Waterloo Region Record

U.S. disgrace, Canadian caution

GEOFFREY STEVENS CAMBRIDGE RESIDENT GEOFFREY STEVENS IS AN AUTHOR AND FORMER OTTAWA COLUMNIST AND MANAGING EDITOR OF THE GLOBE AND MAIL AND MACLEAN’S. HE WELCOMES COMMENTS AT GEOFFSTEVENS40@GMAIL.COM.

“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”– Justice Samuel Alito, United States Supreme Court, June 24.

With those words, the nation’s highest court reversed itself, declared it had been wrong in Roe v. Wade a half-century earlier, and by a 6-3 vote stripped American women of their constitutional right to abortion, and with it the right to control their own bodies.

The decision is wrong. It is stupid. It is dangerously out of touch with the needs and wishes of a majority of the American public. It is a disgrace. It is a triumph of politics and political pressure over justice.

But it was inevitable. Thursday’s decision, which will go down in infamy as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (a Mississippi case), was the inevitable consequence of a federal court system corrupted by ideology — a system so vulnerable that a venal president like Donald Trump could pack it with lapdogs only too happy to service their master.

The vaunted American system of checks and balances has failed miserably. These days, the executive branch controls the judicial branch while the congressional branch deliberately looks away. This is not to say that Congress is not interested in issues like abortion and gun control. It’s just that its members — Republicans primarily but a significant number of Democrats, too — look and listen first to an unseen fourth branch that the framers of the U.S. Constitution could not have anticipated. The fourth branch is the money branch — the special interest, advocacy and conservative religious groups (notably Southern Baptists and Pentecostals) who find it ridiculously easy to buy influence on Capitol Hill.

The National Rifle Association blocks meaningful gun measures; the religious right eliminates Roe v. Wade.

In Washington, the abortion decision, although anticipated, hit with the force of an earthquake or tsunami. Crowds assembled within hours and demonstrations — protests and celebrations alike — began rolling out across the country. They will be coming to Canada, too. We can count on that.

U.S. President Joe Biden denounced Thursday’s decision as a “tragic error” that pointed the United States down “an extreme and dangerous path.” The country will learn just how dangerous and extreme that path may become when the midterm elections for the Senate and House of Representatives take place in November.

New York Times writer Emily Bazelon expressed the reaction of many in the media: “I cannot think of a precedent for this in our modern history, where you have an individual civil right that people depend on that has been rolled back after 50 years.”

There may be worse to come. Like many court watchers, Biden noted an indication — a broad hint? — from the court’s leading conservative, Justice Clarence Thomas, that he and his colleagues may re-examine the constitutionality of samesex marriage and publicly funded access to contraception.

The reigniting of the abortion war in the U.S. does not impact Canada directly — the Trudeau government will not limit the right to abortion — but it does sound an alarm bell. Right-wing extremism is gathering strength in Canada, too. We can see that in the success of Pierre Poilievre’s campaign for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada.

We know there many angry and disillusioned people who will seize on any opportunity to vent their frustration with the status quo, if necessary at the expense of the rights of others.

Abortion and same-sex marriage are safe for the moment. But we don’t know how long the moment will last.

OPINION

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2022-06-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://waterloorecord.pressreader.com/article/281736978137859

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