Last Saturday, hundreds of pro-life activists demonstrated at the Utah Capitol, waving their yellow "Life" banners and providing rah-rah-rah cheerleading for our nation's top court. Pompoms and megaphones in hand, they drowned out their fellow Utahns: "Go-team-go."
That's what happens when it's time for the super-bowl of minority politics vs. the will of the people, and game-day is here. In the next few weeks, SCOTUS is likely to begin its debate—testing whether its understanding of the Constitution and Bill of Rights will prevail over America's majority.
Ignoring the real numbers, ProLife Utah activists seem to have forgotten that, even in our highly conservative state, there's a strong majority in favor of protecting the rights of women—and that means the right to make personal decisions about their bodies. The latest poll numbers suggest that around 80% of our state's population opposes any changes in the Roe v. Wade status quo. But, following Missouri's lead of damaging setbacks for women's rights, the emboldened Utah minority has gone into attack mode. The reality: They will attempt to stomp to death anyone who doesn't buy their position.
Encouraged by the recent failure of our Supreme Court to impartially hold the scales of justice in its hands, these people have made it a sacred duty to impose their minority voice on the rest of their fellow Americans. Their aim is to eliminate all elective abortions in Utah, and they are anticipating that a highly partisan SCOTUS will likely rule against women. Sadly, the moral imbalance of our Supreme Court is part of the lingering damage done by our last president, and we can only hold our breath, awaiting its upcoming review of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
Even the protest's organizers were aware of the conflict between special interests and majority rule. Mary Taylor, president of ProLife Utah rallied the "troops," giving supporters hope that clumps of cells can enjoy the same right to life as fully developed human beings. As reported by various media, she uttered the telling words, "...we need all hands on deck more than ever now if we want to ensure an abortion-free state," noting that there are very few state legislators willing to actively participate in pro-life legislation. Why not? Because they fear losing the support of their constituents.
As ridiculous as it seems to most of us, there's a handful of religious zealots who are intent on writing their own bible and forcing the rest of our population to adopt their extreme views. No matter your personal position, that is not the American way. The founding fathers never envisioned the dominance of a Christian-Right caliphate holding the rest of America hostage.
Sadly, we should be very concerned. SCOTUS is not the legitimate, last-resort arbiter it was intended to be. Imbalanced by the presence of justices who may be religious fanatics, states' rights enthusiasts and, yes, even alleged rapists, it now faces perhaps the most important decision of our time—whether to take away the right of women to make decisions over their own bodies, or allow a sensible and moral god-given application of the principle of choice.
On the 49th anniversary of Roe, the goal of the pro-lifers is to make sure the law never reaches the age of 50. And Utah—among a handful of states with so-called "trigger laws" that would automatically be enacted should the law be dismantled by SCOTUS—is already poised to end all elective terminations of pregnancies, with only a few exceptions.
Whatever happened to the concept of majority rule? As America begins to emerge from the horror of the COVID pandemic and the stink of Trump's reign, I find myself constantly cringing over the mess of our political system—the extortionary politics of the dog being wagged by its tail.
There are other analogies that fit, like the allegation that the asylum is being commandeered by its inmates. The important thing to bear in mind is that tails and inmates were never intended to set the policies and make the laws.
Forced to deal with the entire dog, our country is being bogged-down by minority interests using extortion as their tactic. It is no longer necessary to show reverence for the ideal of majority rule—that has been an elusive goal. Today it's worse than ever before. With the exception of America's Civil War, we've entered the shakiest part of our history—wherein the squeaky-wheel minority is dead-set on creating and changing those things we see as our collective inalienable rights.
Whatever our positions on the question of elective abortions, we must remember the fundamental principles on which our country was founded. Keeping in mind the matter of "inalienable rights," we must continue to respect and preserve the rights of women. In short, that means allowing women those decisions relating to their own bodies, and nobody—especially a feeble and misguided minority—should be allowed to change that.
We cannot allow a crippled, compromised SCOTUS or a handful of wackos—so well-represented in conservative state legislatures—to define the freedoms of Americans.
The author is a retired businessman, novelist, columnist, and former Vietnam-era Army assistant public information officer. He resides in Riverton with his wife, Carol, and the beloved ashes of their mongrel dog.
