Supreme Injustice: All the Advances of Modernity Cannot Help Women If Law of the Land is So Brutal

Future looks dark to me — so dark that it feels like we have just gone back by a hundred years.

The very first thing that came to my mind as I sat down to write about what this country is going through currently is that no matter what I say, I am not swaying anyone on either side. However, I have to go through this for myself, for my own sanity.

It started with a leaked draft that surprised, shocked, and disappointed many of us. For some reason, my hopes that this country would still uphold “basic human rights” made me ignore the draft. Who would think that a country that is extremely liberal about firearms even after experiencing over 250 mass shootings just in 2022, would take away women’s constitutional rights to control their own bodies, to choose how to live their lives, to be emotionally, physically, and financially healthy!

With the way things are right now, your child who goes to elementary school feels less safe than a 20-week-old fetus (last time I checked fetuses can neither follow news nor feel pain until they enter their third trimester).

The Supreme Court ruling made me think of my own pregnancy — as a 31-year-old married woman in a loving relationship, that too after seven years of marriage (yes, there were more than a few “nudges” from family to get going already). We were more than ready. At least that’s what I thought until my own body started reacting to the “foreign” body growing inside me. The “morning” sickness that I experienced for months lasted all day.

The Braxton Hicks contractions that were not supposed to be felt until closer to the delivery, started around my 20th week and I remember counting double digits in an hour-long work meeting. The next phase was even more painful when I learned, thanks to my South Indian roots and my very “sweet” family, that I had gestational diabetes. Simply counting grains (especially when you are eating for two) wasn’t enough, I had to start with a poke a day (of insulin) to three full syringes towards the end. After three days of labor that ended painfully in a c-section, there was my bundle of joy!

This feels like time travel to the worst possible period in the past.

I apologize for putting you through that very personal sob story but let me connect the dots for you now. If that is what I had to endure to bring my bundle of joy, the apple of my eye into this world, what would women who have to carry babies to term with no exceptions — rape, incest, health issues (mom or baby), or simply not being ready physically, emotionally, and/or financially, go through?

Concerning women’s rights, it feels like we have just gone back by a hundred years. It is disappointing to know that all those advances made in science and technology are not going to help women with their reproductive rights if the law of the land is so brutal. I just saw on CNN that with this ban in the U.S., only Nicaragua and El Salvador have enacted more restrictive abortion laws. Many red states, emboldened by SCOTUS’s abortion ban, have already announced stricter bans with very few exceptions for the substantial threat to a woman’s life, rape, or incest, and violators could face heavy fines and prison time.

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The future looks dark to me — with an uptick in mental health issues and suicides, unwanted babies, special needs kids, and kids with no families — so dark that, I am not able to see anything positive coming out of this. I try to stay politically informed and active by donating to causes I care for, actively campaigning, participating in protests, and simply speaking up, but I am growing weary. Just when I am thinking this is the last straw and I am completely broken, our “inJustice” Mr. Thomas had to announce that same-sex marriages and contraception are next. This feels like time travel to the worst possible period in the past.

(Top photo by Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)

Padma Nadella is an IT professional who lives in Eagan, Minnesota with her husband and 15-year-old son. She manages a Facebook group for Minnesotans to collaborate on events and activities related to health and fitness. The group now has over two thousand members. Jack of all trades, she enjoys playing volleyball, traveling the world, and entertaining mostly, but dabbles in everything else.