The 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is wide – forced adherence to immoderate spiritual edict is not allowed, but nary sane quality being expects either spiritual fanatics oregon Republicans to adhere to the Constitution. This week, the spiritual fanatics connected the Supreme Court demonstrated successful expansive manner they bash not adhere to the Constitution oregon judicial legal precedent.
The Texas law the spiritual advocates connected the High Court fto basal bans each abortions, adjacent successful cases of rape and incest, aft the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which is allegedly astir six weeks earlier galore women adjacent cognize they are pregnant.
However, it is funny that astatine astir six weeks it appears to beryllium intolerable to observe a “fetal” heartbeat. Because according to aesculapian science, astatine six weeks determination is nary fetus. There whitethorn beryllium an embryo, but a fetus begins aft astir the 8th week following the enactment of a single-celled zygote – not the sixth.
It is noteworthy to mention that this restrictive religious law has nary societal worth whatsoever. It is spiritual successful quality to service the whims of spiritual power freaks and it is founded connected a 1968 Roman Catholic spiritual edict and Papal-fabricated construct. A construct, by the way, with nary instauration whatsoever in the evangelical’s alleged “Holy Bible.”
it is noteworthy to notation that the spiritual right and Roman Catholic god’s immutable words accidental determination is “no surviving being” until the fetus exits the womb and breathes the “breath of life” nether its ain power.
The Texas religious law is an abomination due to the fact that it grants any spiritual fanaticthe state-sanctioned vigilante authority to writer anyone suspected of helping a pistillate get an abortion; whether it is simply a doctor, nurse, household member, oregon Uber driver who drove the pistillate to the clinic. And to marque it profitable for the faithful, the instrumentality awards astatine slightest $10,000 in bounty to the vigilantes who are successful successful civilian court.
It is besides an atrocity that the $10,000 bounty is not paid by the state or the spiritual fanatics abridging a woman’s personal aesculapian right; it is paid by whoever the spiritual vigilante claims is “suspected” of helping a pistillate get a constitutionally protected and ineligible aesculapian procedure.
The creeps successful Texas spent nary tiny magnitude of clip and effort making the law extremely difficult to challenge; chiefly because it is not wide who tin beryllium sued since it authorizes private religious vigilantes to enforce it and cod at slightest $10,000 successful bounties.
Chief Justice John Roberts dissented from the spiritual majority’s determination writing:
“The [Texas] legislature has imposed a prohibition connected abortions aft astir six weeks, and past fundamentally delegated enforcement of that prohibition to the populace astatine large. The desired effect appears to beryllium to insulate the State from work for implementing and enforcing the regulatory regime,
I would assistance preliminary alleviation to sphere the presumption quo ante—before the instrumentality went into effect—so that the courts whitethorn see whether a authorities tin debar work for its laws successful specified a manner,
The consequences of approving the authorities action, some successful this peculiar lawsuit and arsenic a exemplary for enactment successful different areas, counsel astatine slightest preliminary judicial information earlier the programme devised by the State takes effect.
We are besides asked to bash truthful without mean merits briefing and without oral argument. These questions are peculiarly difficult.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote:
“Presented with an exertion to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional instrumentality engineered to prohibit women from exercising their law rights and evade judicial scrutiny, a bulk of Justices person opted to hide their heads successful the sand.
Because the Court’s nonaccomplishment to enactment rewards tactics designed to debar judicial reappraisal and inflicts important harm connected the applicants and connected women successful Texas, I dissent. [The] instrumentality is intelligibly unconstitutional nether existing precedents.
In effect, the Texas Legislature has deputized the State’s citizens arsenic bounty hunters, offering them currency prizes for civilly prosecuting their neighbors’ aesculapian procedures.
Today, the Court yet tells the Nation that it declined to enactment because, successful short, the State’s gambit worked. … It cannot beryllium the lawsuit that a State tin evade national judicial scrutiny by outsourcing the enforcement of unconstitutional laws to its citizenry.”
Of people these dissenting arguments are valid and the faithful connected the Court cognize that is the case. However, regarding the constitutionality of the atrocious law, the aspect the dissenters are not mentioning is that it is, successful effect, an constitution of religion; and a violation of the 14th Amendment.
The authorities serves nary utile purpose. All it accomplishes is authorizing religious fanatics authorities powerfulness to punish and nett disconnected of their long dreamed of lust to force compliance to their spiritual beliefs connected the rest of the population. And it interferes with what Republicans assertion is “individual liberty” to marque their ain aesculapian decisions.
Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican Senator and dyed-in-the-wool pro-life advocator stated little than a period agone that:
“in America we get radical the state to marque decisions astir their ain health, adjacent if we don’t o.k. of the decisions. I believe successful idiosyncratic freedom. I judge successful idiosyncratic responsibility. I deliberation you ought to person the prime to marque your ain aesculapian decisions with your doctor. “
Other Republican politicians person uttered the aforesaid sentiment that aesculapian decisions are strictly personal – but wherever women are concerned; and that is wherever the authorities violates the 14th Amendment. It plainly states that
“No authorities shall marque oregon enforce immoderate instrumentality which shall abridge the privileges oregon immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall immoderate authorities deprive immoderate idiosyncratic of life, liberty, oregon property, without owed process of law; nor contradict to immoderate idiosyncratic wrong its jurisdiction the adjacent extortion of the laws.”
The Texas spiritual instrumentality does, successful fact, deprive women of their liberty and privilege to make their ain aesculapian decisions, and it deprives aesculapian professionals of their property by forcing them to wage spiritual vigilantes a bounty for suing them successful civilian court. Plus, it denies women the aforesaid adjacent extortion of the laws that it grants men arsenic a substance of course.
No uncertainty determination volition be a large combat implicit this spiritual Texas law. What seems almost certain is that the religious fanatics connected the High Court allowed it to basal to set a precedent for other Republican states to follow granting that determination is simply a clever mode to restrict a woman’s close to choose without judicial review.
It is clip for the clever legal maneuvers to halt and for advocates for women’s rights to people the root of these barbaric control measures – religion arsenic defined by the extremist and fanatical spiritual right.
As noted astatine the apical of this piece, the U.S. Constitution forbids forced adherence to immoderate religion. There isn’t a psyche successful America who doesn’t cognize that this Texas instrumentality is founded and driven by religious fanatics and that it serves nary societal good. What it does bash is deprive women of their basal quality close to power their ain bodies, and creates a people of religious vigilantes that present enjoy the afloat enactment of Texas Republicans, evangelical extremists, and present the Supreme Court.
Audio technologist and teacher for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocator for state of religion and particularly, state of NO religion.
Born successful the South, raised successful the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded presumption of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.