The United States Supreme Court and Women

Brianna Reyes

According to an article provided by the ACLU, the United States Supreme Court made two decisions last week that proved an “alarming” disinterest in protecting women. The headline itself sounded alarming if you ask me. At first, I was expecting normal Supreme Court decisions, and although a sad article to read I thought it would be a good topic to focus on with the things we have discussed in class. Violence is one of the main issues Hooks discusses and the documentary as well. Although I believe violence is never ok, the story of Lisa Montgomery raised some red flags and questions in my eyes. The Supreme Court made one decision about a drug used for abortion and another on a person’s life.

The first action the court decided on was a drug used for abortion by medication and miscarriages. The drug is called Mifepristone; this medication is proven to be safe and effective and has been approved by the FDA for 20 years. The Supreme Court reinstated a policy that makes the patients travel to a health center to pick up the pill and sign a form, but during a pandemic.

This article states the problem with this policy is patients are traveling during Covid-19 and rather than allowing patients access to abortion care without putting their lives at risk, they decided to reinstate a policy during a time where we are supposed to reduce travel and stay home. I agree because I don’t understand the logic of putting more lives at risk and exposure to the virus by forcing them to travel to obtain a medication that has been proven to be safely effective.

Not only does this article state it could be deadly, but they also continue to talk about the second action the Supreme Court decided on. Lisa Montgomery. I honestly didn’t know who she was until I researched this article. She was sentenced to death for the murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett.

According to this article, the last woman that was executed by the federal government was Ethel Rosenberg, in 1953. Lisa Montgomery was abused and experienced traumatic “sexual violence and torture.” If you know Ethel Rosenberg, she was convicted of conspiring with the Soviets to give them U.S atomic secrets. Well, those two crimes are completely different, to me at least. Montgomery was abused and raped by her stepfather in her own home. Her mother “trafficked her to countless men to pay the bills.” This article continues to discuss the traumatic experiences Montgomery has gone through and I can’t express the worry and fear this article put in me.

With these experiences, she developed mental illnesses which were documented and reported over the years and she didn’t even understand why she was being executed at the time of her death. Her lawyers filed what is called a clemency petition, with Trump’s administration. The administration never responded. The petition stated to have her death sentence changed to life without parole. In my opinion, although wrong for her to kill her abuser, she was traumatized. That type of violence can take a toll on someone. Although our current president opposes the death penalty, and her execution was supposed to be put on hold to consider legal challenges; the Supreme Court decided to move forward.

This article continues to talk about how it is “unsurprising” that Trump’s administration disregarded the issue and women’s lives. The end of the article ends with the “the majority of the Court did not even bother to explain its decisions. But to women, its silence spoke volumes.”

As someone who wants to eventually work in the legal field and as a woman, this is disturbing to me. I would never tolerate or condone any violence. However, Montgomery’s lawyer’s petition and requests were not unreasonable. Executing her is. I strongly believe the court should have considered this alternative, rather than taking a woman’s life who was abused and tortured, not protected by her family. In addition, the decision made about abortion shows they would rather risk a person’s life to travel, rather than relying on scientific evidence and the FDA approval for a drug that has been deemed safe and effective. It goes to show how the court disregards important information when making decisions that impact people’s lives and have very serious consequences.

I know this was a little off-topic, but I wanted to see how you all felt about the Supreme Courts’ decisions last month and about the way the Trump administration ignored this issue but pardoned two rappers before he left office.

The issues that matter are being disregarded and although this one woman’s life, like the article, said their “silence” speaks volumes.

Here is the article!

https://www.aclu.org/news/womens-rights/the-supreme-courts-one-two-punch-against-women/

Mar, Ria T. “ACLU News & Commentary.” American Civil Liberties Union, 19 Jan. 2021, www.aclu.org/news/womens-rights/the-supreme-courts-one-two-punch-against-women/.