Right again (unfortunately)
One of my worst personal qualities, I’m sure most of my family members would agree, is that I like to be right. Not the way most normal people enjoy it; I REALLY like to be right. Even more than the character of Claire Dunphy on Modern Family if you’ve ever watched that show. At a level some might say qualifies as pathological.
Which creates a quandary when I correctly predict something that I didn’t want to happen. You can’t really relish the thrill of being proven right (dare I say, again?) when the ultimate outcome is terrible.
Which is how I’ve been feeling ever since the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, and the extreme right started trying to ban in vitro fertilization as well as abortion.
As a third-year student at Harvard Law School in 1988, I took a seminar called “Adoption, Noncoital Reproduction and the Law” and wrote a paper titled “Regulating In Vitro Fertilization: The Constitutional Issues.” In that paper, I argued that some regulation of IVF was needed, if only to protect vulnerable patients from predatory or unqualified practitioners. But I also worried that since the legal basis for all reproductive rights—the right of privacy—was not specifically articulated in the explicit text of the Constitution, allowing IVF to be regulated could open the door to broader restrictions on abortion.
My professor didn’t share my concern, so that particular point got buried in a footnote. But as it turns out, the two issues have been treated as inextricably linked. I just got the order of events wrong (as much as it pains me to admit). Limits on IVF aren’t being used to restrict abortion; abortion bans are being used to justify restrictions on IVF.
My devout Catholic parents no doubt knew that I supported reproductive rights for women—what is often called “choice,” but what is really the broader right to essential medical care and bodily integrity. But I didn’t like disappointing them, so I generally stayed quiet about my views. The time for silence is now long past.
Election Day is finally almost here. It’s not too late to make sure that abortion, IVF, and other reproductive technologies remain lawful and accessible, as polls show the American people overwhelmingly want. And it’s not too late to take steps to protect all our other cherished, fundamental rights that—make no mistake about it—are currently under attack.
I’m a longtime Democrat and am excited to vote for our first female President. Even more importantly, I believe there are innumerable reasons why Donald Trump should not be President again (his constant lying, blatant disrespect for the rule of law, continuing refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election, open incitement of the attack on the Capitol on January 6th, deliberate demagoguery, and, as Liz Cheney recently said, “depraved cruelty,” to name just a few).
As someone who has “crossed party lines” in past elections, I’m well aware that no candidate or party platform can ever align perfectly with all of your views. Every vote is a form of compromise. In this Presidential election, you have just two potential choices. But only one party, one ticket will ensure that our civil liberties remain intact and that our democracy continues to function for everyone. On November 5th, 2024, please join me in voting for the Democratic candidates Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
Check to make sure you are registered to vote and get other important voting information here: https://www.vote.org/
If you would like to take action to support the Harris/Walz ticket and other Democratic candidates, you can find many opportunities here: https://events.democrats.org
And for important information about the state legislative races that are equally critical, check out: https://dlcc.org/about/