US president Donald Trump has sworn in ultraconservative Supreme Court judge Amy Coney Barrett in a bid to overturn America’s landmark Roe v Wade court ruling.
The 1973 ruling legalised abortion and paved the way for women to take charge of their reproductive rights, and is widely seen as a cornerstone in progressive politics in the US.
But Trump pushed ahead with Barrett’s appointment, despite calls to wait until after the election after the passing of veteran judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who made it her lifelong mission to advance the fight for feminism up until her death in September this year.
The move aims to boost a reactionary Conservative cabal in the Supreme Court, namely after the scandal-hit nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, potentially to reverse hard-fought women’s rights ahead of roughly 17 cases in the court system pipeline.
Conservative judges could also cancel the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, which provides millions with healthcare who would normally be unable to receive it.
Democratic rival Joe Biden has called on lawmakers to reverse such a move, stating that premiums for women could skyrocket due to “pre-existing” conditions such as pregnancy.
Planned Parenthood has also slammed Trump’s move, stating the nation faced a pandemic with over 200,000 deaths, an “economic disaster” and “reckoning with systemic racism”.
“And now with the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, our country has lost a champion who protected our rights and liberties, and was a fierce fighter for gender equality, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, abortion rights and health care for all. It would be absolutely wrong for the Senate to rush through a Supreme Court confirmation process while continuing to ignore the harms wrought by the pandemic and our nation’s collective pain”, Planned Parenthood Action Fund president Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement.
Johnson added President Trump’s nomination was a “direct threat” to America’s health and public rights and a “disgrace to our democracy”, adding Planned Parenthood would use its Action Fund to “rise up and fight” any appointment before the 2021 Inauguration.
Despite Mrs Barrett’s nomination, the Supreme Court has routinely challenged Trump on several rulings and could potentially do so in the future. But the decision has been widely perceived as a direct threat to women’s rights as well as American democratic values.
The gloves are off. This nomination will not pass, and we’re not going to the fight against patriarchal authoritarianism. Stand with us, buy a tee and back the struggle for our future.
