The Defender of the Mothers will also Defend the Daughters

As George Washington traveled from his home at Mount Vernon, in Virginia, to New York City in the spring of 1789 to be inaugurated as the first President of the United States, he was met by a banner in Trenton, New Jersey reading “The Defender of the Mothers will also Defend the Daughters.” Think for a moment what that means.

Perhaps this is something the Supreme Court should also think long and hard about when ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. This Mississippi law bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and the Court's ruling may very well decide the fate of Roe v. Wade, the Court's 1973 landmark decision that women in the United States have a constitutional right to abort a pregnancy in the first two trimesters of pregnancy -- roughly 24 weeks -- when a fetus is unable to survive outside the womb.  The current decision has stood for almost 50 years and what has changed during that time other than the political make-up of the Court?  Justice Sonia Sotomayer put it succinctly.  "Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?"

The original decision was made not only to protect women and mothers at the time who asked only to have a choice in the matter, but more importantly it also protects the right to choose for the generations of daughters that would follow.  This is not a decision that one state should be allowed to challenge when it will affect every state, every woman, in the union.

Perhaps we need to hang a banner outside the Supreme Court as a reminder to those sitting in judgement inside.   

The Defender of the Mothers will also Defend the Daughters.