Abortion protesters are threatening to “burn it down” in response to the leak of Justice Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The online “news” outlet Vox praised the leak as Vox senior correspondent Ian Milhiser tweeted, “Shout out to whoever the hero was within the Supreme Court who said f*** it, let’s burn this place down.”
If Alito’s draft reflects the final ruling, the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, returning abortion regulations back to the states.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”
The use of violence to achieve political ends is not new.
In New Orleans in 1866, a pro-slavery crowd ravaged the city and massacred a group of former slaves after Republicans called for a Constitutional Convention to extend voting rights to blacks.
In Wilmington, South Carolina, pro-slavery forces rioted and carried out an insurrection to overthrow the biracial Fusionists (a combination of Republicans and Populists), killing up to 300 people and destroying black businesses, including the city’s only black newspaper.
There is a long and sordid tradition in this country of fomenting lawlessness and violence to force a desired political outcome.
We are seeing this play out again today.
Those who are committed to the idea that a human baby is the sole property of his or her mother to be dismembered and disposed of at will are lining up – not only to protest the draft opinion, but to destroy our constitutional republic.
The separation of powers is one of America’s greatest innovations. No other nation in the world had an independent judiciary to balance the power of the executive and legislature.
Any desire to politicize the judiciary is a regressive step to enshrine an authoritarian ruling class.
Since our founding, Life Legal has worked tirelessly to see the day Roe v. Wade is finally overturned. But we also knew that day would not come without a savage response from those who want to protect a woman’s “right” to conspire to murder her baby. To use the analogy of slavery, the Civil War was not the end of the question of human personhood – it was just the beginning.
We are now entering the next – and most decisive – stage in the fight to end abortion.
Life Legal is prepared for this. We are working to ensure that babies are truly protected in states like Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. And we are on the front lines of the battle against expanding abortion in California – which is advancing laws to allow abortion even beyond birth.