How much credence should be given to Trump’s well-documented, unambiguous promise to overturn Roe v. Wade?
A Washington Post op-ed published on Wednesday serves up troubling food for thought on the issue.
The piece is penned by Nancy Northup and Rachel B. Tiven, the president and chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights and the chief executive of Lambda Legal, respectively.
Related: Another candid video of Donald Trump treating Melania like crap
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In their own words, they represent…
…the organizations that won leading Supreme Court cases in recent years on sexual and reproductive rights: Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, which secured legal protections for the marriage of same-sex couples, and Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt in 2016, which struck down Texas’s attempt to use sham health regulations to shut down 75 percent of the state’s abortion clinics.
The piece focuses on Trump’s assertion that Roe v. Wade “would be reversed” and his offhand remark that marriage equality is “law” that was “settled in the Supreme Court — it’s done”:
Was this a tactic to divide and conquer? To throw under the bus the tens of millions of American women who have had an abortion and hope marriage equality supporters would stand by in silence?
Emphasizing that a court couldn’t possibly reverse the decision to make legal abortion available or effectively halt marriage equality, Northup and Tiven reaffirm that these rights are “firmly rooted in the 14th Amendment’s promise that there is ‘a realm of personal liberty which the government may not enter.’”
So whether or not Trump fully understands the foundation of these decisions under the Constitution, his assertions threaten to undermine “our right under the Constitution to decide who we are and to make the most intimate and personal decisions in our life without government interference.”
Related: Time’s new cover is going to royally piss off Donald Trump
As far as Trump’s Supreme Court nominee is concerned, Northup and Tiven emphasize that it’s essential the Senate Judiciary Committee knows whether Judge Neil Gorsuch “stands with precedent and with each of us.”
Given the president’s promise to take our rights away, we must ensure that full, detailed questions are asked of this nominee and that we get the answers we deserve. We will not allow ourselves to be divided. The rights of all here in this nation — not just women, not just same-sex couples — depend on our vigilance.
The very reasonable fear here is that if Trump is successful in undermining Constitutionally-backed reproductive rights, an unprecedented Pandora’s box of government interference opens that threatens the private lives of citizens, and in particular LGBTQ people, who remain a highly vulnerable community.
The excellent piece, which we recommend reading in full, can be found here.
DCguy
I think the headline maybe reversed the order. With the OBSESSION that Mike Pence has with all things LGBT it’s likely they will go after civil rights first with Abortion next.
davidkohl
At some point even the The Odious Man must understand that it is very unlikely that the Supreme Court will reverse equal marriage rights, especially as the Court ruled so recently. Abortion rights are more at risk. Thankfully, The Odious Man cannot overturn a SC ruling by using Executive Orders. As always, we can only ‘do something’ if and when these human rights come under attack. For the moment we just have to be vigilant and consider what the response should be in the event of any attack.
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
The only way for abortion to be outlawed is for Trump to seat two justices. If that happened blame Ginsburg for being to selfish and tied up into her Notorious RBG attention seeking to step down early enough to Obama to replace her. She’s the oldest and most likely to die of natural causes. So stop using abortion to fear monger.
DCguy
Did a memo go out from FOX News saying that anything the right wing does, try to blame it on liberals? The head of CPAC, who invited Yianopolous to speak just claimed that the Alt-Right (racists) were really the fault of liberals blah blah blah.
I mean you all sound ridiculous. We all know that the Senate blocked the OBama nominee for over a year, so please go back to your little Troll house and think of another one.
captainburrito
She was older than Scalia by 3 years and yet he died first. Kennedy and Breyer are of similar age too. The likelihood is they will all be replaced in the next 8 years. That will create a conservative supermajority and it would be pointless to blame just her. Even if she lives to be replaced with another liberal that is still going to be 6 vs 3.
jimontp
And when exactly do you think RBG should have retired? Maybe a year before nasty old Scalia thankfully left us? Do you really think Mitch McTurtle would have allowed an Obama appointee to the SCOTUS to be confirmed? Obama appointed a moderate, reasonable and sane Garland, and Mitch blocked it for a year. Do you really think Mitch would have done what the Consitition says “advise and consent?” I agree with DCguy completely, go back to your troll house and stop commenting on gay issues.
dwes09
Blaming a justice for staying healthy and alive? What a buffoon you are!
We blame the republican obstructionist legislature whose DUTY was to respond to and not ignore Obama’s nomination.
And we are not using abortion to fear monger. Trump cannot consider reproductive rights to NOT be settled law without his claim that marriage equality is settled law being seen as a lie. And we know already that he lies like a rug.
Gian85
What a delusional runt, idonthaveabrain. Republicans didn’t let Merrick Garland see the light of day and you think they would let Obama replace Ginsburg with another liberal justice? Ginsburg is quite healthy and active by the way. Thomas seems like a ghost of himself.
Gian85
YouDoHaveToAgreeWithMe. I am the victim of an abortion attempt. You have no idea what you are talking about. Go away.
Gian85
/\Fake.
This fake account is getting boring.
Come up with your own name.
KaiserVonScheiss
We can’t really know what Trump actually thinks on abortion. It wouldn’t surprise me if he were secretly pro-choice who only panders to the evangelicals.
He referred to Obergefell as “settled law” when it is clearly more recent than Roe.
I think Gorsuch is much better than who could have been nominated. I worry about how much he believes in judicial deference.
While I did listen to some of the oral arguments during Obergefell, I did not read the case it its entirety, nor have I read the Loving v. Virginia case.
Gian85
You are lying of course.
Gorsuch is extremely pro conservative and right wing. And Trumps appointments to key government posts should tell you everything you should know about where Trump stands.
Educate yourself please, Alistair.
Gian85
I worked as a maid at Mar-a-Lago so I know you are lying. You should watch Fox News, Alistair, so you would know what I am saying is true.
Gian85
/\Fake.
Too boring. Tries so hard to be original by committing acts of libel.
Lame. Boring. Unoriginal.
KaiserVonScheiss
@Gian85
Are you on crack?
My real name is Christopher, not Alistair.
mhoffman953
@Gain85 Stop lying about their being another user using your username. Queerty is powered by WordPress and prevents 2 users from having the same username in the database. If you don’t believe me then try registering as any of the users on this page and you’ll see that you can’t.
Gian85
mhoffman953 I am not lying, I am from Colombia. KaiserVonScheiss I did not say you were Alistair, I said this was a private blog.
Mo Bro
Abortion rights aren’t going anywhere.
And abortion rights have nothing to do with gay rights, unless you’re equating yourself to the fetus.
DarkZephyr
This is one area where I agree with you. I am beyond tired of the need on both the Left AND the Right to tie abortion and LGBT rights together. They are utterly unrelated.
captainburrito
Actually, if he replaces Scalia, Kennedy, Ginsburg and Breyer and Congress is still in Republican hands they could just pass a law that strips the federal courts of jurisdiction over abortion. With 7 conservatives they might just green light that as they have done so on some issues before when congress stripped them of jurisdiction. That would likely just kick it to the state level (since that would be more palatable than total ban as i suspect their Senate majority will not be large even if they retain it).
They could do the same with gay marriage but by that time those that favour gay marriage will have increased even more and some Republican Senators have come out in support of it so there likely would not be a Repub majority to pass a bill for that.
The constitution permits Congress to set the jurisdiction of the supreme court (outwith her original jurisdiction).
If that fails Republicans will just keep passing thinly veiled restrictions to whittle down the clinics to zero or near zero in their states till a law sticks.
davidkohl
NO they are related in the minds of the extreme right. Their two greatest victories would be to overturn the abortion and gay marriage rulings. And as the extreme right are currently in control of the Executive the two issues become related. I see some people trying to divide and conquer by insisting the issues are unrelated. They are intricately related. Its like the naive Germans in Nazi German claiming that the treatment of the Jews was unrelated to their lives as they were not Jews. Talk about history repeating itself!
ChrisK
Restricting Abortion rights is about controlling women’s bodies. Misogyny and homophobia are two peas in a pod. Plus, the religious rights fixation on both equally.
He BGB
Trump isnt doing any of this. It’s Bannon and Trump’s people. Trump hates being president and just wants the glory so he is leaving all the business to the others. These are the decisions Bannon wanted. Trump is a pretty liberal guy in many ways. He’s just old and can’t be bothered with people’s lives.
RIGay
SCROTUS is just a puppet to Pence and Bannon.
dwes09
Were Trump “a pretty liberal guy in many ways” he would neither have conducted his campaign as he did, nor assemble the kind of administration he has.
Opinions that are constructed entirely from one’s imagination are worthless. “A pretty liberal guy in many ways” simply does not behave as he did and does. A pretty nihilistic, cynical and narcissistic one might though.
Gian85
How is he a pretty liberal guy? He is right wing and has been for years.
GayEGO
It is obvious he does not like the responsibilities of our president. He only likes to win and perform theatrics at his campaign rallies so he can hear his supporting audience cheer for him! Hopefully he will either get tired of it and resign or be impeached.
davidkohl
The naivety! Cast your mind back to the 1970’s – Nixon tried that excuse when he tried to shift the blame on to his staff for Watergate. Don’t bother even thinking that work for The Odious Man. In speech after speech during his ‘campaign’ The Odious Man showed very clearly that he is a total right wing, maladjusted, unapologetic, disgusting, uneducated, self-serving, nasty, racist, sexist, homophobe whose real interest lies in his narcissistic need for power and constant praise. You just need to look at what happened with Flynn to see how The Odious Man works – he knew Flynn had broken the law before he appointed him to the NSA and was quite prepared to try and tough it out. That makes him equally guilty. So stop with the lame excuses please.
Gian85
The Hoffman troll is fine with LGBTQ rights being eliminated. He is happy we are barely tolerated by the right wing… At least we aren’t being murdered (yet). Being barely tolerated is fine for the troll. We should be happy we aren’t being murdered by the KKKepublicans.
Gian85
ALTERNATIVE FACT If more people had voted for Trump then Hillary would have won the popular vote!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gian85
/\Fake/\
Please get your own name and stop using my name.
TheBoyz-London
First the Muslims, Then the Gays. 2 World Wars, Isn’t this exactly how Hitler started with the Jews and the Gays? LEST WE FORGET
davidkohl
And the rest….The Odious Man in the White House is a Hitler wannabe….and that’s why he is furious with the media and the judiciary. They are both highlighting his dictatorial inclinations and frustrating his attempts to implement his vile agenda. I believe that he would create a right wing theocracy if allowed to. He himself may not wish to execute gays or women who have abortions but if allowed to he could create circumstances where a successor might. He is the chief threat to human rights and peace in the world.
GC1985
Dear fake account,
Can you please stop using my name and come up with your own? Trying to mock me isn’t working… It is boring.
mhoffman953
What are people talking about with fake accounts? You can’t register an already existing username on here
GayEGO
It is not likely that we will step backward to outlaw abortion. After all, we will sue the GOP religious fanatics and make them pay money and raise the unwanted children who may have horrible birth defects because of alcohol and drugs in their fetuses.
tanglewood
FAKE NEWS
Abortion cannot be overturned
Nor can gay rights so get over it
And find something else to
Protest about!
It hurts the brain to think the gay
Community is so being used with
All this fake shit and the power
Behind this are laughing there
Ass off?