The Court will hear arguments in two cases today, one brought by providers and one brought by the Biden Administration. Arguments start at 10 am ET and 11am-ish ET so you can bet your butts @AngryBlackLady will have plenty to say on Boom!Lawyered later today
While you're waiting for arguments to start, or if you're unable to listen in definitely check out all our coverage of #SB8 over at @RewireNewsGroup
Since the Court is hearing arguments in two cases pretty much back-to-back now is an excellent time to go to the bathroom, check your snack and beverage situation, and then settle in
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Sooooo…. did you hear the news? Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters this week that there’s no reason to worry about the lack of a rape exception in Texas’ #SB8 because Texas was going to “eliminate rape.”
I have some thoughts here.
First of all, as others have pointed out, there’s no way to “eliminate rape.” Rapes go unreported. There are no pre-cogs available to enable Minority Report-style reporting for first-time rapists. It’s all bad faith nonsense.
And because it is bad-faith nonsense I totally get the impulse to dunk on Gov. Abbott here. HE. IS. SO. DUNKABLE. But because this is not my first rodeo I want to talk about a couple of red flags here for me.
Okay what just happened at SCOTUS? Well for starters they let the most restrictive abortion ban in the country, a law that bans abortion at about 6 weeks pregnancy, take effect without a single court hearing arguments on its constitutionality.
THAT IS SO BAD. I CANNOT STRESS JUST HOW BAD THIS IS.
Let's just get this out of the way. We can stop debating about whether or not SCOTUS overturned Roe. They did. So what if it’s on a technicality. It’s not a technicality to the people forced to carry pregnancies to term against their will.
Well, it happened. The Supreme Court effectively overturned Roe v. Wade tonight for folks in Texas under cover of darkness That’s right! The biggest abortion rights news in 50 years happened in the shadows
Instead of issuing a ruling blocking Texas’ 6-week abortion ban from taking effect, the Court did nothing. But in this case, doing nothing is actually doing EVERYTHING. Because by doing nothing, the justices said Roe is no longer good law.
Wait. How can the justices doing nothing be the same thing as the justices saying something? I’ll explain.
Here's what I can say right now. We're in unchartered waters for abortion access no matter what unfolds in the next hour
Things feel really dark and difficult right now. And I'm not going to lie. They are. But I also know that the bravest, smartest people I know are out there doing everything they can to make sure people have care no matter what. So I'm holding onto that right now.
Do you feel like there is SO MUCH ABORTION NEWS happening today? That’s because there is.
First is the fight over a 6 week abortion ban in Texas. That’s the one that creates “abortion enforcers” and offers a bounty on patients, providers, and others who help.
Today advocates filed an emergency petition asking the Supreme Court to step in. Later today Justice Alito told the defendants in that case they could respond to that request by 5 pm tomorrow.
That’s about 8 hours before the ban is set to take effect.
You’d think Texas lawmakers would take a breather trying to ban abortion but you’d be wrong! Even with that 6 week ban looming they are trying to pass Yet Another Abortion Ban. This time on medication abortion.