Roe V Wade – SCOTUS provokes a furore over abortion

130 thoughts on “Roe V Wade – SCOTUS provokes a furore over abortion”

1. They overturned Roe. There is a lot of outrage… so not sure how “ Where the major debate comes is in 2023/24 with tr Pluto conjunct the Mercury with a seriously rattled and insecure Solar Arc Uranus conjunct Mars in 2024/25. Tr Pluto will also be conjunct the Sun in 2024 so that looks the most challenging time.”. Unless we have Republican presidential candidates promising a constitutional nation wide ban in the US, which is pretty quaranteed.

2. it’s a spiritual problem. if you don’t mind reaping a horrendous karmic dept, then go for it. i’ll pay my debt even in rape. i know that sounds self righteous, but true. government should stay out of it, and not pay for it. it’s between them and God. Reincarnation or sooner will get you.

   • I’ve read numerous accounts of women choosing abortions because they “couldn’t afford” another child. That is a *structural problem* (i.e., how we have chosen to operate our economies and societies), not a spiritual problem. A broader issue here is about our values in Western society–specifically, in the case of what these women have reported–how we pay for things, and how we afford things. That “structure” is ripe for change.

   • I refer you, Wendy, to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. People whose life energy is consumed with matters of survival have little space in their heads for “spiritual” issues.

     https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

     • Well said. And its a body/mind/spirit split of trad patriarchal religions that separates and elevates ‘spirituality’ over bodily needs and reality.
       If that were the case there would be no point in ‘incarnating’ at all.
       I would argue that this fundamental belief that has been used to torment women for centuries as something slightly less than human, and more ‘animal’ is the underlying issue in America, far more noticeably than many western countries.

   • When someone brings up the words spirituality, *karma, god and reincarnation all in one post. I have to ask — myself belonging to a religion that believes in these things (minus the god) — just what religion are you referring to?

     *Karma is a very complicated topic and it is not what you think it means.

     **Confirming you do sound self-righteous.

     • I can’t help it; i really believe there are serious repercussions for having an abortion. The soul never dies, just gets a new form, but has to pay for the sins of the mind. I’m a long time follower at Science of Spirituality.

       • Despite being educated in a Catholic school – or perhaps because of it – I’m not a spiritual person and will, if the curmudgeonly deity of the OT has his way end up being sent to the hot place. I was under the impression one of the key facets of Christianity was the importance of not judging others and having the humility and self-awareness to see that none of us are perfect. I think Christ’s words were something like ‘Do not judge, lest ye be judged’ and ‘let him who is without sin cast the first stone.’ The NT does give the impression that He was rather keen on that sort of thing.

         • We should strive to extricate ourselves from this negative plane, while we have the human birth. i’m only giving cause to consider eastern scripture, not judging; sorry it offends you. God is all forgiving, but we’re trapped currently in a place where karma rules, paying our debts. “eating yesterday’s bread”. (hell)

         • You haven’t offended me at all, wendy.

       • In the era of Pisces we have oppressed more people through ‘beliefs’ than anything else.
         Furthemore you ‘can’ help it, you can read further. Especially in the area of reincarnation and karma where the west is repeatedly criticised for reducing a complicated and essentially unknowable process into a series of simplistic platitudes to support their biases.
         Furthemore in traditional belief the soul doesnt enter the body till at least the ‘quickening’ or first breath.
         ie a handful of cells do NOT a soul make.
         Furthemore if you believe in all this, then its a contract between the two souls, the woman is not some machine like vessel as some men would have you believe, rather she is in control, and if the environment etc is not supportive then the contract is cancelled.
         Furthemore there is No mention in the bible about problems with abortion.
         And of course EVERY animal aborts when resources are low, health is not optimal or the environment is unsupportive.
         Nothing more cruel than to bring an unwanted soul into this place without support resources and with abuse likely.
         Think of the ‘karma’ in that… a whole lifetime of suffering, and potential for crime and violence to others, karma all the way along created because of ideology rather than practicality and humanity.

   • What are you trying to say specifically?
     As to ‘karma’ none of us knows how it works, if indeed it ‘exists’ in the way New Age marketing would have us believe.
     But if you are saying what I think you are then yes, you sound incredibly self righteous.

   • how do you know that the spirit lurking for a body was rejected/aborted because of their karma?

     Souls may experience karma, bodies/vehicles do not.

     • Yes, it must have been aborted due to its karma. But we don’t know. Good point.

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Leo

   Leonard Leo. The Federalist Society. Responsible for the last five supreme court justices who have been appointed.

4. Of course l understand that there are many reasons for wearing the headscarf and even the burka. In some way it may even seem to be liberating by enabling the wearer not to be judged solely on her appearance, which sadly happens far too often in western society. Nevertheless it also shows a rejection and challenge to mainstream values, and makes me feel that my hard fought for rights as a woman are threatened by religions based on the Old Testament.

   • In understand what you saying but my take and food for thought is …., we as ‘the West’ don’t understand the intricacies of that philosophy. I don’t feel the need to challenge that practice just based on our particular belief around women’s rights because my impression has been that a flawed interpretation of the Old Testament by men of course, says women should only show themselves within closed doors and not make show of themselves publicly (controlling and limiting of the female). That’s another conversation.

     I have no problem with trying to understand their take, because diversity makes the world, and have no wish to try to convince them otherwise. Evolution is the name of the game of life. They have to evolve themselves to that point to fight in the same way women in ‘the West’ have had to fight over the centuries to where they are now. Their recognition of their environmental/mental/emotional conditions fueled that fight. We should allow those in their particular culture to go through their own process to do the same if they so wish. We just need to learn to live together with respect as long as we are not being detrimental and/or destructive to each other along the way.
     Hope that makes sense.
     1Love!!

     • I was only referring to mainstream values in western societies that are being challenged by fundamementalist values and not other societies. l really do admire your philosophy and tolerance Jennifer, but perhaps the amazing women in Afghanistan might want to take issue with your stance?
       Barbara Attwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale is a chilling reminder of how just how vulnerable we all are!
       I love this site because the astrology combined with the comments help me to understand what is happening so thank you Marjorie and to everyone who contributes.

     • I’m with you, Jennifer, in being open-minded towards women who choose to wear the hijab. Living in California I’ve known many women, activists and feminists, who choose to wear it. I believe it should be their choice, not imposed on them by a patriarchal society. But those of us who are secular or non-religious also shouldn’t be intolerant of their choices or feel threatened by them.

       Their body, their choice, is my attitude — the same as with abortion.

       For me what the women’s movement has always been about is the freedom to choose our own paths, whether to stay home to raise kids or pursue a career. Of course most women don’t have the economic freedom for that choice.

   • Queen Elizabeth likes wearing headscarves. It’s part of her look. She even wears a headscarf when she’s in her car driving – google the pictures.

     She’d be the first to tell you it’s nothing to do with being oppressed or rejecting the mainstream. She just believes a well-dressed person should cover their head either with a hat or scarf.

     There are lots of people who like covering their head – see people who refuse to go out without a beanie because they don’t like their hair. In a free society if you want to wear a hat, scarf or beanie you can. It’s nothing to do with oppression. Oppression is telling people they can’t wear hats and headscarves anymore “because it’s not mainstream”. Who judges what mainstream fashion is?

   • I would have to confess to being in two minds about hijabs let alone burqas. When you see villages freed from the Taliban and the women throwing their head coverings in the air you understand how much resentment they invoke.
     I actually find hijabs un-aesthetic, the strangle round the neck and squashed hair thing. Whereas the head covering that nice baking lady wears is much less off-putting. Being a hat lover myself it isn’t the head covering itself so much as what it represents.
     It feels sanctimonious to me – and what’s sexual about hair for heaven’s sake? Men will be so aroused by the sight of it they can’t contain themselves? It is a sign of a repressive society.
     Am I Islamaphobic? My question would be why do I have to know? I don’t care what people’s religious beliefs are as long they keep them to themselves. An intellectual conversation about it fine. But I don’t want it thrown in my face. Which is where the hijab does kind of cut across mainstream culture – at least in the UK where religion is no longer part of the warp and weft of everyday life.
     I know I know it brings up all sorts of discussions about Jewish kippas and Sikh head gear. But the hijab has an extra backstory to it which has no place in a civilized modern society.

   • There is nothing liberating about suffering under heavy black cloth, nor being unable to leave the house.
     Nor having the incredible impact on your health from lack of sunlight and vitamin D aborption.
     It affects literally every part of the body.
     Bones, Brain, immune system, hormones, gut, cancer resistance etc etc
     I lived in a city with a high population of somali women with dark skin and black shrouds. My GP was in despair at the state of them, their vit D levels were through the floor.
     One reason why so many people of colour suffered so badly from Covid.

5. Looking at this theme from a different perspective , Nature likes symmetry, since the end of WW2 there were two superpowers the USA and the USSR, with the fall of communism and the break up of the Soviet republics the other superpower was left to find a new balance and was found less stable as the forces of the right had less obvious targets to attack, so they have turned inwards towards their hapless citizens.
   The so called Christian fundamentalists really follow the Old Testament not the New and if you study carefully the two societies there are similarities: the rural poverty in every sense, the opiod epidemic in the USA and alcoholism in Russia and so on, not to say the oligopolies in USA and oligarchs in Russia.
   Maybe what the USA needs is a new education system based on cultivating the individual, based on cooperation rather than competition, just a thought!

6. Recent polls are already showing a shift in tides. Now while polls aren’t perfect, they can indicate when the pendulum starts to swing; and it appears to be swinging towards the Dems. So they seem to be getting some wind in their sails. It’s just a matter of how strong it’s blowing.
   If the GOP thinks it’s gonna be part 2 of their 2010 blowout victory, they’re about to get a proper reality check for their deal with the proverbial Devil.

7. Neptune entered Aries in 1861. In the UK, ‘Offences Against the Person” Act, 1861, was passed into law. It contains a wide range of stipulations, including this legislation against abortion:

   “Every Woman (attempting to procure abortion) ……shall be guilty of Felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the Discretion of the Court, to be kept in Penal Servitude for Life or for any Term not less than Three Years,—or to be imprisoned for any Term not exceeding Two Years, with or without Hard Labour, and with or without Solitary Confinement.”

   And this:
   “Procuring Drugs, &c. to cause Abortion.
   Whosoever shall unlawfully supply or procure any Poison or other noxious Thing, or any Instrument or Thing whatsoever, knowing that the same is intended to be unlawfully used or employed with Intent to procure the Miscarriage of any Woman, whether she be or be not with Child, shall be guilty of a Misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the Discretion of the Court, to be kept in Penal Servitude for the Term of Three Years, or to be imprisoned for any Term not exceeding Two Years, with or without Hard Labour.”

   So the ‘theme’ we’re discussing here had been discussed under late Neptune in Pisces, and then brought into formal legal reality once Neptune arrived in Aries.

   • This is why Im so concerned for women with Neptune in Aires, Pluto in Aquarius and uranus in Gemini.
     Its looking terrible at the moment, the Taliban is enforcing a full Burqa on women again, and stopped schooling, and is saying its best if women ‘stay at home for their dignity” AAAARGH
     Now this in the US from the right and the undermining and erosion of reality and womens only spaces acheivements and terminology.
     Its all around us now.

     • Yes, it does look as if the storm clouds are looming very large. I can only hope that this is some kind of ‘healing crisis’, akin to a fever. Possibly with so much in transition ahead, it is a desperate attempt to cling onto the ‘status quo’? I was horrified, but not surprised, by the news of the Taliban’s decrees, and their apparent hatred and fear of women and girls. However, that can also be seen (and felt) elsewhere in myriad forms, as we all know.

       • Yes Ive thought of the healing crises analogy too. I did an iching reading on the multi pronged attack on women from the left and right, and the response was for women-to unite, persist resoloutely with dignity, but persist, eyes on the goal etc or words to that effect. Its in our hands even if we cant see it.
         We do most of the labour and we bring all to life. Its time we were respected by ourselves and men for our essential role, and to see how powerful we are.

         Remember the Global Womans March, the largest best organised in History, and no violence?
         There was a seed and an example of our abillity to bring together, but we are vulnerable when young to the urge to please men at our own expense exacerbated/controlled by fiction film religion and marketing, and that causes women across the board huge issues.
         I also believe the retrogressive push for disembodiment is our enemy.

         • It seems to me we’re emerging from a long phase, in the West, in which many women and men believed ‘feminism’ had achieved its aims. This blithely ignored the lives of millions in other cultures and societies, and tended to ignore the fact that the dream of equal pay, for example, had not been realised. So now we’ve had MeToo highlighting a sliver of the behaviour of mostly wealthy men in privileged positions of power. Again, this ignores the daily reality for everyone who isn’t part of that world, turning it into another kind of celebrity watching game to an extent. It creates a distance. Further fracturing occurs with things like this Roe versus Wade furore.

           I agree ‘disembodiment’ is widespread, and an ever growing problem. Many years ago a psychic medium told me that when people disconnect from their bodies, they tend to put on a lot of weight. She was referring to the need to be ‘grounded’ when practising any kind of clairvoyance, meditation, or mediumship. I’ve thought about this recently, with our obesity crisis, and wondered what is causing so many to seek grounding by increasing body weight. Also that can be seen as a way of taking up space in the world, of signalling ‘here I am’. On the other side of this thought are the very slender, who are not necessarily healthy either – and punishing diets, gym routines, and so on. There is also a rise in eating disorders of many kinds.

           It’s possible to think of Neptune in Aries as a spiritual or idealistic warrior, on one level. Other perspectives on this shift are concerning, I agree. Of astro interest, I see that the Vegetarian Society, for example, was formed on 30 September, 1847. Neptune was in the late degrees of Aquarius, Pluto in late Aries. We’ll soon have the reverse.
           Women’s rights and right to vote were already being discussed and fought for at that time. Millicent Fawcett, famous women’s suffrage campaigner, was born in 1847 too, carrying that air and fire energy with her throughout her life.
           Yes, we must continue to fight for our rights, and stem this rising tide of negativity with it’s Neptunian undertones and affinity with poison and confusion.

8. whilst it’s not perfect, and, as we saw with Brexit, can be flawed due to the information the public is exposed to before having an opinion, the nearest to thing to a democratic process would be a referendum on this matter before making such a jaw dropping decision? Democracy in the US, which they love to shout that they are a protector of …..? Hmmm….!

   • *would have been

     • Jennifer, we do have what are called voter initiatives in many US states. They can be binding votes which directly change the law in that state. Or they can be advisory initiatives where they advise the state legislature of the public mood on a particular subject. Examples of each could be legalization of marijuana, lowering property tax rates or term limitation for public officials. The binding initiatives directly change the law without any interference from the legislature. This helps avoid the omnipresent political lobbyists mostly representing corporate interests. With the advisory referendums, they express the public’s will on particular subjects but usually the legislators ignore it and pass or fail to pass a similar law as they please.

       The individual state initiatives apply only to that particular state. But on the national level, no such system exists. It is assumed that ones representatives in the House and Senate (roughly similar to houses of Commons and Lords) will listen to the people and pass the appropriate legislation. Not many of our citizens still believe that is true. Many believe that the politicians are bought by the corporate interests. Sadly there sure is the appearance of that.

       • ‘But on the national level, no such system exists. …..’

         Thanks @carson, yes, this is what I was referring to – the national level. MPs in UK are representatives too but for a subject matter so huge, the national government went directly to the people (even as flawed as it may be in it’s own right).

9. There is a solution, which is that the US Congress should do it’s job and legislate a compromise.

   It should never be left to courts to make law on issues like this. Courts by definition cannot compromise. All they can say is “this is not allowed” or “this is allowed”. Which meant Roe v Wade allows abortion right up to 9 months which some people find problematic.

   In the UK, Parliament thrashed out a compromise allowing abortion up to 24 weeks and forbids it after that apart from special circumstances involving the mother’s health. A compromise everyone is happy with.

   I don’t get this all-or-nothing mentality. Or this idea that elected representatives duck hard decisions and try to force the courts to make law (which is not the job of the courts!)

   • Unfortunately the Right to Life groups, aka the Religious Right, will never compromise here.

     • You just need a majority in both houses of Congress to pass an abortion compromise similar to the one passed in the UK in 1967.

       It could have been done at multiple points in the last 50 years. I suspect they didn’t bother due to a mixture of cowardice and expediency.

       • The Republicans have always been against this – they do not compromise – for the senate it is not a majority to pass but 60 votes

         This is USA problem – different from the UK

         • “Always been against this”—the reality is a bit more complicated than that. The issue of abortion was quite pointedly “weaponized” decades ago by an evangelical pastor named Francis Schaeffer. I found a thesis that was written about him (this link is the abstract, but you can access the thesis through a link on that page also). His son, Frank Schaeffer, is on record as still broadly Christian and pro-birth, but regrets what he and his father did.

           https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/handle/10355/44844

   • And Congress is paralyzed and can not do it’s job unless it gets a large majority in both the House and Senate or rids itself of the filibuster rule, which tactic involves taking advantage of the rule that 60 votes are needed to stop debate on a bill. Budget bills are the only exception. Currently Dem Senators Manchin and Sinema refused to end this rule (see Majorie’s post Oct’21) because the risk would be that when the GOP wins the majority, they will be able to pass everything with a simple majority No threshold of 60 votes needed. This is why the US political system of “winner takes all” is so bad. We have no proportional representation like in a Parliamentary system, so there is zero incentive in US Congress to compromise.

     • @ Anita, the filibuster is only in the Senate. It is simple majority rule in the HOR and a simple majority can change the filibuster rule in the Senate but Manchin and Sinema stand in the way of that ever happening.

   • @Candy, Roe v. Wade and later the Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, allow abortion up to viability, later defined as 24 weeks, no questions asked, with exceptions to protect the life of the mother and to allow for medical emergencies. Neither allows about up to the end except in extreme circumstances, such as a dead or dying fetus.

   • “Which meant Roe v Wade allows abortion right up to 9 months which some people find problematic.”
     An abortion / a pregnancy is not contagious, unlike a virus. So, this is not a PUBLIC-health issue, but rather a family-planning issue, and I don’t see any hints of the courts nor the politicians gearing up to force men into starting families. Therefore, at what stage a pregnant person chooses to terminate their pregnancy is no one’s business but theirs and their families’, unless someone can proof that they’re doing so solely based on the gender of a viable fetus, which, as with the MANY attempts of overturning RvW, is, at its core, about gender discrimination.
     If people are objecting on religious grounds, especially for those who believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present god, it is their ego, or excessive pride, that makes them think they have the right to be taking on “god’s” work. The irony is that this omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent god can kill anyone seeking an abortion, yet has “seen fit” to make abortion safer than the birthing process, especially given the rise of maternal mortality in the U.S.
     I really despise the self-righteous who deems fit to force their beliefs onto the actions of others when RvW offers the much more respectful option of letting every pregnant person make their own choice, in accordance with their respective circumstances. You would think that a party that is so vocal about individual rights would be enamored with RvW for exactly conferring this right, yet they are suddenly all about government’s right to legislate in family planning only when it concerns impregnable bodies. The utter hypocrisy of it all!

     • The real hypocrisy, for me, is the their belief in having this staunch right to force women to ‘bring’ life, yet at the other end of the spectrum DO NOTHING about the gun laws which as such ‘take’ lives at an excessive rate in the US, not to mention the wholesale selling of arms? Make it make sense!!!

       • And where is the gratitude and respect. We birth every soul on this planet, and men treat us like excretement for our pains, irrespective of their politics, beliefs or pretense of progressiveness.

     • In the UK most of the people who object to late terminations of viable babies when the mother is healthy, are humanists and the medical community.

       This is not a religious issue, it’s an ethical issue.

       I’m sorry but it’s you who sounds zealous and self-righteous.

       There are very few late terminations, so it’s an easy compromise to make, to allow abortion up to 24 weeks (as in the UK & France) – You capure 99% of abortions. Or up to 13 weeks – the Irish Republic used to ban abortion completely but in 2019 finally reached a compromise allowing it up to 13 weeks – a compromise that is working for them, so we should applaud it.

       The USA could have reached a legislative compromise at any time in the last 50 years.

       The only reason they haven’t is because of zealots insisting abortion up to 9 months – and lets be honest they took this extreme position because they enjoyed the distress it was causing others. Now their zealotry has blown up in their faces because it has inspired an equal and opposite zealotry.

       Well done all the fools who refused to compromise.

       • Candy, here in the US state of Louisiana (think New Orleans) state legislators are debating a bill to make abortion a felony crime. It would apply from the “moment of fertilization”. The crime would be homicide (intentional murder). It actually has a good chance of being enacted into law.

         It’s hard to imagine a compromise with someone having that mindset.

         If the US Supreme Court invalidates Roe v Wade, then state restrictions are in force. A number of states would immediately outlaw abortion based on existing state statutes. With severe penalties for the mother, the healthcare workers and anyone who abets the abortion. Some have been trying to make it a felony for a woman to leave the state to get an abortion in another state.

         How is compromise possible with someone having that mindset?

         • @carson, what would that mean for the large American corporations, i.e Amazon and few others, who have pledged to help people bypass abortion bans? Wouldn’t that be abetting the abortion? Hmm……!

       • A law that guarantees someone the right to choose, even a late-stage abortion, doesn’t mean a pregnant person will automatically go get one. Hence, it is about accepting the right for the pregnant person and their doctor and/or family to choose what’s best in their respective interest, which no legislative body can possibly know without meeting every possible person to whom the limitation might apply.
         Again, how would you like it if government agents descended on your home and told you that you had to start a family at the time that they deemed is proper for you?
         On the other hand, as Carson has noted, some laws have/will automatically criminalize those who have miscarried, aborted or assisted in such procedures, or those who were unsuccessful in their attempts to save a fetus’ life (there are already those who have been jailed because of such laws in the U.S.). There are also laws in place that have allowed ordinary citizens to file suit against those who, to them, have been involved in abortions–that is a very dark rabbit hole to go down into. These are the sort of actions that facilitated the proliferation of McCarthyism.
         Compromise was the restrictions instituted via cases like Casey and state-level laws that allowed anti-choice advocates to protest in front of clinics and intimidate pregnant people and their families, forced them to repeatedly go to clinics even if that prolonged their agony, shuttered providers’ doors so that only those who have the means can go elsewhere to get an abortion and even murdered clinicians–so much for “respect” for the sanctity of life! But those apparently weren’t enough. So, let’s stop pretending that anti-choice people want compromise, when their repeated action have screamed that they want total control.

         • That’s what i said in an earlier post; government should stay out of it and not pay for it either. I was just telling about the karmic aspect in case someone’s interested, which is rarely touched on.

     • How is it possible to have abortion till 9 mths,
       except in a medical emergency? Is this true, Im pretty sure this doesnt happen in europe.

10. Before we all sink into gloom about being dragged back into the dark ages remember that Thomas Paine was one of the leading lights of the last Pluto in Aquarius. A philosopher and political activist his ideas inspired and coincided with the American fight for independence and the French revolution – if we stop angsting about the revolutionary part and I confess I don’t see the US splitting up – what he was concerned with were Rights. The French Revolution in particular, very much a Pluto in Aquarius event, was focused on liberty, equality and fraternity with women seen as equal. Paine argued against institutionalized religions in general – which feels very Pluto in Aquarius to me.

    • Also, the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Women’ in 1792. That year Pluto entered its last decan of Aquarius and until November, when it went into Scorpio, Neptune was in the final degrees of Libra. I will be relieved when Neptune finally completes its rather fanatical, swivel-eyed journey through Pisces.

    • Hear hear! Remember, sometimes rights have to be severely threatened before they become enshrined in law as sacrosanct.

    • @Marjorie, yes, thank you! If anything, this should serve as (another) wakeup call to the people who’ve thought feminism is obsolete in the Western World because we now have all our rights. I can’t even start to mention how much I’ve been gaslighted for professed feminism, and especially for pointing out how some Western Democracies didn’t allow abortion until a couple of years ago (Ireland) and others make getting one hard (parts of Italy, since “conscious objection” is allowed for medical professional, Poland).

    • But Marjorie if we are going to compare to earlier Ingresses, then this comment from Jane quite reasonably reinforces our fears. Especially given the actual reality happening.
      And the Taliban is cracking down on women as we speak, Full Burqas,and house confinement coming in.
      “Neptune entered Aries in 1861. In the UK, ‘Offences Against the Person” Act, 1861, was passed into law. It contains a wide range of stipulations, including this legislation against abortion:

      “Every Woman (attempting to procure abortion) ……shall be guilty of Felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the Discretion of the Court, to be kept in Penal Servitude for Life or for any Term not less than Three Years,—or to be imprisoned for any Term not exceeding Two Years, with or without Hard Labour, and with or without Solitary Confinement.”

      And this:
      “Procuring Drugs, &c. to cause Abortion.
      Whosoever shall unlawfully supply or procure any Poison or other noxious Thing, or any Instrument or Thing whatsoever, knowing that the same is intended to be unlawfully used or employed with Intent to procure the Miscarriage of any Woman, whether she be or be not with Child, shall be guilty of a Misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the Discretion of the Court, to be kept in Penal Servitude for the Term of Three Years, or to be imprisoned for any Term not exceeding Two Years, with or without Hard Labour.”

      So the ‘theme’ we’re discussing here had been discussed under late Neptune in Pisces, and then brought into formal legal reality once Neptune arrived in Aries.

11. I’ve pointed out before Neptune into Aries last time around occurred as the first shot of the Civil War took place. Remember that was about the Southern states wanting to secede from the Union over slavery.

    It’s hard to see how the modern day South (particularly) and the rest of the USA fit together when there is such a gulf between them in terms of gun rights, abortion etc.

    Is some kind of break-up is coming again when Neptune gets back there in 2026?

    • This is what psychic astrologer, Jessica Adams has predicted. It should be on her website in the blog section- maybe search for USA. She says right at the time period with Aries. Have to say it feels like this to me. My mother is a Trumper as our several relatives. I don’t see them ever changing, even if Trump and the cabal are indicted and go to prison.
      But I don’t know how we would be able to travel, conduct business, deal with agriculture if the county is 2-3 separate entities. I no longer want to live here, irrespective of what may happen. Hoping to movie to Europe before then.

    • Southern states wouldn’t be able to financially support themselves if blue states cut off their financial support. The exception would probably be Texas. It could like the partition of India and the great migration in 1947 which divided British India into two independent dominions: India and Pakistan.

      • Anita. I agree. So many areas of the US are purple, though. And there are progressive universities in red states. It is so complicated.
        It’s rural versus urban and has been for awhile. I’ve traveled to remote parts of India and two hours west of Chicago reminds me of the poorest towns in India. No greenery -barely signs of life. Food desert. Only sign of life is a Wal-Mart. Playgrounds not updated in 40 years. Residents don’t seem to mind. ?? My spouse grew up in that area and refers to it as literal hell.
        And this is in a blue state so it’s just so complicated.
        We need a full scale effort to revitalize these rural areas—nationwide.

        • Michigan’s shade is a bit more nuanced. Several political experts agree that Michigan is a purple state. Though how much red and blue is in that purple is evolving. What we need, without a doubt, is a major overhaul of the entire US system incl. the three branches of government. Whether that will happen remains to be seen. Maybe the Pluto return will facilitate that. My generation is currently going through the Pluto opposition Uranus. Mid-Feb 2022 until beginning of Jan 2024. Partial text from Robert Hand’s “Planets in Transits” on this: “This influence represents a period of massive changes, which we share with almost everyone of about the same age. Therefore the causes of these changes may be larger social forces that are outside of the personal sphere of life. Learn to flow with the great changes that are happening to now, and even make yourself an active agent in bringing them about.”
          In my toolbox on dealing with it all are Mindfulness, yoga and self reflection, but not always easy giving what’s going on.

      • My prediction: The South would become a third-world country that corporations would exploit for cheap labor. Giant corporations that already have presence in places like Huntsville, Oak Ridge, Atlanta, the Research Triangle in NC, etc. would thrive on that cheap labor, and other corporations will rush in here to capitalize on it too. But employee benefits and worker safety would be all but nonexistent. No retirement, no social security. But American Southerners have been very indoctrinated over time to the Calvinist view of work—and, indeed, existence—so, by and large, the people here would be happy with that situation for a while. It’s what they believe is fair. “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” Corporations would become the de facto “governments” there, in the areas where their influence reaches. Corporations will use “the church” to keep people in line. The church has been serving this role for centuries already in various places.

    • @GnarlyDude
      What you say may sound possible, but I just moved to Huntsville in the very red-state of Alabama.
      The only reason this area is booming is due to federal entities like NASA, the Missile Defense Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and the FAA.
      I’ve driven around town since I have been here and haven’t been impressed. A lot of closed-down businesses and not much culture.
      I don’t know how southern states would be able to leave the union and survive financially.
      I am a native of Mississippi and they used the federal money meant for COVID-19 and added it to the general budget and they implemented a 3-year plan to eliminate the state income tax.
      Louisiana did the same thing after receiving billions in federal money after Katrina, but they had to eventually raise taxes in other areas to make up for the shortfall.

12. It has always amazed me why some women vote for politicians who will erode their rights and freedoms, and also lslamic women who vociferously insist on wearing the burka or even a headscarf in countries where they are not required. I think the reason is they feel powerless, and believe that it is futile to challenge the status quo, and therefore endorsing it enables them to have a false sense of autonomy.

    • I was beyond horrified by a comment from a documentary on women who had joined a Salafi fundamentalist Islamic group – one of them said what attracted them was ‘she didn’t have to think’ – it was all decided by others and laid down for her. Hallelujah.

      • Yes! I happen to be reading one of Jung’s writings, which eerily echoes and explains the current right-wing trend in the US, as well as the religious fundamentalism in the world. It also correlates with anecdotal observations.

        In brief, when people feel powerless for whatever reason, they try to rebel – creating chaos, which is fertile ground for an autocratic ‘Leader’ to step in. But all these people do is to replace one form of control over themselves with another. Others seek ‘religion’, but it’s in an instititutionalized form, and thus equally oppressive of individual thought.
        Such persons double-down when faced with doubt, instead of questioning their beliefs and affiliations. Because (imho) it would be even worse to admit being wrong, and be left, once again, without direction in life. They need the comforting refuge of the ‘mass mind’.

        In the cases of 2 female relatives, one, raised Muslim, was full of self-confidence until she failed in advancing her medical studies for the first time in her young life. Instead of working harder or adjusting her goals, she gave up, submitted herself completely to Allah, evidently deciding that she needed more humility – which, in honesty, she did, but she never truly gained humility, instead attributing her positive capacities (which she still boasts about) to God. Interestingly, though religiously conservative, she remains kind at heart, and retains sufficient critical thinking to be politically liberal. She despises Trump, but is likely anti-abortion.

        Her sister, never a practicing Muslim, treated others as if she were the queen. Since this inevitably brought bad results, esp without any compensating abilities or kindness, she blamed others. Instead of turning to religion as her sister, she found her sounding board in Trump/MAGA grievance/resentment, and actively isolated herself from family and friends with her fanatical aggressiveness. Even though she is female and a minority, the least likely type of supporter. Sadly, I recently learned she was/is ? suicidal, and recalled that previous attemps at therapy ended up with false ‘memories’ and her accusing her doting parents of ‘abuse’. You can’t heal when you can’t admit you have a problem.

        On a Twitter feed that reports on the American right-wing, there are interviews of Trump cultists that have practically abandoned any individual life or thinking, admitting that they miss seeing their families but can’t stop. No difference between them and fundamental Islamists

    • You might want to speak with various women who choose to wear the hijab, some of whom wear it for cultural, rather than religious reasons. (Have you seen old Sicilian women or 1960’s French movies? What about current Ukrainian refugees? They are also women who cho(o)se to wear headscarves, also for a variety of reasons.)
      In any case, some women of Middle-Eastern descent have stated that they began wearing hijabs after experiencing anti-Muslim prejudice, precisely because the hijab represents for them a point of cultural pride. Some have said that they wear it to show modesty. In any case, their reasons are not as homogeneous as anti-immigrant and/or anti-Muslim rhetoric (even those coming from left-leaning commentators) would have us believe.

13. Literalism such as Alito and Barrett adhere to is no different from Islamic fundamentalism which favors an originalist interpretation of the primary sources of Islam (the Quran etc). So adhering to life and culture as it was – in their case in the 7th or 8th Century and in this case as it was circa 250 years ago. Insanity. Have they never heard of evolution?
    Alito is possibly also a creationist?

    • Could be … although Alito is usually called an “originalist”, and describes himself a “practical originalist” believing that whatever was adopted in the 1776 Constitution should be the only law of the land, never mind that we now live in 2022. As explained below, Since the Equal Rights Amendment to protect women and minority rights has yet to be added to the US constitution, any law can be rescinded, ie equal pay, access to contraception on and on. It’s a hell of a system.

14. Out of curiosity, does the unenumerated rights include women’s right to vote?

    • @Linda, fortunately, no, that’s 19th Amendment.

      Tells something about how mixed up this is that I, a Finn who has spent just weeks in the US as a tourist, know this by heart.

    • The 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. It was passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and at least it was ratified by the states on August 18, 1920. Note the Consti­tu­tion provides that amend­ments take effect when three-quar­ters of the states ratify them. However, we now still have the issue with the Equal Rights Amendment and that is complicated. Among UN member states, 85% 193 have a provision in their constitution that specifically addresses gender equality, and a further 115 have a provision that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. But it is not the case in the United States and that is a perfect illustration how dysfunctional and disastrous the US system is. The ERA would put protection for women and other marginalized genders directly into the United States Constitution. But the ERA was never added to the Constitution – because Congress set a deadline. It passed by Congress in 1972 and said 38, or 3/4 of the states, had to ratify the proposed amendment by 1979. It later extended the deadline to 1982. In 2017, Nevada became the first state in 45 years to pass the ERA, followed by Illinois in 2018 and finally Virginia voted in 2020 and they reached the necessary threshold to ratify the ERA. Now Congress must eliminate the original deadline. A joint resolution was introduced in Congress currently to fix that. On 21 January 2021, Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), and Congressman Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) announced the bipartisan legislation. It is currently pending, but 40 years to late. Not until this legislation passes will it eliminate one of the barriers standing in the way of enshrining gender equality in the U.S. Constitution. Is you head spinning yet?
      https://www.equalitynow.org/era_explainer/
      https://www.npr.org/2022/03/22/1086978928/50-years-ago-sex-equality-seemed-destined-for-the-constitution-what-happened

      • Yeah, and the fact that a woman (Phyllis Schlafly) was the one to galvanize the conservative movement to torpedo the late-70s effort to pass it is a real head-spinner as well.

    • There are conservatives on record stating they are opposed to women voting. There’s one conservative woman, in particular, who wants our voting rights removed. I can’t remember her name. I think she’s from Michigan.

      • Conservative pundit Ann Coulter in 2021 at Missouri State, said women shouldn’t have the right to vote because “because women see the government as their husbands.”

15. This Pluto Return has been rough. And it’s just the beginning…

    • Even in functional society or person I wouldn’t expect a Pluto transit to go easy. You have to do a lot of letting go and the one thing those in power won’t do is willingly give it up.

      I can’t help seeing something highly symbolic about this decision and Pluto as the planet of death and rebirth. I’m not sure what exactly.

      • Marjorie has written two detailed articles on Pluto Returns in the history of various countries, including one in which she was kind enough to quote me on English history. They are worth a read. The US’s Pluto Return has not yet really kicked in.
        When it does, from parallels with English history, I would say that the US can expect (a) great actual physical destruction and possibly destruction/death of a generation/the ruling class and (b) Congress playing a central role.
        To an extent, it can also involve loss of overseas territories, etc. On one of the Pluto Returns, England lost it’s overseas territories in what is now France and on another, the Suez War signified the end of the British Empire.

        https://dev.star4cast.com/pluto-return-key-shifts-in-a-countrys-destiny/

        https://dev.star4cast.com/pluto-returns-collapse-and-rebuild/

        https://dev.star4cast.com/usas-pluto-return-collective-nervous-breakdown/

16. Dems erode women’s born identity with gender politics, the Republicans goes after a matter which should be between a woman and her doctor. Neither party has women’s best interest at heart. Women are in serious trouble world wide not just the States.

    • @ Delia, you are quite wrong on this. I choose to believe that it is just because you haven’t paid attention. In the US, especially, the people who warned people about Roe v. Wade being overturned tend to also be for adult people’s right to define their gender. And they are exclusively found on “The Left”.

      • @Solaia Actually thats not true at all, its a cross party ideology. Even in the US there are people on the right including christians who embrace it, but for apparently different reasons. In the UK there are several enthusiastic supporters on the right and in the news lately including Crispin Blunt.
        Im suprised you missed all the stories about him, he has some interesting views…. And then there is the conservative MP Jamie Wallis, also in the news for several reasons.

17. Four of the conservative justices who signed on to this deplorable (draft) decision were appointed by presidents who lost the U.S. popular vote: Alito was appointed by George W. Bush and Trump appointed Gorsuch, Barrett, and Kavanaugh. One recent respected poll determined that 71 percent of Americans supported Roe V. Wade; the most conservative showed 54 percent for, and only 28 percent were opposed to Roe. The noise about a future Civil War would seem like hyperbole, but Red states are busily legalizing Open Carry and other laws that permit private militias to acquire unlimited numbers of semi-automatic weapons; not sure how Blue states could defend themselves, as the U.S. armed services have been heavily infiltrated by Trumpers. I am in the retirement years, and am heartsick about the America we will be leaving to our grandchildren. Your notes about 2024 are somewhat encouraging, but what is desperately needed is a Democratic wave in 2022; if the Senate goes Republican, McConnell will not allow a hearing for a Democratic nominee to SCOTUS. Many of us are intensely concerned about this and value your input greatly. Thank you for posting on this. And as several on the Board pointed out, same-sex rights are next to be targeted by the right wing extremists on the Court.

    • Yes Deborah, it is Alito’s green light to conservative run states to take away all “Unenumerated” rights if they don’t like them. Equality rights, same sex marriage, the right to birth control, Inter-racial marriage on and on and on since none are mentioned in the Constitution. The Minority rules.

18. Yes, Anita, your history lesson is correct–many of our cultural and ideological divides (urban/agrarian, especially) were enshrined in the Constitution from the start, despite the framers’ explicit efforts to create a system that limited factionalism.

    That said, the parliamentary system doesn’t seem nearly as glorious as its advocates would suggest–it certainly isn’t immune to partisanship, or to manipulation by authoritarians. Any system can be misused, unfortunately.

19. This is so utterly depressing. And in a country which is noted for its lack of excellent pre-school childcare for all, or paid parental leave…..what would happen to unwanted children? It seems to be more about penalising women than anything else. And then, on to same sex partnerships and so on. Rabid.

    During the boiling hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials (1692-3), Pluto was in late Cancer and moved into Leo in 1693. Neptune, incidentally, was in sometimes ‘religious’ Pisces, Saturn in equally ‘religious’ Sagittarius. Anyway, I wonder if the transition of Pluto from Capricorn in to Aquarius era we’re in might suggest a similar mad period of struggle that will then begin to ease into a new phase? USA Prohibition, too, has a transition in January 1920 (when it began) of Uranus in Aquarius into Pisces.

    • Hi. It’s so interesting that you wrote that. Justice Alito referenced Sir Hale in this draft. Hale was a 17th C jurist who convicted and then sentenced two women to death for witchcraft. This was at a time when such prosecutions were waning. Alito’s opinion is so retrograde he writes of the 1600’s. You can’t make this up. Feels like trolling the liberals.

    • Hello Jane. The intent of the Salem witch trials was to seize property and money from “wealthy” widows during that era. Placing that property and money back into the hands of “men”. Few women were spared the dipping chairs and trial by red-hot pokers. Even midwives were considered and tried as “witches” by the ruling men of that era in the early settlements of New England. Since these so-called rulers were banished from Europe and England due to their extremist/religious views and beliefs (under the blanket guise of religious freedom), it was easy to invoke Satan as the motivator.

      Even today, MTG recently claimed that the Catholic Church is managed by demons of Satan. The nutcases remain the same even 325 years later.

      • Aim and Larryc – wow, I had totally forgetten about Scorpio Matthew Hale (probably a good thing!), and had no idea about Justice Alito’s reference to him either. Wiki says:

        “The judgment of Hale in this case was extremely influential in future cases, and was used in the Salem witch trials to justify the forfeiture of the accused’s lands”
        This refers to the witchcraft trials at Bury St Edmunds in 1662, when Hale sentenced two women to death for witchcraft. Witches, like Cathars in France before them, were I think charged for their own imprisonment and torture – their families had to pay up if they had no money of their own. Hale’s definition of marital rape – that it doesn’t exist because of the contract of marriage – actually stood in English law until 1991!

        Somewhere there’s a wormhole in the space-time continuum allowing all this ancient poison to seep through. Or, maybe it never really went away on a deep level.

        • Hello, I checked the wiki reference & content to Bury St Edmunds. Indeed, witch trials were conducted there.

          “The Puritan migration to New England was marked in its effects from 1620 to 1640, declining sharply afterwards. The term Great Migration usually refers to the migration in the period of English Puritans to Massachusetts and the Caribbean, especially Barbados.”

20. Coney Barrett is not qualified in terms of experience. Kavanaugh screamed and cried during his hearing. Would you hire someone like that? 4500 tips to the FBI were turned in about him and ignored (thanks Mr. Federalist Society Chris Wray). Thomas voted against a look into insurrection matters, probably because his wife was involved. The court is mostly made up of ultra conservative Christians who belong to the Federalist Society. We have laws against the combination of church and state and this proposed ruling clearly violates that.

    • To be clear… it will not end with overturning Roe vs Wade …. they will go after same sex marriage etc etc AND birth control. Note that Amy Coney Barrett refused to answer questions on whether the Landmark Contraception Case which protects the right to buy and use contraception was correctly decided. This 7-2 decision in Griswold v. Connecticut is viewed as the basis for Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized a woman’s right to abortion nationwide. But take note that in 2020 in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, the supreme court ruled that the Trump administration had the right to allow employers to deny contraceptive coverage on the basis of religion.

      • Right. As I commented below on another thread: The Alito argument challenges the basis of Roe because it’s among ‘unenumerated rights’ ie, not included in the US Constitution. So Griswold (1965 right to contraception), Obergefell (2015 right to same sex marriage), etc. are targets for weakening or overturning.

        • Right, Unenumerated rights come from the bill of rights they also include the right to travel, privacy, autonomy, dignity, and until today the right to have an abortion and even the right to inter-racial marriages to name a few. Therefore Alito’s opinion based on the enumerated rights arguments is so politically bias and flawed they could potentially take away every Unenumerated right because the enumerated rights in the constitution only include:
          -Freedom of speech.
          -Freedom of religion.
          -The right to bear arms.
          -The right to a fair trial.
          That’s is

          • Hello Anita. A subtle point was raised that the Constitution only mentions “men”, never women. Ergo, women have no rights. ERA was never fully approved.

          • @larryc
            Exactly and so that makes Alito’s opinion even more ludicrous. Most countries update their constitutions to fit modern times, another failure in the US.

          • ERA was approved by Congress in 1972 and sent to the states. Thirty-eight states have now finally ratified the ERA, but whether its protections for women’s rights are actually added to the constitution remains an open question.
            ERA support­ers have long argued that just as Congress had the power to set a dead­line they have the power to lift one. Senate Joint Resol­u­tion 6, a bipar­tisan meas­ure sponsored by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) which is currently pending in Congress, seeks to do just that. The whole process illustrates just how dysfunctional the political system here is.

21. On the day that Venus moves into Aires.
    And another crucial courtcase for womens rights in the UK recommenses today, with obsfuscation and concealment being
    clearly on the agenda from the opposition.
    Awhile ago we had a discussion here about the upcoming ingress of Neptune in Aires.
    At the time I said I was deeply concerned about what that would mean for women.
    Given the overt symbology and Venus being the ‘lower octave’ of Neptune, my concern is rattcheting into fear.
    And of course Pluto will be in Aquarius. When Neptune entered Aquarius in 1998 it coincided with New Laddism[and New Labour], the spread of phone use and the increasing domination of online porn.
    In womens fashions we went from the comparitive asexuality of the late 80s/90s to dressing like drag queens, and using botox and fillers to Barbie ourselves to try and compete with the pornification of women online.
    Its also generation Zs birth era, and they have been a generation entirely online and brainwashed to disbelieve in reality, are increasingly disembodied and self dismembered, out of horror at what woman is represented online, and in the media.

22. So bizarre but not too surprising. The new member of the court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, was unable to define a woman. In her defence, she said she wasn’t a biologist. If that is the standard, what hope is there? Could a Neptune like influence be involved in this sort of slippery, evasive manner?

    • YES.
      Neptune in Pisces from 2011 till 2025. In otherwords, a generational influence.
      In its dark side, its the most slippery, evasive, emotional fact free ideology driven of all planet/sign combinations.
      Also a HUGE propensity for dissisociation, delusion, denial and decadence of thought and values,and potentially dangerous blurring of boundaries.
      The extremes of Post Modernism, nothing is true, anything is up for grabs, social order breaks down.
      Hence Brexit, Trump, Fake News, Qanon, Populism, vaccination, 5G, trans ideology, Queer theory Putins ‘special operation’ etc
      All characterised by alternative facts and emotional blackmail. Not to say of course that there hasnt been propaganda all through history, but currently we have walked through the Looking Glass of near complete institutional capture[sextile to Pluto in Capricorn], as our rights disapear through religion and ideology, and the Piscean Neptune veil of ‘Be Kind’.

    • That question, asking her to define a woman, was a right-wing trap, designed to to pin her down on whether a trans woman is really a woman. It wasn’t a legitimate question as so many were led to believe.

      Right-wing Rethuglicans know no depth to their depravity. They demand to exert their power to impose their Christian nationalist, white supremacist theocracy on the rest of the US.

      They will pay a price for their attempts to impose a dictatorship and their retrograde beliefs on everyone else.

      • Defining woman, as a right wing trap? That is a fascinating thought for Neptune in Pisces.

        As Marina helpfully pointed out, we are indeed through the looking glass of delusion and denial.

        • That question had absolutely nothing to do with Brown Jackson’s legal and judicial qualifications and everything to do with Blackburn’s effort to trip up a nominee she disapproved of in the hopes of scoring political points. That’s all those confirmation hearings boil down to nowadays.

          • Whether or not to plainly say that a woman is an adult human female, surely impacts sex based matters.

            Few things could be as simple as stating biological reality.

            To be then seen as a right wing trap or irrelevant to the highest court in the land, seems to me a sign of some sort of delusion, denial or disassociation, which is described as Neptune’s realm.

            Marjorie has explored this under different headings but it seems to be relevant here.

23. I’m an American. I find this all deeply distressing (to put it mildly), but not surprising, given that this decision has been the end-game for right-wing religious types since Day 1–it’s the whole reason many religious zealots, who otherwise would have avoided Trump, voted for him: to gain control of SCOTUS and repeal Roe v. Wade. And it’s not just Roe in the cross-hairs; if you hear the rumblings among this vocal minority and read Alito’s leaked opinion, you’ll see that other rights based on the 14th Amendment right to privacy are on the block as well: contraception, privacy in the bedroom, gay marriage, and on and on. Anybody who thinks he’s immune to the consequences of this decision by virtue of gender or privilege had better think again. Plus, SCOTUS is poised to roll back gun control laws and, possibly, dismantle the administrative state.

    All that said, the majority of us in the U.S. really aren’t crazy, I promise; it’s just that, as always in American society, we’re susceptible to being overwhelmed by a loud and activist minority, due in large part to a constitutional system that deliberately gives outsize power to minority voices. It has its positives, truly, but it also sets us up for these pendulum swings in public policy. And, of course, the Pluto return is just amplifying everything.

    My hope is that this ruling, along with the televised Jan. 6 hearings (which, if done right, could firmly make the connection in the public mind between Putin’s Russia, which is widely loathed, and the GOP) will galvanize apathetic Democrats and others to vote in the midterms and prevent the Republican takeover of Congress. (I’m pretty sure this will light a fire under educated women, who are a critical voting bloc.)

    If we can hold onto Congress, and perhaps even acquire a few more senators, then we can a) abolish the filibuster, which is preventing modification of Senate rules to allow passage of sane laws protecting voting rights, reproductive rights, etc.; b) pass a nationwide guarantee of reproductive freedom; and c) pass other parts of Biden’s agenda that would protect civil rights and provide aid to the less fortunate, while breaking some of the oligarchy’s stranglehold on our system.

    For those who are unfamiliar with the U.S. system: a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade would be the last word *for now*; but a law passed by Congress would trump (pardon the term) such a ruling. Right now, however, Congress is balanced on a knife edge, with an insufficient majority to pass such a law; the key to the whole thing is retaining, and expanding, Democratic control of both houses, and especially of the Senate.

    I’m hopeful that Marjorie’s predictions of future rough going for the Court and its various right-wing justices (several of whom perjured themselves before Congress during their confirmation hearings, as Pelosi and Schumer pointed out in their statement) augurs a much-needed reformation of the system.

    • “as always in American society, we’re susceptible to being overwhelmed by a loud and activist minority” … it’s called The Great Compromise and created two legislative bodies in Congress. It was forged in the heated dispute during the 1787 Constitutional Convention: States with larger populations wanted congressional representation based on population, while smaller states demanded equal representation. It dominates our politics and influences everything from “pork barrel” legislation to the way votes are counted in the electoral college during presidential elections. That said … reformation of the entire US system is long overdue. One should note that emerging democracies in the world have chosen a Parliamentary system = proportional representation. They realize that the US one party takes all & especially the electoral college system is at its core undemocratic.

      • Would the EU double majority voting system be of help? It means that, 55% of member states must vote for proposals from the Commission and those member states must represent 65% of the total EU population. Proposals which don’t come from the Commission must be passed by 72% of member states.

        I understand that, in the USA, a law requires a majority in the House of Representatives, where participating states are represented according to size of population, and then a majority decision of the Senate, in which two senators each, independent of size of state population, represent individual states of the USA. This is also a kind of double majority but I would have to work out the maths.

24. Wow, this is a shocker and it appears it’s with no exceptions, i.e. rape especially. More babies to be abandoned on the streets or wherever, or given up to an already overloaded service to provide support, if one exists?? Feels like the US Pluto Return is taking everything backwards. Is Neptune providing an element of delusion or just forget about ‘an element’?? Where is Neptune in this and what is it doing? Because this cannot be real. In 2022? I’m shocked and dumb-founded.

    My key question is who could reverse this decision when/if the madness settles? I thought SCOTUS was like the end of the line?

    • YES, see my response above to PC.

    • @Jennifer E, whether there would be exceptions would remain in jurisdiction of individual States. However, I read somewhere this would be the case in 13 (!!!) States the moment the ruling passed, because the legislation hasn’t been amended.

25. This is so upsetting especially if it’s demonstrably true that Putin installed Trump and the 2016 election was illegitimate. A con man “President” who lost the popular vote by 3 million votes and then later instigated a coup in 2021, placed three Judges on the highest court. Insane. My relatives in rural areas will never change. It’s too late -they are too far gone. We just discuss the weather/small talk.
    Jessica Adams has predicted that US states will secede and that there will be a significant break up around 2026. I think this coincides with Neptune in Aries (which heralded the Civil War).

    Perhaps that would be for the best. The Confederacy never ceased to exist, IMO.

    Maybe 2 Americas could be sustainable. I don’t know how trade and travel would work, though. There might be a “brain drain” in southern states with professionals moving to blue states.
    I’m so grateful I live in a blue state.

    • But the Dems are also attacking womens rights and childrens safeguarding massively, just from a fifferent angle.
      This is a Non Partisan global attack on women we are seeing. The trouble is you are getting completely different info from each other in the States so its hard to join the dots, and generally speaking few Americans know much about any other country. i do find it so strange that America is so very behind womens rights compared to the UK, but still thinks of itself as
      progressive.

      • *different…I wish there was an edit buton.

      • But the Dems are also attacking womens rights and childrens safeguarding massively, just from a fifferent angle.

        How are Democrats attacking women and children’s safeguarding?
        You sound like you agree with the patriarchy when it comes to defining what a woman is and her role in society and you believe the lies that Republicans made up out of whole clothes about teachers talking to school children about sex or gender or the other boogyman CRT which is only taught at the college level and is usually an elective for law students.

        I have asked posters on many other blogs to give me an example of a teacher talking to students about sex or gender but the only responses I have received are they can’t post links, blah, blah, blah

26. I do not believe that abortion should be banned. However, leaving aside attacks, rape and violence. I do wonder how abortion is still needed so much, after we have birth control. I thought it was to stop back street abortions and give women freedom.

    • Many poor women can’t access birth control and healthcare, in general.
      And unfortunately, some men have total control over their partners and won’t allow for women to use any type of birth control. And rape and incest can result in pregnancy, as well.

    • The Republican far right is also targeting the right to contraception – as well as same sex marriage. The Alito argument challenges the basis of Roe because it’s among ‘unenumerated rights’ ie, not included in the US Constitution. So Griswold (1965 right to contraception), Obergefell (2015 right to same sex marriage), etc. are targets for weakening or overturning. Certainly the religious right is against sex education and enabling young women to access contraception without parental approval.

    • The rape exception sounds good in theory but in practice how would a woman prove that she had been raped.
      Then what if the perpetrator has to be convicted before she can have an abortion.
      You have no idea of the depravity of the right-wingers in America.
      The reason that right-wingers got rid of sex education in America was so they could keep Americans ignorant of how human reproduction occurs and substitute wives tales as fact and leave many teenagers trading-half truths about sex as facts.

27. The antis should argue for the pros and the pros should argue for the antis .
    This stops fanatical thinking both ways

    • ??

28. Well snap, crackle and pop! Perfect timing for a seemingly unprecedented leak like this to light a fire under Dems to get serious and busy about the midterms. I suspect this November is going to be the most controversial midterm elections in recent U.S history; if not ever.
    No tv show can hold a candle to this upcoming drama. #TheTrumpeffect.

29. This is terrible news. There has been a trend in some US states for prosecution of women who suffer miscarriages. The implications are mind boggling. Last year for instance a young Indigenous woman from Oklahoma Brittney Poolaw was convicted of manslaugter after suffering a miscarriage. It’s a cruel, barbaric and vindictive nation that treats its women in this way.

30. I wonder how many abortions he paid for. It never came out, but I strongly suspect he did.

    I live here, and, @Robert Jones, I’m also exceptionally disappointed in my native country. But I’m also not surprised. The Republican Party — or the “Rethuglicans” as I consider them — and Trump have enabled the darkest elements in this country darkest depths.

    I am so happy this southerner found a happy refuge in mostly liberal California.

31. Marjorie

    How do you think the upcoming mercury retrograde will effect this announcement

    thanks

32. Thanks Marjorie, when I read the news this morning I was hoping that You would work out the chart. This is devastating for women. And only the beginning since ending same sex marriage was also alluded to. It could be the reason that sways the election for the Dems. If so, there will be a major push by congress to pass something something into federal law to enshrine Roe vs Wade, and a a major push to expand to court. Biden will have his work cut out for him.

    • Every poll that I have seen shows strong female support for retaining abortion access here in the USA. There is a good chance that this will galvanize their support against the Republicans in the elections coming in the fall as well as in 2024. That could the main changeover for the USA. Remember that women as a group outnumber men by a significant amount here. The “fundamentalist” wing in American politics is definitely a minority opinion and more influential than it’s numbers.

33. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: America never fails to disappoint me. The reactionary forces empowered by
    Donald Trump seems to leak its’ way into every aspect of American life. The destruction of the Roe vs Wade Act is
    another example.

    It has become an epic study in failure, despite JB’s efforts to restore some dignity.

    Sixty years after the death of Joesph McCarthy, his spectre is gleefully running amok in the mid-21st Century.

    I’m glad I’m not living there.

    • And Trump?? anti-abortion?? Do me a favour.

      • I don’t think Trump cares about abortion either way but he was happy to court the evangelical Christian vote on the promise of installing Supreme Court justices who were opposed. As long as he won

    • McCarthy died in 1957; long before Roe v Wade. He knew nothing about it. His craziness was centered around COMMUNISM. He seemed to feel that there was a commie under every bed. A kook extraordinaire. I get that you are using him as a boogieman for the political right wing in America but he’s not a great choice. Try Tucker Carlson.

      • Does Tucker Carlson have any politics, convictions or god, other than opportunism?

34. “We the people…”. Funny how SCOTUS appears to have forgotten who it is there for. And, it seems, hastening its irrelevance.
    This from Reuters: “May 2 (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), the second-largest U.S. private employer, told its staff on Monday it will pay up to $4,000 in travel expenses annually for non-life threatening medical treatments including abortions, according to a message seen by Reuters.
    The decision makes the online retailer the latest company after Citigroup Inc (C.N), Yelp Inc (YELP.N) and others to respond to Republican-backed state laws curbing abortion access, helping employees bypass them. It shows how companies are eager to retain and attract talent in locations that remain important to their operations despite legal changes impacting employees’ health.”