IMPORTANT TO FEMALES

An advertisement titled, “Important To Females”, for Dr. Cheeseman’s Female Pills appeared in the Carroll Free Press on January 31, 1863. Quoting, “The health and life of women is continually in peril if she is mad enough to neglect or maltreat those sexual irregularities to which two thirds of her sex are more or less subject. ... To wives and matrons – Dr. Cheeseman’s Pills are offered as the only safe means of renewing interrupted menstruations, but Ladies must bear in mind that ... they will prevent the expected events. ... Explicit directions, detailing when and where they should be used is in each box.”

While researching my historical fiction, “Oh! Susannah”, I came across this advertisement numerous times. Then, I read, as a cross reference, another source that confirmed in the 19th century, pregnancies among unmarried women were historically considered to lead to the bulk of abortions and that abortion was one of the birth control options employed by married women too. Tim Crumrin writes, “Abortion in the early nineteenth century simply did not elicit the controversy or comment as today ... it was not necessarily condemned out of hand if carried out early in the pregnancy. ... Abortion, like birth control information, became more available between 1830 and 1850. That period saw a mail order and retail abortifacient drug trade flourish. A woman could send away for certain pills or discreetly purchase them at a store. Surgical methods were available but dangerous and seldom used.” The point I’m making is, even though women back then did not have the right to vote, nor make addresses to public gatherings, nor have standing in court to automatically divorce her husband or retain the rights to keep her children, they did have responsibility and full say over their bodies and their reproductive rights.

Since the Dobbs Vs. Jackson decision by the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, this is no longer true in the United States. By a vote of 6 to 3, the Justices ruled that abortion is no longer a constitutionally protected right of women. The wording of the majority (all six being Republican – three of whom are recent Trump appointees) is that abortion is a matter to be left up to the States. In anticipation of this ruling, fourteen States adopted “trigger laws” that took affect almost immediately upon the release of the ruling. Therefore, now across a large number of States, there are total or near total bans on abortion. The effect of this ruling has provoked no uniform law across the country and has seen women in restrictive States traveling across state lines to receive medical care for instances of rape and incest.

The other question I raise is: Should this even be an issue that our Supreme Court meddles in? The drafters of our Constitution strove for a system of checks and balances and foresaw men selected to sit on a Supreme Court to eschew wisdom and deliver decisions that Americans would recognize as being fair and impartial; think of the imagery of our “Lady Justice” blindfolded and finely balancing scales.

While this may have been the best of our forefather’s intentions, let’s take a look at some of the actual results coming from this supreme law-of-the-land body.

The Dred Scott Vs Sandford case. I address this decision in my book as it is considered to be one of the reasons our country entered into a civil war. On March 6, 1857, Justice Taney read the majority decision (7-2) that enslaved people are not citizens of the United States and therefore have no protection from the Federal Government or the Courts. This dreadful decision meant that a free Black slave could not necessarily remain “free” should he travel into a slave state. Seven of the nine jurors were from the Democrat Party, President Andrew Jackson having appointed four of the justices.

Plessy Vs. Ferguson – May 18, 1896 – when Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote the majority opinion (7-1) confirming the legitimacy of “Jim Crow” laws. He stated that while the 14th Amendment was intended to ensure political equality between the black and white races, the amendment did not abolish the social inequality, and that segregation did not constitute unlawful discrimination. Five Republicans were Justices on this bench, one well known for his bias against the Black race. One of the Democrat Justices was recorded as always voting for “Jim Crow” laws and another Democrat Justice known to be a KKK member.

Seventy-Seven years later ... Roe Vs. Wade - January 22, 1973. Seven of nine Supreme Court Justices ruled that the right to privacy implied in the 14th Amendment protected abortion as a fundamental right. However, the government did reserve the right to regulate or restrict access depending on the stage of the pregnancy. Keep in mind, as late as the 1960’s, abortion was illegal in most of the states. Six of the jurors were either Democrats or known to be liberal Republicans or passionate advocates for abortion rights.

Is it just me or does anyone else find it weird that our system of justice is determined by nine individuals, with their own vested interests, who hand down court determinations for the extent of their lifetime; decisions that so often adversely affect many of us? Think of it as our Lady Justice peeking out from behind her blindfold, making sure that the correct thumb is being placed on the scales of justice. We’re supposed to be living in a democracy, right? Where the powers of government are invested in the people and for the people; where the people have the final say.

President Biden recently prepared a proposal for Supreme Court Reform where “guard rails” could be applied to the Supreme Court’s Justices. His proposal was sent to the House of Representative’s Speaker of the House, Republican Mike Johnson, who summarily declared the President’s proposal “dead on arrival”. So, in this current hostile political environment, what would be wrong with limiting Congressmen, Senators, and Supreme Court Justices to 18 years’ service? Would we receive better representative government? The political power these Parties wield over one another is nothing other than power conferred on to them by us when we vote.

Retiring U.S. Senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, said it most succinctly in a recent interview, “Simply codify Roe V. Wade”.

The joy we have as being Americans is that we can have the final say in matters that are important to us and evoke change. It’s a matter of us exercising our right to vote, and in my humble opinion, voting for those who are dedicated to restoring the rights of women and their right to choose what happens with their bodies.

In 1863, it was important for females to at least have control over their bodies. It should be equally important to women today, and for all of us, who only want justice to prevail over politics.