By: James Kulenschmidt
Ladies, I get it. You don’t like the leaked U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. You think you should have the right to control your own reproductive system. I totally sympathize. But protesting in front of Supreme Court Justices’ houses? That’s just distasteful. And if you don’t mind me saying, unladylike.
No matter how important an issue is, protests must be respectful, considerate and demure. Why can’t you whisper your concerns that abortion bans have proven to lock poor women (especially women of colour) into a cycle of poverty outside the Supreme Court’s chainlink fence or sing a little song about how forced birth meets the legal definition of slavery by a nice fountain?
That would be far more effective than chanting where the people who are doing this to you can actually hear you.
Like most people, I basically agree with your cause. I’m pro-choice in certain circumstances. Like if your mistress gets pregnant and you can’t let your wife find out or she’ll take half your stuff. I just wish you could find a way to express your views in a more polite way. Like Martin Luther King did. And that worked out great for him!
It’s not just that I find resorting to violence (by which I mean making noise near a building) so unbecoming, it’s that I think it will backfire. Supreme Court Justices have near unchecked power to strip you of just about any rights they’d like. And rather than change that system, I think it’s best that we placate the judges on a personal level so they don’t take away your rights even faster.
Besides, just because Roe is ending, doesn’t mean everything is going to change all at once. Yes abortions will be made illegal in some red states. But it will probably take years before they ban gay marriage, gender affirming care for trans people or birth control of any kind. So don’t shout too loudly now and save your voices for when you have to protest all that!
