Gilead beckons ...

Illustration by Juvana Mugosa

The Handmaid's Tale for real looms, thanks to the worst SC in history, a catastrophe similar, in indirect fashion to GW, as we did it to ourselves. As Margaret Atwood so eloquently states, What kind of country do you want to live in? says it all in terms of what it will mean for 50% of the population in America.

This summer, Roe v. Wade will fall. It should be dangerous to write such an emphatic prediction about a decision the Supreme Court won’t issue for at least a month, if not longer; at this point, we should still be allowed the solace, however slight, of entertaining more than one plausible future. But on an otherwise quiet evening in early May, in an unprecedented move, Politico published a leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Mississippi case that has been poised to determine Roe’s fate. Written by Samuel Alito, the sweeping opinion announced in no uncertain terms that the much-feared end of Roe was upon us. Roe’s “weak” reasoning had inflicted “damaging consequences,” Alito wrote with discernible glee; in point of fact, it “was egregiously wrong from the start.” To be sure, draft opinions frequently get revised. But unless Chief Justice John Roberts can soon persuade a colleague to change his or her mind, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority will, in late June or early July, upend a constitutional protection we’ve relied on for nearly 50 years, and unleash a torrent of laws in red states that will further circumscribe or even deny the right to end a pregnancy.

Read Emily Cooke's powerful piece in its entirety to see why this decision will adversely impact America in ways most devastating to the welfare of the country as we move further into the 21st century.