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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Champion Of Gender Equality, Dies At 87
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the demure firebrand who in her 80s became a legal, cultural and feminist icon, died Friday. The Supreme Court announced her death, saying the cause was complications from metastatic cancer of the pancreas.
The court, in a statement, said Ginsburg died at her home in Washington surrounded by family. She was 87.
"Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature," Chief Justice John Roberts said. "We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her, a tired and resolute champion of justice."
Architect of the legal fight for women's rights in the 1970s, Ginsburg subsequently served 27 years on the nation's highest court, becoming its most prominent member. Her death will inevitably set in motion what promises to be a nasty and tumultuous political battle over who will succeed her, and it thrusts the Supreme Court vacancy into the spotlight of the presidential campaign.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Magic Oddball on Saturday September 19 2020, @04:06AM (5 children)
If I was like the 90% of fetuses that are aborted within the first trimester (or the other 3.5% in the next couple of weeks after it), I wouldn't have developed enough of a brain to even be self-aware, let alone have an opinion on the matter. If I was like the approx 2% that are aborted late in term, I'd prefer it over the prospect of spending hours slowly dying of catastrophic defects outside the womb.
To turn things around:
1) If you were raped by a close (first-degree) relative, and knew the result was going to derail your career/education long-term (making it extremely difficult at best to earn enough to care for your existing actual children), would you want to have the option of taking a pill to terminate before the fetus can develop sentience beyond that of an invertebrate, or would you want to be forced to carry it to term?
2) If you were pregnant and discovered mid-term that the fetus had untreatable terminal defects, would you want to be be forced to carry it to term (being reminded every waking minute that your would-be baby is slowly dying inside you) and watch it suffer outside the womb for hours or days before it passed?
3) If you discovered 3 months into pregnancy that you'd developed a medical situation where remaining pregnant would guarantee your death before the fetus is beyond "extremely premature" (low-moderate chance of survival), would you prefer to have the option of ending the pregnancy, or be forced to die along with the likely-doomed fetus?
Remember, you have to answer the actual questions, not a weaselly "but what if" scenario.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19 2020, @05:32AM (1 child)
A friend's wife had something similar to situation #2 happen to her. She's Catholic and while pregnant with her third child discovered her body was not supporting the baby well at all. If the child were to survive the full term and birth, it would basically have been a vegetable for life.
Even the best case scenario would have been an existence so terrible that instead of attempting to complete the pregnancy, she chose to have a an abortion and hysterectomy. I do not know how far along she was when they discovered the situation, but I cannot imagine what grief and heartache is must have been to go against all her beliefs and decide that was more desirable than bringing such a child into the world.
These are the kinds of things that the Supreme Court decides. Anything is possible, and while the court often clarifies rulings instead of overturning them, nothing stops them from saying "it was the wrong decision and here's how things are going to work now." I think this appointment is going to turn into a real shitshow, real fast. Trump already has two appointees on the court and I'm betting they're going to ram this next one through as fast as possible, consequences be damned. The Republicans showed their colors when they circled the wagons around the president for the impeachment. They have no shame.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ChrisMaple on Monday September 21 2020, @03:12AM
The impeachment was a sham. Anyone claiming the charges against Trump were valid and worthy of impeachment is dishonest or deluded.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday September 19 2020, @02:16PM (1 child)
Well, first, you NEVER let males (other than your practicing physician) decide the matter. You have to exclude them entirely before a rational discussion can be had.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2, Troll) by Reziac on Sunday September 20 2020, @02:30AM
Women love to see other women suffer... so that'll work well....
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 19 2020, @11:00PM
We need to allow post natal abortions, right up to the 72nd trimester (I think the math on that is right) or out of the house, fully emancipated