Bush Nominates John Roberts for Supreme Court Justice

Posted on July 20, 2005

It has not been a good week for women. President Bush nominated John Roberts for Supreme Court Justice. Roberts, a well-known Washington, D.C. appellate lawyer, wrote and signed his name to a government brief arguing for a rollback of abortion rights in 1991, when he was deputy solicitor general under Bush 41.

An article in Salon notes that Roberts has stated that there is "no support in the text, structure or history of the Constitution" for Roe v. Wade. Salon also says Roberts "wrote the government's brief in Rust v. Sullivan, a 1991 case in which the Supreme Court held that government could prohibit doctors and clinics who receive federal funds from discussing abortion with their patients."

So, it looks like the road to overturning Roe vs. Wade has just gotten shorter for the extreme right. But Iraqi women shouldn't feel left out. According to The New York Times, their rights are about to be gutted under the new Iraqi constitution. The Times says the working draft on the Iraq's new constitution would "cede a strong role to Islamic law and could sharply curb women's rights, particularly in personal matters like divorce and family inheritance."

So, goodbye Iraqi women's rights and hello Sharia law, where some old man decides if a woman can get divorced, own property, live or die, based on his religious beliefs. Perhaps Rick Santorum and his ilk would like to see Sharia law enacted here in the U.S.? After all, we can't trust women to make their own medical decisions, now can we?