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If/When Roe is overturned, women will be forced to deal with a patchwork of state laws that in some states will completely deny abortions (including rape/incest) to those states which allow access. Women, especially poor women, in the deep south will not have the same protection under the law as women with options elsewhere.

But this news is not the first moment of concern for women's reproductive autonomy. It is just part of an ongoing, broader attack against women. When the ACA was enacted, numerous court challenges were made to Obamacare's requirements to provide certain services, especially those regarding access to contraception. The Hobby Lobby case is the one that most people will probably recall which denied employees access to contraception. But other groups such as religious schools and universities and hospitals also lined up to keep their employees from having access to contraception through their employer sponsored healthcare plans. These were based on the corporations and institutions claiming religious exemptions. In other words, it was decided that their brand/interpretation of religion usurped whatever your personal, strongly held religious or other beliefs are.

In Catholic hospitals nationwide access to certain reproductive procedures must be reviewed and approved by the hospital. I found this out first hand. Well into my 40s, I needed to change my contraceptive options due to underlying health conditions. My husband and I made a decision which reaffirmed our choice to limit our family to two children. Going off contraception was the best option given my meds and health. Sterilization was the best choice for me, first, and for our relationship, and for our family.

But I needed two operations, one which would keep me out of the ERs repeatedly and the second, sterilization. The doctor could do both at the same time. Unfortunately, the hospital had to hear the case for my sterilization. Specifically, a group of celibate Catholic nuns who ran the hospital would have to approve my sterilization. Why? Because they thought that their beliefs had to be considered about my body. It was at a hospital which received tax payer funds. It was open to the public. But I refused to let strangers, non-family, a group of people whose religion does not want women to use contraception at all, to have ANY say in what was NONE of their business. Instead I had two separate procedures at two different hospitals. The first was urgent. The second, the sterilization, was optional: it was my choice.

Reproduction issues are nuanced and best decided by medical professionals and we women needing information to make decisions about our future, for our very lives. This current case like so many others in a similar vein had amicus briefs filed on behalf of the AMA, the ACOG, and numerous other medical groups supporting a woman's right to abortion access. Specifically addressed was the fact that fetuses are not viable in the first 15 weeks. Also detailed were the lists of medical conditions which must be weighed in the decisions about continuing pregnancy. Not every condition is immediately life threatening at first. Forcing a woman to wait until you end up in the ER at death's door is tantamount to negligent homicide. Childbirth still leads to maternal death, and at a rate higher in black women than white women. These bible thumping legislators are not the ones who should be making these choices for women.

Now it seems inevitable that woman will not have a claim to religious exemptions to overturning Row v Wade; rather these religious extremists are imposing their brand of religious beliefs on everyone. Why aren't other religious groups becoming more outspoken about their support of access? Why is a religious minority claiming to speak for all religious persons, sects, and religions?

Do not think this is the first or the last attempt to destroy women's rights. Unless we voters do something to oust this religious extremist faction, we are looking at a very long road to regaining many hard won civil rights, if ever.

If the RWNJs could figure out that the SCOTUS was at stake, then why can't we see the obvious? How did we let that fool win the electoral college in 2016? Why can't we stop the short sightedness and play the long game to ensure civil liberties for everyone?