A slight irony in the fact that this breach of privacy, of one of the US’s most secretive and unaccountable government institutions, occurred in conjunction with a decision that will de facto eliminate Americans’ federal right to privacy.
But there is nothing at all funny about the devastating impact that overturning Roe v Wade will have on women’s equality, on the rights of anyone who can get pregnant, and, in the future, most likely on anyone who needs access to birth control, or who wants to enter into a same-sex marriage, or who needs access to medical treatment for gender dysphoria. Even laws against ‘sodomy’, overturned in the 2003 Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v Texas, could now be back on the table.
To be sure, the leaked draft Supreme Court opinion over the critically important Mississippi abortion ban case, Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, states: “We emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.” Its author, Justice Samuel Alito, also argues for the “uniqueness of abortion” with respect to the termination of “life or potential life”.
