Blackburn warning us of plans of some in GOP to outlaw abortion, birth control | Opinion

When politicians say the quiet part out loud, believe them. This is exactly what happened when U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn spoke in a recent video explaining the questioning she planned for the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Ketanji Brown Jackson.

In this video, the Tennessee senator announced that she would like to know Jackson’s views on certain past supreme court decisions that Blackburn finds to be “constitutionally unsound.”

One of the past court cases she named was Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). This specific court case ruled as unconstitutional an 1879 Connecticut law that banned the use of any drug, medical device or any other instrument to block conception. In other words, this law effectively outlawed birth control.

The justices at the time ruled 7-2 in favor of a woman’s constitutional right to obtain birth control. With this ruling, the justices also established that the First, Third, Fourth and Ninth Amendments, when put together, create our constitutional right to privacy. This right to privacy was later used to give women the right to obtain an abortion and to even outlaw a sodomy law in Texas.

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Conservative pundits usually scoff at liberals anytime they claim Republicans will attempt to outlaw birth control if Roe v. Wade is ever overturned. However, Blackburn has basically let everyone in on the plans of the religious-conservative sect of the Republican Party.

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It is no secret that these individuals want Roe to be overturned. They are clear as day about this. However, with Blackburn’s recent comments, it is clear that these politicians also want to outlaw any sort of birth control. If the conservative majority on the court stays or — worse — expands in the years to come, then it should not be a surprise to anyone what will happen next.

We have already seen what Republican majorities in state legislatures around the country are willing to do to make sure women bend to their religious beliefs. Texas has already passed a very restrictive anti-choice bill that essentially outlaws abortion, and Tennessee has used this Texas bill to produce one of its own that is being debated.

Not only does this Tennessee bill basically keep anyone from obtaining an abortion, it also allows individuals to sue a woman for getting an abortion. That means if a woman is raped, conceives a fetus through said act, and then obtains an abortion, the family members of said rapist are allowed to sue that woman.

Once these anti-choice bills make it through the court system, Roe very well could be overturned and all of the negative consequences that would stem from such a decision will come to fruition. We will see back-alley abortions rise, and so will the deaths of women who basically have no other choice but to undergo these risky procedures.

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I hate to seem like a fearmonger, but when they say the quiet part out loud, believe them.

Justin Allen Rose is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Blackburn warned of GOP push to overturn Roe v. Wade, outlaw birth control