States Rights? Yeah, Right.

I thought it was about States rights?

Apparently not, according to Lindsey Graham, who is working to introduce a nationwide federal law to ban abortion past 15 weeks of pregnancy.

So much for letting the States decide.

Once upon a time, the Republican Party stood for narrowly defined laws, minimizing federal intervention in people’s lives, putting the power to legislate at the State level.

Then again, several of the Supreme Court Justices who voted to overturn Roe v Wade said at their confirmation hearings that Roe was settled law.

So don’t be surprised when the GOP starts to rally around a federal ban.

Women’s Rights

In the aftermath of Roe v Wade being overturned, we see several states legislating near-total bans on abortion. Many not even leaving options in the case of rape or incest.

While many support that, most do not. A recent AP poll shows that 53% of US adults disapprove of the Supreme Court decision. And more, 60% think Congress should pass a law guaranteeing access to legal abortion nationwide.

https://apnews.com/article/abortion-health-congress-government-and-politics-fc8c68d1c4dd29ef0a364050013b8cf4

Elsewhere, NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson, who had been accused by 20+ women of sexual assault and misconduct during massages when he was with the Houston Texans, received his arbitrated ruling yesterday. A former federal judge ruled the preponderance of evidence showed Watson had committed sexual assault. She described Watson’s behavior as “predatory” and “egregious.”

He was suspended for a paltry 6 games.

Largely due to comparisons with past NFL punishments and lack of notice to players.

Watson recently signed a fully guaranteed, 5-year, $230 million contract with the Cleveland Browns. Anticipating the suspension, most of his $46 million guaranteed money for this year was a signing bonus, with only ~$1 million as his game salary.

With a 6 game suspension, Watson will lose ~$345,000.

That’s 0.75% of his 5-year contract.

Absurd. Ridiculous. Offensive. Unjust. Wrong. Those are words that come to mind. Both for the Watson suspension and the abortion bans.

That US society devalues women and their rights and bodies is nothing new. It’s disgusting how much it’s still happening, though.

I can only imagine the restraint women show every day to not just burn down the whole system.

Unintended Consequences

Poorly designed laws that aren’t thought through produce chaos and unintended consequences.

In the rush to activate anti-abortion laws, several states have implemented bans starting at conception. Regardless of one’s beliefs about when life starts and what’s right, this is bound to produce chaos across multiple fronts in life. Unfortunately it’s likely to result in very invasive and intrusive questions and testing for many women.

Who knows, cops might start carrying pregnancy tests along with breathalyzer tests. Because who could imagine that resulting in any problems… 🙄