“AMY CONEY BARRETT IS GONNA BECOME A JUSTICE??? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???”
That was text I sent one of my best friends, a former political science major and a member of the opposite political party as me, at 9:17 p.m. on Oct. 27, 2020. All I wanted to do was look up a Taylor Swift performance, yet I saw the CNN link across the top of page: LIVE: Watch Amy Coney Barrett’s Confirmation.
“She is? Wow, that was really quick.” My friend sent back.
Her confirmation took 2020 back to 1920.
But women’s rights isn’t the only thing on the line with Barrett’s confirmation: LGBT+ and voting rights, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and more.
My friend called me in distress, nearly having a panic attack over the fact that Barrett could help the Republicans appeal the ACA. “What am I supposed to do if they appeal the ACA? I’ll have to go off my parent’s insurance and I don’t know how I’m going to afford that. [My job] doesn’t offer health insurance to part time workers, and I can’t go full time with school.”
As we continued to talk about the potential harms our country might face at the hands of the Supreme Court’s conservative side, she recounted a story of her personal battle with PCOS, a hormone disorder that can cause ovarian cysts. Eighth grade was the first time she learned she had PCOS after a ovarian cyst burst left her thinking she was dying on the bathroom toilet. She had no idea what was going on, no idea a golf ball sized cyst had burst. Like so many women with this disorder, she uses birth control to control it. Birth control she has access to because of things like Roe v. Wade and the ACA.
Barrett’s confirmation threatens so much than that, but her confirmation threatens the very foundation of women’s rights: her health. Birth control is used for so much more than just birth control, yet with Barrett on the Supreme Court, this treatment option could very much be stripped away from women. Something that would be detrimental to my friend and her battle with PCOS, as well as, so many other women battling female reproductive disorders.
But it’s not just about packing the court or the potential rights Americans might lose, but the fact that so shortly after Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, her legacy is being destroyed by another woman. Women are supposed to support women, yet Amy Coney Barrett threatens all the rights we have because of Ruth.
Ginsburg spent her whole career fighting for the equality of both sexes, and now the new complete nine on the Court threaten to destroy her legacy and the rights of so many just by Barrett’s confirmation. With a 6-3 conservative swing on the court, it threatens the rights of many.
Not to mention her personal life, and her possible association with a handmaid’s group. The number of times she’s spoken in front of crowds, funded by anti-abortion groups who look to take away women’s rights and actively want Roe v. Wade overturned. Or that fact that everything Barrett has had the chance to vote for abortion rights, she has always voted against it. That fact that she thinks religion should effect law.
Her confirmation threatens to take away so much from this country. She sets the way to threaten our bodies, who we love, our way of life, and our access to healthcare.
She’s a dangerous piece in the game, and one that should have never happened eight days before an election that 60 million people have already voted in.
It’s a slap in the face to so many Americans. A decision we don’t get a say in, a decision that affects us on the legal standards and will set precedence that will affect us for years.
It’s sad to think that America will go backwards in terms of rights. But what’s more sad it is that our government has proven they do not care about the citizens desires and needs. Everything’s about politics, but what about the people it affects?
Barrett should be a champion for women, for the future of this country, yet she’s represents a dire reality that America is moving backwards.
With so many Americans like myself wishing to wait to see how the nation voted, and with my personal wish for Ginsburg’s replacement to be another nonpartisan judge, I am disappointed in the choice of the new Justice of the Supreme Court. Why would the Republican party think the nation wants a Justice like Barrett to interpret our laws?
I personally believe that politics needs to leave the Supreme Court, but more importantly, my only wish for the future will be to see the court balance itself again and for future confirmation be of those worthy of such a role, not of a sex offender (Kavanagh) and an anti-feminist (Barrett).