June 24, 2022, was a warm and quiet day in my neighborhood. School had been out for two months, yet I remember feeling more stressed than normal. I anxiously stared at my phone: The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision was coming out that day. My stomach dropped as I read an article titled “Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.” As much as I suspected this would be the decision, my stomach churned at the reality of it. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas stated in his majority opinion that “in future cases, (The Court) should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.” Thomas spoke specifically to reconsider cases protected by the 14th Amendment, a threat to the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, contraceptives, interracial marriage and anything else that could fall under its scope of interest.
The 14th Amendment includes the “equal protections” clause, which protects United States citizens from the deprivation of their equal rights. Justice Thomas’ statement that the Dobbs decision can lead to the reconsideration of other rights and freedoms is an attack on marginalized groups in the U.S., and an attack on the U.S. Constitution. The laws being proposed across the country signify that the U.S. is reverting back to a society of restriction. Thirteen states have implemented some form of ban on abortion since the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, but red states are not done yet. Florida is moving forward with a bill that bans abortions after six weeks with few exceptions, South Carolina Republicans are proposing the death penalty for those who have an abortion and Idaho has become the first state to penalize out-of-state travel for abortions. The restrictions being placed on abortion are scary, leaving many to fear for their lives, rights and bodily autonomy. These are fair and valid concerns, but these fears have been echoed for decades. The question we must ask ourselves today concerns what these new developments mean for marginalized groups that have historically been oppressed, oppression that has often failed to be recognized.
The decision in Dobbs does not just concern pregnant and menstruating people who should be in fear: The entire nation should be concerned about the future of their liberties. Privacy is an important component of many policies of the day, and was the main legal precedent set by the decision in Roe v. Wade. Whether it’s the right to same-sex marriage or the use of contraceptives, privacy has been used as the basis to protect the rights of many. Privacy encompasses more than bodily autonomy in the literal sense, but the right to be authentically oneself. The subject has changed over time, seen not only within social scenarios but also in the decisions of the Supreme Court. Societal changes have forced the intent of privacy to develop, encompassing everything from bodily autonomy to our personal relationships.
In 2003, Lawrence v. Texas granted same-sex couples the right to privacy when it came to engaging in adult consensual sexual intimacy. This landmark decision got the ball rolling toward providing further protections to LGBTQ+ individuals. The 2015 Supreme Court case of Obergefell v. Hodges was decided on similar grounds, legally recognizing same-sex marriage across the nation rather than on a state-by-state basis. Although these two cases are fairly new compared to other landmark decisions, Justice Thomas’ threat was an implication that no precedent is safe, no matter the time of its institution.
Stripping of privacy rights doesn’t stop at marriage. One Florida Republican’s bill would be an attempt to bar the discussion of menstruation in any year prior to sixth grade. States such as Kansas are going as far as threatening to implement genital inspections for children to interrogate the alignment of their biological sex and claimed gender. Justice Thomas’ threat against the right to privacy is slowly making its way through red states whose governments take the precedent set by Dobbs and run away with it. Barring discussion of one’s bodily anatomy forces people to go back to a time in which same-sex relationships were illegal and bodily anatomy was never to be acknowledged.
The discussion that surrounds what is and isn’t guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution has led to serious conversations surrounding protections under the right to privacy. Liberties promised under the 14th Amendment seemingly no longer exist, as the Republican Party has set out to dismantle any and all protections for marginalized groups. If conservatives are looking to protect the Constitution, Democrats, impacted populations and students need to fight them with their own tactics. It cannot be done by one group, but by all of us working together to fight against conservative agendas.
Marginalized communities should be — and are — protected by the Constitution, whether conservatives like it or not. Though the GOP argues that there is no direct language stating that LGBTQ+ individuals or other marginalized groups are to be protected in the Constitution, progressives could start to “defend” the Constitution, too. By going against constitutionalists with their own rhetoric, we can prove that the rights of every individual should be protected under the Constitution. Marginalized groups should no longer live in fear, but should organize to show the GOP that they will not let their hard-earned rights be stripped away. The left can no longer allow the right-wing agenda to take over our rights and lives — we must come together to push for not only equality but justice. Protests, pushing for laws that specifically call for the protection of constitutional rights and disallowing conservatives from threatening the livelihood of anyone are just small steps to take in order to protect our granted protections as U.S. citizens.
Brina E. Golubovic is an Opinion Columnist who writes about culture, campus affairs and American politics from a leftist perspective. When she isn’t rambling about politics or socioeconomic issues, she can be found at a local coffee shop. She can be reached at brinag@umich.edu.