In 2016, Senate Republicans stopped President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court to replace Justice Antonin Scalia. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it was too close to the election and that the new president should choose the new supreme court judge. Despite nationwide outcry against this, the Supreme Court functioned for months with only eight justices. After President Donald Trump took office, he nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch in January 2017, Judge Brett Kavanaugh in July 2018, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett on September 2020, just months before the 2020 election. (I guess according to Mitch McConnell rules are meant to be broken.)
The US is currently suffering the aftermath of these three conservative appointments. Multiple Republican-controlled state legislatures have passed restrictive anti-abortion bills during the past decade. Since the Supreme Court has taken a decided hard turn to the right with the Trump era appointments, states like Texas and Arizona are in the forefront with anti-choice legislation designed to challenge Roe v Wade.
Now US Attorney General Merrick Garland is mounting a legal case against the Texas ban on abortions after six weeks. In Arizona, there is a lawsuit to stop SB1457, which criminalizes the woman, her doctor and anyone who helps her get an abort a fetus with a known birth defect, regardless of severity of the diagnosis or life expectancy after birth.
My guests Rep. Athena Salman and Dianne Post discuss repressive antiabortion laws in red states, particularly Arizona and Texas and what we can do about it.
To protest this latest round of legislation attacking reproductive healthcare, Women’s Marches will be held around the US and around Arizona on Saturday, October 2, 2021 to protest repressive anti-choice laws like those passed in Texas, Arizona and other red states.
Tucson Women’s March: October 2 at 10 a.m. – noon, starting at Armory Park.
Phoenix Women’s March: October 2 at 10 a.m. – noon, starting at the State Capitol.
My podcast, A View from the Left Side, is also available in podcast format via Spotify, Stitcher Radio, I Heart Radio, Deezer, Listen Notes, Podcast Index and RSS Feed, as well as on my YouTube channel. If you like what you hear, please click “like”, “subscribe” and “share.”
Fighting Back Against Repressive Anti-Choice Laws in Arizona & Texas – A View from the Left Side
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