WASHINGTON WATCH: Despite Alito's Assurance, The Dam Has Burst
Alabama Republican cites anti-abortion decision to justify withholding transgender care
In his final decision overturning Roe v Wade, Justice Samuel Alito said that his legal arguments would not apply to any other rights except for national abortion rights.
“Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion,” he wrote.
Except that the ink on his opinion is barely dry and Alito's fellow right-wingers are already ignoring his warning.
Alabama Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall on Tuesday urged a federal court to drop its block on the state's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth arguing such care is not protected by the Constitution.
Marshall used the U.S Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade to suggest that since the court rejected the idea that abortion cannot be protected under the 14th Amendment because it's not “deeply rooted” in the nation's history, the same could be said about access to gender-affirming care.
Alabama's state law makes it a felony for any person to “engage in or cause” specified types of medical care for trans youth, threatening criminal prosecution to doctors, parents, guardians and any else who attempts to provide that care to a minor.
Anyone who violates this law, which was enacted in April this year and blocked in May, could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000.
Aside from the egregious loss of bodily autonomy for women itself — as a result of the Supreme Court's right-wing stripping away about half a century of national abortion rights — its use as precedent to strip Americans of a wide variety of rights has been a top worry about the the Alito decision.
Now a red state Republican has jumped onto it as a rationale to withhold legal, approved healthcare to a segment of Americans.
If it's taken Alabama's Marshall just days to turn the Alito against trans care, how far behind can overturning our rights to marriage equality, access to contraception and interracial marriage be?
And right-wingers wonder why Americans view them as hypocritical and mendacious.
Editor's Note: Washington Watch is our occasional column on the news and happenings in Washington DC and national politics.
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