By Carol Lucas
As I sat the other day and tried to absorb the latest debacle in the continuous rampage on a woman’s reproductive rights, my first thought was, “This has to be a joke.”
Now they were addressing, check that, “policing,” in vitro fertilization (IVF). The state Supreme Court of Alabama ruled that embryos – whether they’re within or out of a uterus – are children and would be protected under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.
A little bit of Biology 101 is called for. IVF is a treatment in which a female patient’s eggs are surgically removed from the ovaries, fertilized in a laboratory with sperm from a male partner or sperm donor, to create embryos. (“In vitro” is Latin for “in glass,” and refers to the process of fertilizing an egg in a laboratory dish.)
The Alabama decree went on to say, human life, “cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself.”
Then the Chief Justice cited the book of Genesis and God’s “wrath” in his opinion, ruling that frozen embryos have the same rights as living children.
Whoa! Whatever happened to the separation of church and state? Where are all those Constitutionalists?
According to the Associated Press, “By citing verses from the Bible and Christian theologians in his concurring opinion, Chief Justice Tom Parker alarmed advocates for church-state separation, while delighting religious conservatives who oppose abortion.
So who is Tom Parker? Once again, I went online and found the following: this is a jurist who has openly espoused support for a once-fringe philosophy that calls on evangelical Christians to reshape society based on their interpretation of the Bible.
During an online broadcast on Friday, Parker suggested America was founded explicitly as a Christian nation and discussed his embrace of the Seven Mountains Mandate — the belief that conservative Christians are meant to rule over seven key areas of American life, including media, business, education and government. Please, reread that last list in case you missed the far-reaching implications.
At this point it is necessary to explore Christian Nationalism, what it is, what it purports to do, and how it might impact the country.
Christian nationalists in America believe that the country was founded as a Christian nation and that Christian values should be prioritized throughout government and public life. As the country has become less religious and more diverse, Russel Vought, who heads the Center for Renewing America, has embraced the idea that Christians are under assault and has spoken of policies he might pursue in response.
It should be noted that Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget during his first term, has remained close to the former president. He a leading force in a conservative consortium that is preparing for a second Trump term and speaks at least once a month with his former boss. He is said to be working to elevate Christian Nationalism as a focal point in a second Trump term.
While Christian Nationalism is one of the bullet points of this second term plan, others include invoking the Insurrection Act on Day 1 to quash protests and refusing to spend authorized congressional funds on unwanted projects.
This same consortium has issued a “Mandate for Leadership” which states “freedom is defined by God, not man.”
Perhaps one of the greatest ironies in all this is the fact that Donald Trump is not a devout man of faith, despite what you are seeing from him as he attends political rallies hosted by evangelicals. Certainly those he appointed to the Supreme Court, a supposedly impartial group of jurists, would infer his need to appease the “Christian right.”
But now, even those legislators in Alabama recognize the implications of this latest assault on reproductive rights. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall weighed in on the issue on Friday. Marshall said he “has no intention of using the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision as a basis for prosecuting IVF families or providers.”
Furthermore, a bi-partisan group of Alabama legislators is preparing a draft “clarifying” the legislation that would protect IVF. The question becomes “What constitutes “clarification?”
When I set out to write this article, my thoughts were geared to the assault on a woman’s rights. But once I began to research the Christian Nationalist movement, I found myself pulled in another direction. The possibilities that loom ahead, possibilities so troubling, indeed terrifying, that will impact all of us, men women, and children, became my focus.
What I found motivates me all the more to implore this: please don’t ignore what they are telling you they intend to do. Don’t summarily dismiss the blatantly overt declarations of these people and what is their main goal. When Jack Posobeic opened the CPAC meeting recently saying, “Welcome to the end of democracy” and added, “We didn’t get all the way there on January 6,” believe him.
Until recently, I have taken our way of life for granted, never giving a second thought to the idea that our freedoms could be curtailed with the wrong people in government; my research was a real wake-up call for me. Those of you who regularly read my weekly contributions know my political leanings. You also know that I believe there are many Liz Cheneys and Adam Kinzingers, and John Kasichs out there, all admirable Republicans with whom I may disagree on some issues, but whom I admire for their morality. Sadly, the Republican Party these folks represent no longer exists.
If you wish to live in an autocracy where the right to engage in your own religious practice, to have control over your own body, to retain the right to vote, where all these are taken away, then ignore what I have written.
If, on the other hand, you don’t want any of this, then I will fall back on Trump’s recent quote (only once, I promise you): “Fight like hell!”
Carol Lucas is a retired high school teacher and a Lady’s Island resident. She is the author of the recently published “A Breath Away: One Woman’s Journey Through Widowhood.”
