Back in 2016, we said this would happen. You laughed at us. Don’t tell me you didn’t; I remember it clearly. I was twelve years old and started to feel the anger that has continued to simmer within me for the past six years.
This month, you celebrated this ruling, or you feigned surprise in spite of a month’s warning. I am not sure which is worse. The anger in the back of my mind roared to the front, and I am not the only one.
This ruling is about the millions of people left without healthcare in environments in which they desperately need it. It is about the continued attacks on bodily autonomy. It is about the establishment of a very dangerous precedent.
This ruling is not just about Roe. The tide started with the dramatic increase in anti-trans legislation over the past few years, beginning with North Carolina’s 2016 bathroom bill and culminating in a record-breaking 155 anti-trans bills introduced across the nation so far this year. This ruling is about Griswold, Lawrence, Obergefe and every other case concerning the right to privacy.
70% of Americans supported Roe at the time of this ruling. Here is what will happen as a result of the court’s decision:
Those who cannot leave the United States will die. Or spend their lives in poverty. Or bear their rapist’s baby. Or pause their career and educational pursuits indefinitely. Or become homeless. Or raise their children in abusive homes. Or be forced to halt their transitions. Or be convicted for miscarriages. Or pass on trauma to children they were not ready for.
Those who can leave will leave. This ruling is just one event over a long six years that has pushed me to the realization that I will not spend my adult life in the United States. I am not alone in this sentiment. We cannot live in a country that continuously threatens and strips our rights.
I want to re-establish my safety so I do not have to leave when I finish college. I don’t want to leave the country I was born and raised in, so I will join the rest of those on the right side of history and fight. We will fight for our rights. We will fight against the tide that seeks to strip us of our basic human dignity.
We will march and protest and rally and lobby. We will be angry and scared and determined and loud.
And the one thing we will not be, Justices Alito, Thomas, Barrett, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch, is complacent.
