Letters to the editor

Letter to the Editor: Women’s rights should not be inferior to men’s

To the zillions of words that have already been written and spoken about the recently leaked USSC pending decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and end a woman's right to an abortion, my meager contribution should not cause a ripple. But there is an important perspective omitted by other writers, which should be discussed.

Justice Alito and his pea-brained cohort of (apparently) Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett have decided to trample the legal principle of stare decisis by overturning fifty years of a legal foundation established by jurists far superior to themselves, and, additionally, cause another major rift in the fabric of American culture. Their action is founded upon the proposition that there is no "right to privacy."

The legal basis of Roe was the existence of that right as declared previously in Griswold v. Connecticut. The pea-brained five have decided that if there is no such right, then ipso facto, a woman's right to an abortion could be subordinated to the rights of her fertilized egg and to the benefits of procreation enjoyed by any rapist or incestuous father who may have impregnated her. That reasoning is correct, given their limited ability to ascertain other constitutional issues.

Any rational person can easily see that no logical connection exists between a right to privacy and the act of obtaining an abortion. In addition, but wholly irrelevant, Alito notes that the 'right" is not even explicitly written into the constitution. Upon this meaningless consideration, the five solidified their decision.

However, also not specifically written into the constitution, but which should have been the basis of the original Roe decision and that of this court is a woman's fundamental right to control her body. Although not explicitly written, an overwhelming majority of Americans would agree that all citizens have the fundamental constitutional right to control their own bodies, subject to some limitations.

Would men tolerate a law requiring a rock be tied to their penis to prevent extra-marital sexual activity? I think not. A woman's right to control her body should not be inferior to a man's, or if it is, society should have a frank discussion of what limits she should endure and why.

Although still a patriarchal society, we do not want America's women returned to the status of handmaidens and baby machines.

Patrick Radcliff

Marietta