DO WHAT YOU CAN DO.
I am only one, but I am one.
I can do something.
That which I can do, I ought to do.
And that which I ought to do,
By the Grace of God,
I shall do.
I do not know where I first came across this saying. It seems to me that it applies today every bit as much as it has applied throughout my life, always.
There are people who despair of many things in this country right now. They could do far worse than putting this saying into effect. At the moment, nothing attracts more despair than the recent decision of a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. This is the decision which overruled Roe v. Wade and Casey, rejecting privacy rights over reproductive decisions, with more decisions to come apparently.
Many people say there is nothing to be done.
They are wrong. They probably mean to say that it will take a long time to overrule Dobbs and to restore privacy rights over reproductive decisions. But there is definitely something that can be done right now.
Introduce legislation which will enact the law of privacy rights over reproductive decisions. Base the legislation on Roe v. Wade and Casey as much as those judicial decisions will translate to legislative bills, sure. But introduce legislation which will enact privacy rights over reproductive decisions.
In the U.S. Congress, we can only be certain that there will be an outcome in the House of Representatives. We also can be certain what that outcome will be in this case: The legislation will pass and it will be sent to the U.S. Senate for action there. Perhaps legislation like this has already passed the House and has been sent to the Senate already.
Leave to the Senate what the Senate will do.
If the measure has passed the House already, pass it again. Send it again to the Senate.
Then do it again.
In the Senate, call for a vote. Filibusters may prevent votes on the substance of the bills, meaning filibusters prevent votes on the bills themselves. That's fine also. Regardless, there must always be votes on what the Senators call cloture motions, which are motions to end a filibuster. Let the cloture votes be recorded, again and again, of all those people in the Senate who deny votes on privacy rights for reproductive decisions.
Record those votes. There is nothing that politicians fear and dislike more than having their unpopular votes recorded and made public.
Over and over again.
If one of the bills passes both the Senate and the House, perhaps some will say that the process is fruitless because the Supreme Court will strike it down just as a present majority overruled Roe and Casey. Well, then, if that is the case pass it again.
If the bill passes in 2022, for example, and the Supreme Court strikes it down, when another bill passes – with identical language – say in 2023, the Court did not strike that Act down yet, just the one that passed in 2022. The current majority think they have the final word? Let them write the final word, endlessly. In the meantime, there is more to be done, including in the States.
Please read the disclaimer. ©Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
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