Demonstrations outside the U.S. Supreme Court on the day of arguments in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, No. 19- 1392. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM
The majority’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson is devastating to women’s rights and the concept of bodily autonomy. Even those who believe abortion is murder must acknowledge that it is shocking and overwhelming for a woman to be told that from the moment another organism comes into existence, she no longer has the right to decide what happens to her body, not after viability, just not at all. As the dissent aptly puts it, something that may be a blessing under other circumstances becomes a nightmare under others, and the woman is helpless but to witness her body being used for the health and welfare of another organism, wanted or not, even under circumstances in which no fault can be ascribed to her.
Already, there are stories circulating of women who may experience life threatening bleeding while pregnant yet cannot be treated because the treatment might terminate the pregnancy, and the woman isn’t certain to die yet, though there is that risk. It is demoralizing for women who have spent their lives secure in the knowledge that they may choose when, where and how to bear children, and thus order their lives, careers and families, suddenly for that right to be ripped away. And, whatever analysis undertaken by the majority, this is something visited exclusively on women, yet it isn’t solely of their own making. Nothing in the majority’s opinion speaks to any consequence of the man who contributed to the existence of the organism, and no sacrifice is asked of him.
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