Hands down, there can be no doubt that abortion is the most contentious issue of our time, which makes me wonder whether the infamous leaked draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court has awakened Americans to the right of women to control their bodies.

The draft document recommends that Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 court ruling that legalized abortion, be overturned.

The question is worth asking. Does this draft energize Americans? Does it make them force Congress to enact a law that codifies abortion, giving the procedure federal protection? Does it prod Americans to act in a way that countless lives lost to gun violence couldn’t?

I admit to having a sliver of doubt. My hope, though, is that Americans — namely women across the land — will stand and fight for their right to determine whether to carry a pregnancy to birth.

They are rallying all over the nation. In Dallas tonight, thousands of Texas residents are marching downtown to protest the draft opinion. The draft document is not law. We won’t know how the court rules until the summer, when the court term ends.

The draft opinion, written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, gives us a clear and present hint on how the court is tilting.

I want to add as well that every public opinion poll I’ve seen tells us that a solid majority of Americans believe that women deserve the right to make these gut-wrenching decisions for themselves, that they oppose (mostly male) legislators making them.

Let the alarm bells keep ringing.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Now that the world has gotten a probable first look at what the U.S. Supreme Court will do to a landmark ruling on abortion, I want to declare that I am far more concerned about what the draft opinion states than I am about who might have leaked it to Politico.

The 98-page draft opinion written by conservative Associate Justice Samuel Alito declares that Roe v. Wade is “egregiously wrong” and should be overturned. The draft opinion, which is far from the final ruling, has sent shock waves through the nation. States such as Texas are likely to enact what they call “trigger laws” making abortion illegal if the high court follows through on the draft opinion later this year.

Texas would make abortion a felony and would punish a woman who received an abortion with time in prison, along with the doctor who provided the service. That is disgraceful on its face.

Here is a thought for us to ponder. If the state is going to send women and doctors to prison for terminating a pregnancy caused by a rapist or a lecherous uncle who committed an incestuous act, then we need to seriously stiffen the penalties for the men who commit those acts. The Texas abortion ban wouldn’t take rape or incest into account.

How does life without parole sound?

As for the leak that came from the court, I agree it is unprecedented. For my money, it doesn’t seem all that difficult to determine who did the deed. My hunch is that it came from a clerk who works for one of the three liberal justices on the court. If we’re going to sic the FBI on them, then grill the clerks and their assistants first to get to the bottom of it. There ain’t that many of them on the court staff, so it shouldn’t take too long.

However, as I stated already, the contents of the draft document are alarming in the extreme. I am not looking forward to what the SCOTUS has to say on this matter when they ring the bell for the end of the current court term.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Someone at the U.S. Supreme Court building reportedly has spilled the beans on what the justices are going to do when their term ends this summer.

It is, if you believe reports of a leaked draft opinion, that they will overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling handed down in 1973 that legalized abortion in the United States.

Are you surprised at what appears to be setting up? Well … neither am I, not with the court’s 6-3 super conservative majority.

They haven’t yet ruled officially on a Mississippi case that came before justices earlier this year. The message is clear, though, in what has been leaked from the SCOTUS building: Roe was flawed from the beginning, according to a draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, one of the conservatives.

This is a bad development for American women. They appear to be set to lose the option of terminating a pregnancy. So, just who will pay the biggest price? Poor women, not the wealthy women are going to suffer if the court ends the practice of obtaining an abortion legally.

Let me be crystal clear once again. Any effort to mandate an end to abortion will fail. Women will continue to obtain them, no matter what, which is what they have been doing since human beings first set foot on the good Earth.

A dark day looms.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

My gut is rumbling, my trick knee is throbbing and I don’t like the feel of any of it as I ponder what might occur down the road with the U.S. Supreme Court’s pending decision on whether to restrict abortion.

Justices have heard from both sides in a Mississippi case involving a law that bans abortion after 15 weeks or pregnancy. It’s not as strict as Texas’s ban after six weeks, but is way more restrictive than the Roe vs. Wade decision that is at the heart of all this talk.

Roe is the case involving a Texas woman who filed suit in 1973 over abortion. The SCOTUS then issued its landmark ruling that legalized abortion, saying it is protected under the U.S. Constitution’s right of privacy provision.

Roe is being challenged directly and the chatter today suggests that the high court, with its 6 to 3 conservative majority is poised to limit abortion — if not make it illegal.

Oh, brother. No matter what the court decides, I am going to proclaim that it won’t end abortion. Women will continue to get them by any means necessary, which makes a potential ban on the practice so dangerous.

I consider myself to be pro-life, which I don’t believe supersedes my equally held belief that government should not dictate how a woman can manage her body. Could I counsel a woman to get an abortion? Absolutely, categorically and unquestionably no! However, nor do I believe that anyone in government has any right to tell a woman she must carry a baby to full term.

The Texas law makes no exception for a woman impregnated by a rapist or during an incestuous encounter. If there is anything more cruel and inhumane than that, I have trouble determining what that would be.

Well, the SCOTUS justices now are going to keep their own counsel on this matter. I want them to uphold Roe vs. Wade. I do not expect them to do so. If they allow Roe to be dismantled, then my fellow Americans, we’d all better prepare ourselves for many stories of utter misery, pain and heartache as women end their pregnancies through means that can do them irreparable harm.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is easy for me to cheer a ruling by a U.S. district judge in Texas that bans the state’s abortion ban.

I will cheer the ruling by Judge Robert Pittman. I fear the ruling won’t hold up.

Pittman said the state law that bans abortion after a woman has been pregnant for six weeks cannot be upheld. I agree with him. Then again, I am not a lawyer, let alone a judicial scholar.

The state law is cruel in that most women don’t even know they are pregnant until after six weeks. That didn’t stop the Legislature from enacting and Gov. Greg Abbott from signing it into law.

Pittman was selected for the federal bench by President Obama, which I suppose gives you a clue as to his political leaning … not that it should matter when it regards court rulings. Right?

The state is going to appeal Judge Pittman’s ruling. It will work its way through the appellate court system. It might even find its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, with its 6 to 3 conservative majority.

At least for the time being, though, the judicial system has come to the aid of women desperate to maintain control of matters that only they should be allowed to decide.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com