Greg Olear continues his valuable reporting on the coterie of hard-right Catholics who have such influence on our federal government and who control the Supreme Court as a bloc. The coterie includes Leonard Leo, who is the kingmaker for the court, Kevin Roberts of Heritage Foundation, and Robert P. George of the Federalist Society.
As Greg Olear notes, many of us may look at the blastocyst in the test tube and have trouble seeing the baby in the test tube — looking at you, Alabama Supremes. But that does not stop Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society and Robert P. George, a hard-right Catholic closely aligned with Leo, from their determination to impose on all of us by force of law the assertion that a blastocyst is a person.
"Donald Trump’s new 'let the states decide' position on abortion rights is a ploy. The real plan being cooked up by the Leonard Leo crew is to have the Supreme Court rule 'that a fetus qualifies as a "person" under the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment,' which would make federal law the rightwing fairy tale that any abortion is equivalent to murder."
"There’s no doubt that [the Florida Supreme Court] is supremely hostile to abortion. ...
Piecing together the fractured opinions, it becomes clear that six justices stand ready to institute fetal personhood under existing state law. The disagreement among this far-right supermajority comes down to tactics, timing, and deference to democracy."
"Three are prepared to now wield fetal personhood as a sword against any expansion of abortion, even by constitutional amendment. Three are waiting to impose personhood if the upcoming amendment fails and will not weaponize the doctrine today to keep the initiative off the ballot."
#Republican legislators in FL hit the pause button on a bill that would have given any “#unborn child” new #protections after opponents raised concerns it would impact women’s #ReproductiveRights in ways similar to the AL IVF ruling.
"Please do not report that the Republicans support IVF without noting their actual records, or asking them if that means they do not think embryos are people."