In case you’ve been living under an actual rock, you likely know about the Supreme Court draft opinion released last month that foreshadowed the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Last month, that draft became an official ruling.
In a 6–3 decision, the heavily Trump packed court overturned the constitutional right to abortion that has been our nation’s norm since 1973.
Effectively stripping uterus having people of the ownership of their bodies.
And this is far from the mess that is happening in our country right now.
Dystopia refers to an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives.
Here are three signs that prove the US is well on its way to becoming a dystopian society.
1. The Roe v. Wade Overruling
It only makes sense to start with the most obvious here.
Due to the Supreme Court’s new ruling, individual states are now able to establish their own abortion laws without fear of running afoul of Roe, which guaranteed abortion access during the first and second trimesters.
And that’s terrifying.
Because apart from the overarching complete disregard of women’s bodily rights, states have already begun to implement downright archaic abortion laws.
Texas and Oklahoma are two of the biggest perpetrators. Not only do they want to ban abortions after 6 weeks (often times women may not even know they’re pregnant by then), but they’re also taking a “see something, say something” approach, wherein civilians are being encouraged to report abortions to the authorities with the promise of a $10,000 check for every successful lawsuit.
Actual abortion bounty hunters.
The CDC reports that Black women experience maternal mortality two to three times more than that of white women. There are half a million children in foster care right now. Women suffering from addictions will be forced to carry children, sometimes leading to stillbirths and therefore prison time.
All signs that not all births are created equal and not all life circumstances are ideal for babies or mothers.
And yet, none of that matters more than a non-autonomous fetus.
2. The LGBTQI+ Agenda
For a party that believes so strongly in free speech, it’s wild how adamant the push for the ban of a single word is.
Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill is the big standout when it comes to the stripping of LGBTQ rights at that moment, its main focus being criminalizing in-school discussions of sexual and gender identity up until third grade, and then making sure everything after that is “age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards”.
And how are these state standards decided, you may ask? Willy nilly by elected officials, of course.
This bill is not the only concerning legislation on our country’s dockets though.
The heaviest target of these terrifying initiatives are transgender individuals. Especially transgender youths, a group that already suffers with heavy depression and suicidal thoughts at an insanely disproportionate rate compared to cisgender people.
The ACLU has a running list of all the active legislation facing the LGBTQ community right now, and more than half of them are exclusively Anti-Trans. A few of them being restrictions on:
- Healthcare
- Accurate I.D.’s
- Participation in school and sports
The sort of things that should be basic rights to all individuals, if only because they have nothing to do with anyone but the person to whom they pertain.
And as this dogfight grows uglier, it’s impossible not to think of what may be next. Overturning same sex marriage? Re-criminalizing gay sex? A country no different from those where to be a homosexual is to be a pariah is to be a criminal is to be a victim of execution?
Dangerous, terrifying pitfalls.
3. Public Funding of Religious Schools
The separation of church and state is the foundation of our country, as proven by the Establishment Clause in the Bill of Rights.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
The actual meaning of the clause was never laid out explicitly by the Founding Fathers, hence the reason that our courts can decide at the drop of a dime what constitutes as an “establishment of religion”.
But we do have a general precedent, not that those seem to mean much anymore. That precedent being that taxpaying government dollars don’t go to supporting religious institutions, and instead those institutions are to rely on private funding.
But that was before.
As of June 21, the Supreme Court struck down yet another ruling. This one in Maine. A ban on using public funds at religious schools.
Under Maine law, students in small districts that don’t have high schools may get taxpayer money to help pay tuition at private schools, as long as they’re nonsectarian.
Because of this restriction, the state refused to pay for the plaintiff of the case to attend Bangor Christian School, where her parents wished to enroll her.
What did the Supreme Court have to say about it?
That Maine’s ban violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of free exercise of religion.
Chief John Roberts when writing for the 6–3 majority said ”The state pays tuition for certain students at private schools, so long as the schools are not religious. That is discrimination against religion.”
And just like that, the slippery slope begins.
The Court never specified what the college could or couldn’t do with the money. Tuition money can be used for whatever a school want it to be used for.
Therefore, very realistically, a chain of events like the below could occur:
- I move to Maine and pay my taxes
- My tax money is converted to scholarship money for a student to attend a staunchly religious university
- The university sends a yearly donation to anti-LGBTQ+ institutions, such as conversion therapy programs
Now I, an out and proud lesbian, have inadvertently funded a program that I despise on principle.
With this ruling comes a new precedent that extends into scopes we can’t even attempt to predict. Where our money can swiftly become the vessel for any propaganda that government officials deem fit, whether we agree with it or not.
A world where, as George Orwell wrote in 1984, “Nothing is your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull.”
In 2020, after the election, I made the choice to take a break from politics. To not check Twitter first thing in the morning, or immediately start up a debate as soon as I was in an environment where opposing views felt toxic. For four years I had stayed glued to the comings and goings of our elected officials, informing myself into an anxious mess. I’d had enough.
I’ve decided that now it’s time to dive back in.
Blissful ignorance is no longer an option.
Politicians come and go. Morals and ethics are forever.
This article holds my own opinions on the reported content. To read more of my musings on the world today, follow me on Newsbreak.
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