Roe is foe

First of all, what do I, some grumpy old woman from a Northern social democratic country, know and understand about the US? Not much, it seems, as my thinking is largely formed through their cultural products and conversations with US peeps*, which means that outside the mass shooting news, I am mostly exposed to the liberal and progressive side, which has clearly biased my thinking about what the US is. The first blow was Trump being elected, and yesterday (24.6. 2022) the country showed how backwards and governmentally dysfunctional it really is. Although the winds of regression have been stinking up the air for a while now, the actual fact of Roe vs Wade being overturned is now here and ready for the states to ban abortion if they so choose.

Secondly, why should I write about it to the void that is the Internet? For the same reason as this “blog” exists, to clarify my own thinking. This entry will not reveal anything new to anyone who has been following the news, opinion pieces and Twitter but is merely a reflection of where my head is at today. Here we go.

• We tend to forget how profoundly puritan the US is because cultural products and media push narratives of the US as some progressive haven of equality. We might be puzzled by their fear of nudity when Instagram removes nipple photos or by their unabashedly religious outbursts when they win an award, but we mostly dismiss it as a quirk or developed sense of drama. However, all this really stems from their puritan heritage, which seems to be the lens through which the sacred book of the constitution is read today: freedom of religion but an extremely Christian legislation, equal rights but only among (some) men as for example the Equal Rights Amendment was never fully ratified.
• We forget less often how unabashedly patriotic US peeps are because this is continuously shoved down our throats. The narratives from the times of the birth of the nation are more alive than in any other country I know, which is partly understandable because the melting pot agenda needs to work, but at the same time the country looks rather divided. One of the most important narratives is the constitution ratified in 1788. The constitution is a bit like the Bible or the Yoga Sutras: a piece of writing that was given an important status but is also a dense product of its time, which makes it harder for us to seek guidance from it and thus gives space to interpretations. And the people who master these interpretations gain power in the society that holds these writings valuable or even sacred. While the core constitution has not changed, it has been amended through the years, and the most fragile parts are the interpretations, that is, the supreme court case law. This makes it possible to have a group of 9 people to decide that one day abortion is a protected right, and on another day it is not. All this from the safety of their meeting room, without a military coup.
• We should not forget what a cultural power the US is, which is the most concerning part of Roe vs Wade for me. As someone, who feels most strongly about women’s rights, I feel compassion for the US peeps who are affected by this and it is a growing group. In a country like the US, where support systems do not exist, unplanned pregnancies can have devastating effects on an individual’s life. In the states where abortion is completely criminalised, the menstruating body will be monitored, and deviations might result in incarcerations. And it won’t stop at the oppression of those who can become pregnant but as one of the justices already stated, they are targeting other existing minority rights such as birth control and same sex relationships. But the cultural part still hits closer to home. Globally speaking it is very different to ban abortion in Poland than in the US. Our (Finnish) christian conservatives were cheering over the victory of life over murder and our far right ambassadors were happy to see dictators actively limiting citizen rights. There is some hope in the EU, but who knows how long.
• Another thing that makes this wave of conservatism more troubling than the one we experienced roughly a hundred years ago is that technology amplifies human behaviours. A hundred years ago we did not have the capabilities to unite ideologies across geographical divides this effectively, nor did we have large-scale surveillance economy. It almost makes me think that as humanity, nothing really changes, it is just the environment that makes it feel like we change. The Putin-mastered post-Trump era highlights this very well: same shit, different channel.
• As a last note of pessimism (I hope this is temporary), I want to hope that US peeps stand against this, for all our sakes. The supreme court is a political body and should not hold power over legislation like this. It makes a mockery of representational democracy and the Montesquieu principle of separation of powers.

Notes

*We should not call them Americans as America is more than the US.

Some good writing about the topic:

• A disturbing opinion piece from the New Yorker about criminalisation of pregnancy
• The Atlantic about Roe vs Wade being a start, but also shows the fragility of the case law system
• Politico’s view about a radical decision for our radical times
• Guardian on war against women — also touching on surveillance economy