Donald Trump and the religious wrong are poised to overturn reproductive freedom in the United States and in the world if they can. In one of his first actions as president, Trump signed an executive order barring federal funds going to any organization that promotes, provides, or even informs women about the possibility of an abortion anywhere in the world. Before nominating U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, Trump preened "evangelicals, Christians will love my pick."
There is little respect in this administration for Constitutional principles starting with an immigration ban that targeted Muslims. Republicans must decide if they will put the Trump agenda ahead of respect for Constitutional rights and the future of the country.
Gorsuch claims to believe Supreme Court Justices must respect the original intent of the founding fathers. He should read the Constitution. Perhaps he could read it to Donald Trump.
The principles that protect religious freedom and reproductive choices are deeply imbedded in the fundamental law of the United States. The First Amendment opens stating, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." The fourth declares "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated." The ninth amendment makes clear that "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," rights such as the right to privacy and personal choice. This is reinforced by the 10th amendment, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." And because states initially believed they were not bound by these legal principles, the fourteenth amendment made clear " No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States."
This is simply a nomination, as Trump made clear, to appease rightwing religious voters who overwhelmingly supported his election. Trump's claim that the Supreme Court should overturn Roe v. Wade and allow individual states to ban abortion and reproductive freedom is a direct violation of these Constitutional provisions. Nowhere is that power delegated to the national government or reserved to the states. It is a choice that belongs to individual people.
As a judge, Gorsuch has never ruled directly on an abortion rights case, which will make it possible for him to sidestep direct questions in his Senate confirmation hearings, one reason he was nominated by Trump. But he has ruled that businesses are not required to provide health insurance coverage for birth control for their employees if they claim it violates their religious beliefs.
Opposition to reproductive freedom is at the core of the Trump presidency. Last week Vice President Pence became the first president or vice president to speak at the annual anti-choice anti-women rally in Washington DC. Pence declared, "life is winning" and assured the crowd that Trump shared their opposition to abortion and would appoint a Supreme Court Justice committed to overturning abortion rights. Of course pro-life Pence advocates the death penalty. Trump spokesperson Kellyanne Conway also spoke at the rally.
On the Trump team Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions calls Roe. v. Wade "one of the worst, colossally erroneous Supreme Court decisions of all time." As a Congressman, Tom Price, nominated as Secretary of Health and Human Services, championed defunding Planned Parenthood. Trump's pick for Secretary of Labor advocates legally defining the start of human life as conception as a way to outlaw abortion as murder. But Trump supporters do not just oppose abortion. A major part of the Republican opposition to the Affordable Care Act was because of provisions providing birth control.
What they try to hide is that their opposition to reproductive freedom, abortion, birth control, sex education, and human sexuality, is based on their religious beliefs and texts. It is an attempt to impose them on the rest of the country and the world. When human life begins and should be protected by law has never been established scientifically, probably never can be definitively, and is a religious point of view.
These are some of the scientific facts that complicate the situation and expose their efforts to impose their religious beliefs on everyone else.
1. Women are born with between one and two million egg follicles in their ovaries. About eleven thousand of them die every month prior to puberty. At puberty, about 400,000 remain viable. Another thousand egg follicles are lost every menstruation cycle. Of the approximately two million original "potential humans" in each woman's body, only 400 ever mature. The rest are aborted through natural processes. If each of these egg follicles possesses a human soul, human's evolved as a genocide machine.
2. The average human male produces over 500 billion sperm cells during his lifetime and releases between 40 million and 1.2 billion in a single ejaculation. When a sperm cell succeeds in fertilizing an egg cell, as many as a billion other potential human being sperm cells are discarded, aborted through natural processes. If you believe sperm cells possess souls, on the male side the "genocide" is many times worse than for females.
3. Scientists estimate that more than 50% of all fertilized eggs either never implant in the uterus or fail to develop. Most miscarriages occur in the first trimester, a large number in the first weeks of pregnancy, often before a woman even knows she is pregnant. If anything, nature votes in favor of abortion.
Many of the religious believers who oppose abortion also oppose birth control and sex. In the Roman Catholic Church masturbation, when an individual deliberately stimulates their genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure, is considered a grave sin. And since the Church blames women for the first sin in the Garden of Eden, women are forced to suffer the discomfort of menstruation and the pain of childbirth. They are also expected to be subservient to men.
The American people need to tell Donald Trump and the United States Senate:
"Obey the Constitution!"
"Refuse to approve Gorsuch!"
"Keep Your Religion Out Of Our Bedrooms!"
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