The line forms to the right... the extreme right. Please line up and prepare to turn in your reproductive parts. Yes, yes, yes... your uterus, your ovaries, your fallopian tubes... everything. Just go on ahead and place those girly bits in the plastic trays that have been provided for your convenience. As you wait your turn, please make sure all of the necessary paperwork for a change in ownership is prepared. That's right, your reproductive parts will be the property of the United States government shortly.

As some of you might have heard, on Wednesday, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold a law passed by the formerly Republican controlled Congress back in 2003. The ruling flies in the face of more than 30 years of decisions that protected a woman's right to choose. Remember during the confirmation hearings for Samuel Alito and John Roberts when they both said that they would absolutely respect stare decisis? Well, we all knew they were both full of shit at the time and gee, guess what? They've proven us right! I fear that this is but the opening salvo in the Religious Right's long awaited all-out attack on Roe v. Wade.

Supporters of the ruling claim that this is merely a ban on late-term or what they cheerfully like to call "partial-birth" abortions. Proponents would like us to believe that this ban covers only what is called an intact dilatation and extraction which is a process generally associated with very late term abortions and comprises less than 1% of the number of abortions performed in this country each year. Shockingly, that isn't the entire truth of the matter. I know, contain your surprise. The language in the law actually refers to the very common procedure simply called dilation and evacuation which accounts for roughly 96% of 1st and 2nd trimester abortions. They claim that the law is meant to protect fetuses that are "inches from life." But the law strangely enough doesn't contain any language that pertains to fetal viability, which is the point at which a fetus can live independent of its mother. Nor does it contain any language pertaining to gestational age. Because the law is constructed so vaguely and ambiguously, the ban would cover abortions at any point during the pregnancy.

As bad as this ruling seems, it's but one battle in a larger war. There are quite a few more abortion cases set to come before the Court in the coming year that, given the extremely conservative ideology of this Court, are sure to further undermine Roe v. Wade. What I feel should be of a bigger concern to us though, is an attack on the 1965 decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which was the precursor to Roe. Griswold involved a Connecticut law that prohibited the use of contraceptives. By a 7-2 vote, the Court upheld a Constitutional right to privacy and struck down the statute. If Griswold is struck down, there is no telling what crazy laws some of these religious radicals at a state level will enact. Can you imagine a complete outlawing of contraception in your state? Before you laugh it off, look at the implications the Supreme Court ruling and the rulings in the abortion cases they're set to hear may carry.

Bush and the GOP (God's Own Party) are doing all they can to tear down the wall between Church and State. They seek to set up a country where women do not have sovereignty over their own bodies and where we are all forced to live by their religious doctrine. By not teaching real sex-education and tying funding to the failure that is abstinence-only programs, by appointing activist judges who are committed to overturning decisions like Roe despite the overwhelming will of the public that support a woman's right to choose and by allowing groups like the "Pharmacists for Life" to continue denying contraception to the public, among other things, they seek to impose their religious will upon the rest of us. This is precisely why the Framers intended to keep Church and State entirely separate entities. They had the foresight to see the exact situation we're in now... a small minority of religious zealots imposing their will over the majority.

These are indeed scary times, folks. If Roe goes down, which is looking more and more likely and if Griswold follows it, we're in a world of hurt. The battle is going to come down to state and local governments. We here in California assume we'll never see abortion overturned, but I wouldn't be so sure about that. We've got a Republican governor after all. This state isn't quite as liberal as some like to believe.

This is one of the real dangers of this Bush Administration... the appointments of the Judiciary. The rulings of his appointments will carry repercussions for a very, very long time.