By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
On Friday evening, Tracy Butcher and her sisters were hundreds of miles apart. However, one landmark decision sparked the sisters solidarity and rattled a country.
On June 24, Butcher and her sisters joined others who marched in Detroit and North Carolina following the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
“I am a Gen Xer that has been an armchair activist my whole life, because I’m an introvert,” said Butcher, a Goodrich resident. “I felt very comfortable, I felt like part of something that was important. It overall felt positive.”
Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 that protected the right to an abortion. On June 24, the current U.S. Supreme Court overturned the decision.
The decision of Roe v. Wade in 1973 was based on the 14th amendment, which guaranteed equal protection to citizens of the United States and due process of law. Other decisions that were decided based upon the 14th amendment were Griswold v. Connecticut, which guaranteed the right to contraceptives, Loving v. Virginia, which guaranteed the right to interracial marriage, Lawrence v. Texas, which guaranteed a right to privacy and personal autonomy for consenting adults, and Obergefell v. Hodges, which guaranteed the right to marriage for same-sex couples.
“I am a mom of a 20 year old girl, and I don’t think that my daughter should have fewer rights than I did,” said Butcher. “I feel that we need to keep making our voices heard and keep standing up for our rights so we don’t lose more and we regain the ones that we’ve lost. Since I’m past my childbearing years, it means little to my life, but it doesn’t just affect abortion, it affects privacy.”
The right of privacy and the decision to overturn a case that guaranteed something as a civil right has not been seen in such a landmark case, is historical said Dr. Rick Sweeney a Goodrich teacher who taught a social and global issues class for three decades in the district.
“This is the overturning of a prior precedent,” said Sweeney, “By changing precedent, it’s no longer a protected civil right. The job of the Supreme Court is to interpret the constitution. Court decisions change, Supreme Courts change, but they are the law of the constitution. And this court has decided this way.”
Supreme Court Justices are appointed for life, with nine of them making up the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision was a 6-3 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
While laws change, the process by which a medical procedure becomes a political issue stays the same.
“You have different groups that could pick up on something that isn’t part of their faith or they feel that the government is intruding upon something, and they lobby,” said Sweeney. “They use their right to free speech and lobby their representatives.”
The Supreme Court vote was divided along conservative and liberal lines, with the six conservative justices voting to overturn and the three liberal justices dissenting.
Representatives for both parties spoke out on the issue, including representative Elissa Slotkin, congresswoman for Michigan’s eighth congressional district, and Ruth Johnson, state senator for Michigan’s fourteenth district, which covers Groveland, Brandon and Atlas townships.
“Even though we knew it was coming, it hit us like a ton of bricks,” said Slotkin. “For Michiganders, this ruling means we’re on the verge of a 1931 state law going back into effect that bans abortion in almost every instance, including rape and incest. It would make receiving or performing an abortion a felony offense.”
Following the overturn, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer released a statement that said the 1931 currently has a temporarily hold on the law from a Michigan court, and that she is determined to protect the right to an abortion in the state of Michigan.
“The high court’s decision affirms the sanctity of life and preserves state’s rights,” said Johnson. “There are ongoing actions in state courts by the governor and Planned Parenthood, but the legislature will continue to fight to ensure life is protected.”
Butcher said the protest was peaceful, and there were people that that marched for the same cause 50 years ago.
“I saw a lot of amazing signs, I heard some very heart-wrenching stories of women that had to make that choice for reasons I will never understand,” she said. “I just saw a lot of diversity in gender and race standing together to fight for the same cause. There were a lot of women who were dressed in signs of protest, lots of women making a stance.”
For residents like Butcher, she said she will continue to protest the overturn.
“I want to see our rights protected and given back to us,” she said. “I’m unwilling to accept less.”