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In the US, we are seeing the continuing power grab by extreme Christian Republicans in the recent IVF ruling by the Supreme Court of Alabama. This forms part of an anti-science trend happening within conservative movements, which first came to prominence during the Covid pandemic in America. People clinging to their beliefs in a Bronze Age God rather than following 21C scientific public health protocols. The GOP mined this protest against such things as vaccinations and mask wearing as grist for their politics of grievance. The US Supreme Courts discounting of Roe vs Wade has opened the door for more extreme demands by state based Republicans on the issue of women’s rights vs that of unborn foetuses.
“The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos created and stored for in vitro fertilization (IVF) are children under a state law allowing parents to sue for wrongful death of their minor children.
The court, whose members are all elected Republicans or appointed by a Republican governor, further found that there was no “unwritten exception” for frozen embryos outside of a woman’s uterus.
Chief Justice Tom Parker drew widespread attention for his overtly religious concurring opinion, in which he wrote that the state constitution includes the “theologically based view” that “human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.” “
Alabama Supreme Court Anti-Science Ruling Over IVF
Alabama was a slaver state and has a rich white supremacist history where African Americans have been disenfranchised from their voting rights for large periods of the 20C. The Republican Party there has been at the forefront of such misuses of power and gerrymandering to deliver control of the state to white GOP aligned folk. This overt concern with controlling women’s reproductive functions of American citizens in the 21C is yet another manifestation of authoritarianism. The warped rendition of Christianity which occurs in parts of America bears little to no relation to the life of Jesus Christ and the gospels. Christian Nationalism is about secular power and it has becoming increasingly authoritarian in recent years. Supreme Court justices talking about “the wrath of a holy God” does not augur well for a 21C progressive society. Rather, it is backward and a denial of the scientific reality of life in America in this day and age. A small coterie of wealthy and powerful people have stopped listening to the will of the people and seek to control their lives according to their own cultish interpretations of scriptures written thousands of years ago. I always find it interesting that right wing movements champion individual rights, unless you are a woman, and then the male dominated state owns your reproductive rights. Suddenly, government is OK in this instance and control is justified. Women are second class citizens in conservative America. Women run last under the auspices of these Christian Churches and cults.
Trump & The Religious Right
On the larger front, the Trump run for the Presidency is full of this anti-science trend happening within conservative movements. Steve Bannon and his cadres are hovering around Donald Trump threatening their religious extremism upon ordinary Americans. Personal freedoms are in the cross hairs of these God awful people. The Trump push is a coalition of corruption and Christian Nationalists. Greedy business leaders want to get their hands on more money by hook or by crook. Meanwhile, authoritarian religious movements want to see some real power back in the hands of those who profess concern for the soul of America. They want the state to own the reproductive rights of all women. IVF is an abomination in the eyes of many of these extremists. They want sexual freedoms rolled back by denying contraception access to Americans. They want a return to when religious leaders were in the bedrooms of America and controlling what went on there.
American Anti-Science Push Happening At GOP State Level
Can these autocratic Americans turn the clock back to a time when science kow towed to God? These authoritarians hate progressives so much that they want to see them locked up for being gay or LGBTQIA. They want marriage equality binned and only reserved for God fearing heterosexual Christians. Their white supremacist views truly believe in a blue eyed Jesus and an exclusive Christianity for their kind over others. Many of the Trump states are former slaver states and their warped version of Christianity maintained a love of God whilst enslaving other human beings. Science and rationality has long been the enemy of such folk. Which America will prevail to go into the future, a democratic progressive nation or a sick backward looking place full of inequality and division? Only time will tell.
“The ruling of Roe v. Wade meant that the right to abortion access in the first trimester was protected by the Constitution and could not be restricted by state or federal laws.”
The US Supreme Court overturned this 50 year precedent in 2022 in Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Stacking SCOTUS with conservative/Christian justices had been a 30 year campaign by GOP aligned forces.
Robert Sudha Hamilton
©MidasWord
