Author: lenrothman

Texas legislators threaten Dallas law firm for providing assistance to employees to receive out of state abortions.

https://abovethelaw.com/2022/07/texas-legislators-threaten-sidley-over-abortion-care-travel-costs/

The entire letter from the legislators is in the link. A curious situation is if an employee takes sick leave for an abortion, is that considered illegal if the firm knows. So she should perhaps sign a document with a copy for the state to say she is visiting her mom.

Fascism in Texas. “Your papers. please”.

“To save life of the mother” for abortions removed from the GOP platform in Idaho.

No exception for life of mother included in Idaho GOP’s abortion platform language

“For the last 49 years we have essentially lost the argument in the culture because we have focused on abortion as the termination of a pregnancy and not the termination of a living human being,” Herdon told delegates.”

“He also said the oath a doctor takes to do no harm covers such situations, and if a doctor is treating a pregnant person and the unborn child, it is in line with standards of medical care to determine who can legitimately be saved. To add exceptions would be to give priority to one patient over the other, he said.”

Considering how powerful the GOP is in Idaho, this is kind of interesting. Now doctors are already wary of treating problem pregnancies, this should be the icing on the cake.

Interesting shift in polls for midterms.

What seemed like a slam dunk for Republicans has now morphed into a much tighter race. Of course all this could change by November. Other polls show Democrats want younger blood in 2024, particularly the under 30 voters. Abortion and shootings are rising to the top of issues for many. Still, Republicans have a large advantage in the Gerrymandering contests.

SCOTUS has been lobbied by the right for years.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/08/religious-right-supreme-court-00044739

“Rob Schenck, an evangelical minister who headed the Faith and Action group headquartered near the Supreme Court from 1995 to 2018, said he arranged over the years for about 20 couples to fly to Washington to visit with and entertain Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and the late Antonin Scalia.”

Can we lobby judges that we know will hear our cases in future decisions? Evidently so. If there has been much doubt about whether the Court is above the political arena, it has been erased, in my opinion. Who needs to win elections if you have the judges in your pockets. Reminiscent of Vito Corleone in “The Godfather”.

Thomas’ concurring opinion could affect 2020 elections.

“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion.“

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/clarence-thomas-supreme-court-reconsider-contraception-gay-marriage-rulings

Interracial marriage could be added to that list of prohibitions. The specter of banning birth control even for married couples could spark a political backlash in the next months. After all, an abortifacient is murder, marriage or no marriage, according to the right wing. True, inflation is top of mind in the electorate. Or was.