The Newest Threat to Basic Human Rights: Amy Coney Barrett

Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett (ACB) to the Supreme Court is driven purely by his thirst to gain and maintain power over the United States. 

The second Barrett is allowed to occupy Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s (RBG) chair, not only will the Supreme Court be majority conservative for years to come, but we as Americans will literally be forced to watch our basic human rights get stripped away. Allowing the government to intervene with abortion and healthcare issues, completely revokes a women’s choice over her own body, and that is the looming nightmare we are about to watch unfold. 

With Barrett’s nomination into the Supreme Court, women will no longer legally have the ability to choose abortion. There are so many situational circumstances attached to abortions that illegalizing the procedure would be devastating and could be life-threatening to individuals. Anti-abortion arguments focus on the idea that an embryo in a women’s stomach is a living being. This statement is not supported by any factual evidence and is purely based on religion. 

When Planned Parenthood is no longer being funded by the government, women will automatically lose access to not only abortion resources, but multiple essential services as well. Besides abortion, Planned Parenthood offers affordable STD testing and treatment, birth control, well-women exams, rape counseling, cancer screenings and prevention, hormone therapy, infertility services and general health care. These services can be extremely costly elsewhere, and revoking the affordable resources offered by Planned Parenthood endangers women’s health and their ability to afford treatment. 

The state and the church are supposed to be separate, but the idea of ‘separate’ was never defined; this has led to many religious beliefs influencing our laws and government. The argument against same-sex marriage is completely based on religion as well. If Barrett had been in RBG’s seat in 2015, same-sex marriage would still be illegal, and that is absolutely terrifying. 

Being a gay woman in 2020, I now fear for my future ability to love, marry and have children with the person I fall for. Amy Coney Barrett will have the power to turn back time; women’s rights will be revoked and the steady march of social change towards a just and equal society will be reversed. The achievements of so many previous activists will be diminished, and discrimination against women, the LGBTQ+ community, POC’s (people of color), minority religions and the poor will be left to flourish. 

Gender inequality is already a prominent issue in our society, seeing as our government has consisted of only men for centuries. Women are paid less than men for doing the same exact job, and women are also forced to bear the burden of children while progressing in their own careers. The motherhood penalty has been coined by sociologists to describe the extreme disadvantages mothers face compared to childless women in the same careers. According to an article from the American Journal of Sociology, mothers face drawbacks in the work field to include lower pay, lower perceived competence and missing out on benefits provided to those without children, while fathers are often paid more for the same job, have higher perceived competence and are offered more opportunities. 

Women are discriminated against for having children, not having children, being an at-home mother, being a working mother, being too revealing, being too modest, being overweight, being skinny, being too loud, being too quiet, choosing to go to college, choosing not to go to college, pursuing a career in a male-dominated profession, pursuing a career in a female-dominated profession and so much more. Women are discriminated against for nearly every choice they make. However, these are still choices. When Barret revokes women’s right to choose abortion, this is merely the inception of rights that she will have the ability to revoke. 

In 2015, we joked about Donald Trump becoming president. Nobody truly believed that the problematic businessman would become our leader. Here we are five years later, and we are still refusing to take the threat he poses to our democracy seriously. Barrett is a well-spoken conservative woman, and President Trump knew exactly what he was doing when he nominated her to the Supreme Court. 

By nominating an articulate female who represents the morals and values Trump himself holds, he guaranteed his own personal puppet a spot in the most important court in our government for decades to come. Barrett will be used to fulfill Trump’s agenda and considering the extreme power she will hold, there will be immense repercussions and consequences resulting from this.

We will be forced to watch our Supreme Court take multiple steps backwards as justices revoke rights and reintroduce more bias into our Constitution until the day comes when we realize that we are no longer living in a democracy. 

We must take a stand for equality. The American people have the power, but only when they recognize it. We must make America unprejudiced, and that begins with removing biased and corrupt politicians who are only self-interested for a profit.