Overturning Roe v Wade will destroy our civil rights – so don’t ask us to be ‘civil’

Pro-abortion activists demonstrate outside the Virginia home of supreme court justice Samuel Alito who wrote the draft opinion overturning Roe v Wade. Photograph: Kent Nishimura/EPA

So, this is how our civil rights end, eh? Not with a bang but with a lot of people whimpering about “civility”.

Last week, the US was rocked by the leak of a draft supreme court opinion signalling the court is ready to overturn Roe v Wade. Outrage quickly mounted – but not everyone was outraged by quite the same things. While some people were upset that five out of nine unelected judges (two of whom have been accused of sexual misconduct) have the power to take away women’s bodily autonomy, CNN’s legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin (who reportedly exposed himself on Zoom) had a meltdown over the impropriety of the leak itself. “The idea that a decision of this magnitude could leak is really a shattering experience for the justices and the court,” he told viewers, breathlessly. “I really don’t know how or if the institution is going to recover.” Shattering for the justices? He doesn’t know if the institution is going to recover? Talk about missing the damn point.