I Counted All the Scholars Cited in the Leaked Roe Opinion. Can You Guess How Many Were Women?

[babylonsister]

https://www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/2022/05/alito-roe-opinion-how-many-female-scholar-citations/

I Counted All the Scholars Cited in the Leaked Roe Opinion. Can You Guess How Many Were Women?
Jackie Flynn Mogensen



If you read the leaked draft of the Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, and especially if you have a uterus, you may notice several factual errors about women and pregnancy made by its author, Justice Samuel Alito. (My colleague Pema Levy, in fact, chronicles a few here.) Those errors, it turns out, may have something to do with whom Alito is citing: In all its 98 pages, the draft cites very few women.

I know because I counted. Or, at least, I tried. The opinion includes more than 75 citations from legal experts, historians, and scholars of philosophy. By my tally, just four are women. I also counted the number of times Alito cited a judge, either on the Supreme Court or lower courts. In all, he cites a judge or justice more than 90 times. Of those, just five were women.

I’d also like to point out that Alito cites himself at least six times. I repeat: The man who authored the opinion to effectively end the right to abortion in the United States has cited himself more times than he cited female scholars combined.

snip//

The asymmetry in Alito’s draft is, to put it mildly, disappointing. But it also reflects who held—and often continues to hold—power in this country. After all, this is a document that may effectively govern the bodies of millions of uterus-owners. Shouldn’t we have more of a say in it?

[Faux pas]

1. Kickin'

with

[onecaliberal]

2. Unless you have a uterus, you should have ZERO say.

[Mr. Evil]

3. Precisely.

[FakeNoose]

8. Hah! It just so happens, I have a gif for that

[onecaliberal]

9. Very cool!

[ShazzieB]

26. It's not working! 😧

Hope it can be fixed. I'd love to see it!

[FakeNoose]

27. Can you see this one?

If it's not playing then maybe your browser has animated gifs turned off?
Some browsers have "off" as the default and you need to turn it "on."

[ShazzieB]

28. Yes!

I had a feeling it was going to be this one! One of my all time favorite memes, and VERY appropos. Thanks for fixing it.

[onecaliberal]

31. Yes, exactly that.

[soldierant]

10. I would cut some slack to those who once had a uterus

but lost it on account of damage and suffering it caused ... like cancer ... or on account of someone's misguided idea that that person was not capable of being trusted with it.

And both have happened, the latter especially probably a lot more than we know about.

[onecaliberal]

15. Your point is taken. My point is that anyone capable of getting pregnant should not be subject to

Getting permission from anyone anywhere at any time for their healthcare decisions.

[soldierant]

17. And you are absolutely on point.

Mine was only that there are other ways of abusing people who have or once had a uterus, and those victims are IMO welcome to lend their voices to protest this one.

[onecaliberal]

22. I'm sorry for all you had to go through.

[Polybius]

18. What about the pro-choice man on the Supreme Court (Breyer)?

Or pro-choice men in Congress? Can they vote?

[NutmegYankee]

21. Do you even apply that to those arguing that abortion is a right?

I may not have a uterus, but I can base my opinion on the English Common Law allowance for herbal abortions prior to quickening for hundreds of years, and the 9th Amendment that is intended to ensure that such non-enumerated rights were protected under the 5th amendment's protection of liberty. (and invoked on states via the 14th).

I never need to get into the debate about when life begins, I just point out that this was legal in Colonial America and therefore it is an essential liberty locked in upon ratification of the Constitution.

[onecaliberal]

23. Yes! Welcome to the club. Not saying you can't support. We need ALL the support we can get.

[OldBaldy1701E]

30. Hear Hear! (n/t)

[niyad]

4. Colour me sooooooo NOT surprised.

[soldierant]

11. I'm actually jaw-droppingly surprised that there were ANY.

[niyad]

14. Exactly. My first response was ZERO.

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

[NowISeetheLight]

6. Maybe Alito thinks...

They should be in the kitchen, barefoot, serving dinner and serving as incubators. The concept of an independent woman who is educated, resourceful, and proud, well it’s probably repugnant to him.

[Evolve Dammit]

7. I think you are correct. Welcome!

[LiberalFighter]

12. Scholars?

[littlemissmartypants]

13. Just because you have a woman weighing in doesn't always mean it's a good thing.

Look at Virginia Foxx from North Carolina, for example. She's a nightmare.

More to the point here's Carrie Campbell Severino. She (and her husband) are also nightmares. They have devoted their entire lives since and including their college years, to ending safe and effective health-care for women aka abortion.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216656565

Carrie Campbell Severino (née Campbell) an American lawyer and conservative political activist. She is the head of the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN)*, where she has played a leading role in the campaigns to support the Supreme Court nominations of Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. She is the coauthor (with Mollie Hemingway) of Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court.

Snip...

While attending Harvard Law School**, she met her future husband Roger Severino, two years ahead of her there. Both were active with the law school's Society for Law, Life and Religion, a conservative anti-abortion group.

Snip...

In 2016, Mother Jones described Severino as "a leader of the current conservative campaign to block any Obama Supreme Court nominee."[13] Under her leadership, the Judicial Crisis Network spent more than $5 million on the campaign to oppose Obama's 2016 nomination of Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court.

Here she is on May the third, on Amanpour and Company...

I'm not making excuses for the observation but it's a weak argument, imo.

❤ pants

[ShazzieB]

29. She wouldn't even let Amanpour talk! How rude!

[littlemissmartypants]

32. Yep, excessively rude. They are maniacal zealots. Pushy and rude is the way they

"persuade" people. It's bullying, afaic. Crazy, scary to even think about them being in charge of changing a toilet paper roll much less a law related to health care for more than half of the population.



❤

[uponit7771]

16. Alito's opinion is some scare shit that 100% ignores the 9th amendment

[LW1977]

19. Is the number shaped like a donut?

[Iggo]

20. Zero?

[Blue Owl]

24. FUCK Alito, that misogynistic jackass

He can shove his ‘opinions on women’ up his fucking ass, then eat shit and die.

[malthaussen]

25. That's four more than I expected. n/t

[msfiddlestix]

33. k&R

[ck4829]

34. Huh, sociology must be a different beast than the legal profession - I have NEVER cited my own works

in something else of mine that needed a citation.