The Deeper, Disturbing Issues Roe vs. Wade Brought to Surface

July 4, 2022

I've written a lengthy piece about abortion on this blog before, focusing mainly on medical misinformation and abortion's use as a political tool. You can read that here. I'm not going to state all the same opinions again, as I've already made them clear; this post is going to be more about people's reactions to the news of Roe vs. Wade being overturned, and the disturbing knowledge that comes with that.

Still, it feels necessary to state up-front that I'm pro-choice, and the reason for that is because I don't believe I know better than others what is best for their bodies and lives. My personal thought process is that abortion should be allowed for any reason up to the point of viability, which is generally considered 20 weeks. That's when the fetus is able to actually survive outside of the host body; until then, it cannot be considered its own person or any living creature, but merely a part of its host. After that point, abortion generally would only be performed in cases of medical necessity anyway. Virtually no one waits that long to have an abortion unless they wanted the baby and have received tragic news that either the baby or the parent will not survive, forcing them to make that terrible decision. Obviously, the earlier it can be performed, the better.

This Supreme Court decision will lead to loss of life, as well as many lives lived without quality of life, which I view as a fate worse than simply never existing at all. Whether it's people who die in childbirth because they weren't allowed to terminate, parents who have to watch their child die in agony hours after its death when it could have been put to rest sooner and more humanely, people who will commit suicide because they can't bear the thought of giving birth, or children who will grow up in poverty, with parents who didn't want them, are possibly abusive, or in foster care; this decision will negatively impact both adults and children.

Aside from that obvious negative, another disturbing thing about this decision is the people it's made crawl out of the woodwork with their absolutely abhorrent opinions. And not just opinions about abortion itself.

I want to mention that, although I was never one who would have butted into someone else's business or wanted extreme anti-abortion laws that prioritized a pregnancy over the life of an adult, there was a time when I was younger when I would have considered myself pro-life. But then I grew up.

It was actually when I worked at an addiction center and encountered a pregnant, homeless meth addict (who also happened to be an extremely unpleasant person to be around) that I truly began to realize how abortion is often the most humane option.

As I said in my last post on this topic, abortion is unfortunate, because unwanted pregnancy is unfortunate, and we all wish it never had to happen -- which is why we should all have access to contraceptives, including sterilization. But you have to be extremely sheltered to not understand why abortion is often necessary, and access to it is essential and life-saving.

Some of the people celebrating the overturning of Roe vs. Wade are something far worse than sheltered, though. Some of their opinions are downright evil.

Let's start with somebody named Nick Fuentes, who was brought to my attention by Dusty Gannon (a.k.a. Goth Dad), the singer/guitarist of goth band Vision Video. He shared a video of himself reacting to a clip of Fuentes celebrating the fact that "banning gay marriage is back on the menu; banning sodomy is back on the menu; banning contraceptives is back on the menu," ending his overly-enthusiastic commentary with the words, "We're having something like Taliban rule in America, in a good way!"

Yes, this man (and I use that word lightly) is openly sharing his happiness that the Supreme Court is becoming reminiscent of the Taliban.

And he isn't the only person I've seen proudly boast about it, either. Another male supremacist, Vincent James of Red Elephant Podcast, said in a video, "We are the Christian Taliban. And we will not stop until The Handmaid's Tale is a reality -- and even worse than that, to be honest." He then proudly boasted that people like him are, in fact, "rolling back the last one-hundred years of rights that were given to women," and ending with "it's only going to get worse for you from here."

Upon Googling Nick Fuentes, I found some slightly older articles (late 2021) in which he had praised the Taliban before, and spoken about how much he hates women, saying that his respect for the Taliban is because of the way they handle women, such as not allowing them to voice opinions, get an education, or be seen in public.

(As a Muslim American, I feel the need to point out here that the Taliban is un-Islamic, just as much as this attitude is un-Christian. Both versions of this misguided religious law are terrible and antithetical to their respective faiths.)

Despite his last name, Fuentes is very white-passing; but straight-passing, according to some, doesn't come as easily to him. Many people, including queer people, have commented that he sets off their 'gaydar' -- and given his extreme dislike of women, it wouldn't be surprising if an intense, internalized homophobia is part of the reason he's so unpleasant. When you believe that something about yourself is disgusting and sinful, you may try to hide it in any way you can, such as openly villainizing others with the same trait. Or masking your lack of sexual attraction to women by claiming that the reason you've never been with one is because they're just not worthy people (yes, there was an article with him boasting about having never been with a woman).

But internalized homophobia, while it might help explain his attitude, is no excuse for it. And there are plenty of straight men who feel the same way, who view women as sexual objects who exist only to please them.

A male commenter said to my Facebook friend in a group the other day that "the woman doesn't mean sh*t" compared to a fetus.

The number of men who have made their incredibly misogynistic ideals known as a result of this overturning is alarming and disgusting. It just goes to show that, for many (if not most), banning abortion actually has nothing to do with saving "babies" and everything to do with their lack of respect for women. They are celebrating because this negatively impacts women. Because it hurts women, which is what they want. They want to punish anyone with female anatomy or female traits (including trans people of any gender) because of their extreme hatred.

It is definitely disheartening to realize how many people in my own country hate me just for being born with a uterus. I mean, I kind of always knew it, but never to this extent before.

Add that to how much this country hates Black people, trans folks, non-white immigrants, poor and homeless people, etc. etc. Let's also not forget about Mary Miller, the congresswoman who thanked Trump for the "historic victory for white life." This, by the way, is the same congresswoman who said a couple of years ago, "Hitler was right about one thing."

And then, of course, there are the non-Christians. How could they be the Christian Taliban, something they're actually proud of, if they didn't look down on everyone who doesn't share their supposed beliefs? And I say supposed because I definitely think this particular type of "Christian" is more concerned about Christianity as an identity than about their actual faith or being Christ-like in any way. For the record, I respect Christians and don't believe that the majority of them are like this. But there is certainly an unfortunate number who are.

And while we're on that topic, let's talk about how insane it is that these two things are also facts that exist at the same time:

1. Even when the majority of Americans (64% according to NPR) oppose something such as overturning Roe vs. Wade, a majority vote of six out of nine Supreme Court Justices, who were not even elected by the people, can do whatever they want anyway. Six people get to make a decision that over 200-million people oppose.

2. Out of the 9 Supreme Court Justices, at the time of this decision, only two of them were non-Christian. Currently, only one of them is non-Christian, and while I'm certainly not saying that confirming Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, was a bad thing by any means, it looks like we need some more religious diversity as well as racial and gender diversity, if we are going to have a court that represents us as a nation.

In a country that, for years, has fear-mongered about Muslims wanting to impose religious law on us (which really isn't a thing), an almost entirely Christian Supreme Court has now imposed a religious law on us.

If you are Christian and would never get an abortion because you believe it's against your religion, that's great for you. But many other religions exist in the United States, as well as people who aren't religious at all, and forcing non-Christians to abide by a law based solely in Christianity is religious oppression.

But then again, I guess I don't have to tell you that; if you're anything like Nick Fuentes, Vincent James and their ilk, you already know it's religious oppression, and you're excited about it.

So as I post this on the Fourth of July, so-called Independence Day, all I can really say is:

tags: abortion, roe vs. wade, scotus, misogyny