and other powerful women incensed that a modern day Supreme Court overturned an ancient decision that took constitutionally granted power away from the states, I wonder why they didn’t ever do anything to codify the decision at a federal level?

Have you ever thought about that?

Is it because it was too hard to accomplish? Too politically damaging? Easier to let it lie in the court and then blame them when something went wrong?

Isn’t that what we’re seeing today?

These ancient female fixtures in our legislative institutions are where they are because of strong women who came before them. If this issue is so important, and “millions are going to die now”, the real issue begs the question: why didn’t they make this a federal law in the 50 year timeframe they’ve had? Seems like enough time, even for the U.S. Congress.

Advices to the Protestors in the Streets: these modern women, these elderly feminists in positions of power are who you should be protesting. Not justices who returned constitutionally protected power to the individual states. What you should be protesting is the issue that they haven’t done anything successful to enact federal laws regarding abortion in the 50 year timeframe they’ve had.