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So here is my suggestion: since women cannot be sued if they seek an abortion but anyone around them can, sue every male over the age of puberty--especially every male member (I use that term advisedly) in the state legislature and TX administration that voted in favor of these laws--as abetting the potential for women to have abortions by the fact that they are the only half of the species that can impregnate women. If these fuckers (and no: I cannot this morning moderate my language) are going to have sex with women, then they should be sued for potentially encouraging women to have abortions.

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Every woman knows, and I’m old enough to remember, that anti-abortion laws do not stop abortion—they only stop SAFE abortion. Desperate women will always find ways to end their pregnancies. The challenge is not to end their own lives in the process.

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Well, I guess there are 2 things that have to be done right now. Firstly, the Supreme Court needs to have 4 new members tomorrow to overturn this "originalist" majority and it must go back to its "original", less intrusive, constitutional role. Secondly the Filibuster must go for being the anti-democratic rule that it is.....a majority decides and that means 50%+1...;so that this country can be saved from its own worst instincts. This can not be allowed to take any time to put in place. Heavan and earth must be moved.

There is no time to waste now as there is only one year left for the little democracy that we now know. Otherwise we are back not only to "full Jim Crow" but also to systematic repression of all and sundry not agreeing with the new GOP fascist dictators....and not rich! At this rate, inaction by the SCOTUS is treasonable action but inaction by the Democrats is also treason....a betrayal of the trust of the People and the interests of the Nation. I trust that those saying that one should obey the rules to show a good example to those breaking the rules .....and be "nice"...can now see where that leads. The road to hell.......

Vigilantism marks the end of the rule of law...and with the Supreme Court's "silent" approval. It has been used in the past to kill Native Americans (The founding philosophy of the Texas Rangers et al). It has been used to kill blacks in the slave states and beyond. Tomorrow it will be used to kill you. A call to action!

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Just before I read your column, I posted on FB similar things about the anti-abortion law, and also this: As draconian as the TX anti-abortion law is, I am willing to bet that worse things are in the ammunition bin for Republicans. .....

....And if they get away with this law (designed to get around Roe v. Wade)...here's what could be next:

A) Apply the same vigilante method to voting. Yes...I think what would be next would be a law allowing anyone in the country who thinks someone in TX cheated in voting, voted "fraudulently," to sue. Yup...you a registered Democrat? Or just wearing a t-shirt with your favorite Democratic candidate, or have a yard sign on your property? Yup...wait for the next law that says if someone suspects you of cheating at voting, they can sue you. Hundreds of people, thousands of people, could sue every single registered Democrat at no cost to them. I know...sounds so hyperbolic, doesn't it?

And if the Supreme Court does nothing, what's next? Make same-sex actions illegal again in TX...with the same method. No more calling the police to do a night-time raid. Just let anyone in the country sue people thought to be having same-sex interactions and drive people into bankruptcy.

C) And you know what will be after this? Making not only practicing any religion other than Christianity against the law, but making NOT attending Church on Sundays against the law, since these are fake Christians who stir up other hateful, un-Christ-like Christians into radicalizing into the Christian Taliban.

I know A) and 😎 and C) sound over the top. But did you ever think anyone in the country would be allowed to sue anyone they think might have helped a woman consider abortion or get one...or even "intend" to help? Of course not. No one but frightened, cruel extremist fascist Republicans looking to take over the country (probably with the support of Putin) could think up this cruelty.

Will the Supreme Court step in and block this draconian anti-abortion law? I really don't know. I would have had no doubt a few years ago, but now...with THIS Supreme Court? I really don't know that they will block this or do anything about what I fear would happen next.

These Republican fascists have a multi-pronged approach that no one other than they would have imagined: Vigilantes suing Americans doing things the right-wing doesn't want; take over federal elections and as many state elections as possible by replacing Secretaries of State and State election boards; allow vigilantes to "observe" (intimidate) voters; empower the right's "brown shirts" - the Proud Boys, QAnon, and the dozens of self-styled right-wing "militias; intimidate school board members so that no Democrat will want to serve due to the threat of violence, and only Republicans will run for the seats. Education in this country, already damaged, will be savagely eviscerated - so helpful for fascists, as we watch Americans who should have been able to pass science know nothing about science, what it takes to become a scientist, have no respect for education or those who study and become experts, etc.

Trump, Flynn, and all of them belong in prison for their efforts to overthrow the government on all these levels. So far, little punishment has been handed out. The Putin-Trump-Flynn movement is growing huge and violent, just like Hitler's movement did.

Will Democrats, DOJ, FBI, CIA going to save our country? If so, they better do it fast.

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I was thinking about making a very detailed and even witty set of comments in regard to the Supreme Court’s not acting to stop the State of Texas’ almost complete ban on abortion but I have crumpled it up and dropped it into my computer's version of a wastebasket. Instead all I have to say is that any woman in the United States of America who votes, despite increasing restrictions on voting in many States, for any Republican candidate whatsoever should have her head examined.

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Thank you for laying out the full and profound horror of yesterday and last night's actions and of the collapse of the rule of law in Texas. If I lived there I'd be packing my bags. But 19 other states this year so far have instituted 97 restrictions on abortion. In just 7 months. Never mind the 25 states that have asked the Court to overturn Roe V Wade in the Mississippi case before it(and mind you, birth control methods that work are abortifacients, so we are now talking about forced breeding), and 20-something that have enacted voter suppression laws. "Nowhere to run to baby, nowehere to hide." Will someone please explain to the President that the filibuster is not worth the losses of democracy, the rule of law, and full human status and personhood for 51% of the population?

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"The court decided the case on its increasingly active “shadow docket,” a series of cases decided without full briefings or oral argument, often in the dead of night, without signed opinions."

We have now sunk to the depths plumbed by the Soviet Union during its darkest days. The Highest court meeting in darkness, making arbitrary rulings. Stalin would be proud.

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Viewed from Europe (and France, for my part), these developments are frightening. The guns law shows that this gun-crazy country can do even worse than we thought. And the abortion ban after 6 weeks, even in the case of rape or incest, is absolutely revolting, with no involvement from the Supreme Court! It's not only Democracy which is in danger, it's civilization itself! I came many many times to the USA, on holiday, I like the country, and I am appalled by what I see in the GOP and in some of the States.

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This is all a horror show. I don't believe that the majority of Texans believe in intimidation at the voting booth, on the way to a health care provider or just in a grocery store. Imagine "Partisan Poll Observers" armed at a voting site. Armed and maskless and wearing a T-Shirt saying something like "Don't Vax Me". And then the "poll worker" asks your name and when you drove your friend to a clinic for reproductive counseling.

Texas: rise up. Toss these Brown Shirts out. Take back your state. The Supreme Court has abandoned you to totalitarian bigoted nutcases. It's up to Texans now. Vote these dangerous fools out. Take back your state.

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So here is what I'm seeing.

The right wing is unbound. They are not tied to reason, to good governance, to religious structures (they use religious language, but they've twisted every word until it screams), to truth, to civility, to non-violence, to anything but madness based on lies, and lock-step unity there.

The left wing is bound to everything under the sun. Politeness. Polity. Non-violence. Law, which -- under this Supreme Court -- has pretty much lost it meaning. Inertia. Nit-picking each other to total paralysis. The customs of democracy, which requires we take years to bring terrorists to trial.

What I see is the right wing coming together. In madness. But they are a bloc.

What I see is the left wing waiting for something to happen.

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It seems to me SCOTUS just sanctioned Civil War. The Republicans have been calling for it, and now making laws to make it easier, open carry, no license (here in IN too) now poke your nose in your neighbors business and make bank. This is ugly… and I don’t see courts or lawmakers defending what I would call sanity.

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Tell me how to maintain any optimism in this environment, I’m heartbroken 💔

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This is a profoundly disturbing development. By what tortured reasoning can SCOTUS support a law that enables vigilantism? And is their refusal to step in an indication they would rule against challenges to the law? Or is this some legalistic pussyfooting because they were asked to "stay" rather than rule on the law? What is the logic here?

I think this is a crisis for SCOTUS and that the 3 liberal justices should stage a walk out. Refuse to participate in these clearly unconstitutional rulings. Call into question the functioning and make up of the court. Dramatize the situation in a way that can't be ignored. This is undermining our country. I remember being unable to believe the decision in Bush v Gore. But because Gore was gracious in the face of an unfair ruling, no violence ensued. This ruling invites violence and dynamites the foundation of law that is supposed to create a civilized nation.

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New laws of Texas incentivizing abortion bounty hunters armed with handguns is madness, and I dread the first test case in court. So what to do until this insane law can be overturned?

Contraceptives? Are they related to abortion? Although facts don't particularly matter. SB8 is all about allegations and intimidation at the point of a gun with the threat of a long, drawn out legal expense in a kangaroo court system.

Time for Texas women to take charge and withhold sex. Lysistrata called for a sex strike by her fellow women in ancient Greece to stop a war.

https://timeline.com/for-women-absence-can-be-power-as-this-play-from-ancient-greece-shows-cdf97a948f09

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We Texans need help from Congress. Countless good people, including my own representative in the Texas House, have tried to stop these terrible bills, and have introduced bills we actually need here, but the Texas Taliban are determined to stop any measure that would help everyone else at the expense of dark money interests. Next up in the Texas Legislature: redistricting. God help us.

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The furor I have been feeling from last night and today is so immense I hope I do not have a heart attack. We women, are the majority in this country but we are always marginalized. Why? Because men are quite frankly, afraid of us. They seem to forget that they would not be on this earth if a woman hadn’t carried them to full birth. In fact, many of these women may have wanted to get abortions but they couldn’t. Perhaps there were enough mothers and sons who never bonded and that might be why these bastards feel the need to “control” women. But this isn’t medieval times. Women have progressed exponentially in all fields. We are not silent. We are loud and demanding. We have to fight with every tooth and nail to charge back.

Our SCOTUS is tainted in red blood. Biden must expand the court and Breyer must be replaced. Do it by executive order. Do it without the Senate’s approval so that Mitch can't get his hands on anything. Take that power away from him. Just do SOMETHING!

I honestly feel like Lorena Bobbitt was right.

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