Coastal residents and civic groups spoke out on the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

“Any society, group, or agency that wants to prohibit abortion should ‘first’ legislate the means and money to care for babies whose mothers ‘cannot raise them’ for any reason,” reacted Phyllis Minick of La Jolla.

“It’s such a deeply personal and difficult decision but, ultimately, I think the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade violates a basic human right to have complete control over one’s body,” said Susan Crowers of Pacific Beach. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion about abortion, but those opinions or beliefs should not be legislated to eliminate the ‘choice.’ I can no more imagine forcing a woman to endure pregnancy and delivery against her will, than forcing a pregnant woman to have an abortion against her will.”

Pacific Beach social activist Caryn Blanton of nonprofit Shoreline Community Services aiding the unsheltered, was disappointed but hopeful about the future following the court’s decision.

“We (women) are a part of history,” Blanton said. “Others fought and came through abolitionism, The Great Depression, WWII, The Civil Rights Movement. We will fight and come through this ‘Great Unraveling.’”

Melinda Merryweather of La Jolla believes Roe v. Wade’s reversal creates inequity among the sexes. “Women are not livestock,” she said. “Women will die. Why should my brothers have more rights than me? “

Judy Adams Halter of La Jolla said she was “disheartened that a small minority of people are changing constitutional rights for women that are half of our population and that this small group of people is also changing precedent that two-thirds of our nation agrees with. Our system is broken and needs to be more representative with term limits for supreme court justices as well as for our legislators.

“My hope is that our young people, especially millennials, will vote in more representative leaders of our nation in the upcoming midterms. Our legislators need to represent our population. We also need to discard the Electoral College and allow for more Senate representation for more populated states.  California only holds two Senate seats for 40 million people and a state like Montana with just 1 million people also has two Senators. Is that representative? Is that a democracy?” Halter said.

“It is amazing to me that 49 years of law have been overturned, something that my mother and I fought hard to get,” said Janie Emerson of La Jolla Shores. “Also, what happened to the separation of church and state?”

Two local nurses weighed in on the SCOTUS decision.

“I respect each individual’s choice,” said retired Navy nurse Ellen Citrano of Pacific Beach. “That being said, choice is the key word. We have just stepped back into the barbaric times when regardless of how they became pregnant, they now have to seek dangerous and life-endangering procedures. Girls and women will die needlessly because of a handful of out-of-touch, lying white elitists.”

“As a health care professional I am keenly aware of my licensure qualifications for practicing medicine,” said Camilla Bicknell RNC, WHNP, of Point Loma. “I am amazed that SCOTUS, without a medical degree or license, has made a medical decision regarding abortion. They are attempting to practice medicine ‘without’ a license (which is illegal). They do not have the qualifications to determine when, why, how, or where abortion should be performed. We don’t live in a perfect world. If we did, abortion would not be necessary.”

Ashlea Vedder of Point Loma, a 25-year-old political science grad from University of California, Santa Barbara, weighed in on Roe’s reversal.

“This decision is so blatantly not about life and it’s all about controlling women and creating more economic and social disparity,” Vedder said. “Healthcare experts have said that abortion access is a healthcare necessity and that in certain situations people will die if they cannot receive an abortion. People get pregnant at all ages – some while they are still children. So this cannot be about protecting the lives of children.

“Right now, we already have some of the highest rates of maternal mortality out of any developed country, not to mention we have a national shortage of baby formula. We have no federal-paid paternity leave. No affordable childcare services. We shouldn’t have to justify this over and over. It is not acceptable to allow states, governments, and religion to interfere with the personal decisions we make about our bodies,” Vedder said.

“I’m mad as hell,” said Susan Winkie of Ocean Beach. “The data speaks for itself: the vast majority of this country believes the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was wrong and based on politics as opposed to the law. This decision by the court has wiped out decades of progress that allowed women to have equal opportunities in this country. It has basically undermined women giving the government power over our bodies and what we do with them. As a result, we effectively become second-class citizens.

“It’s absolutely sickening. I am a patriot and love this country and I have lost faith in our democracy. It’s not just the supreme court but the nationalist, religious right that has propelled us to this place.”

Added Winkie: “The anti-abortion movement is a religious-right initiative. There is a separation of church and state in this country. The beautiful thing about freedom of religion is it allows everyone to express themselves in whatever way they feel works for them.

“But it also does not allow for their precedent to inform the rule of law. And that’s what’s happened here. This is a religious decision based on conservative views that don’t represent the majority. Women will die as a result of this decision.”

Lawyers Club of San Diego vowed to continue its longstanding support of reproductive rights and redouble its efforts to ensure that all people’s rights to bodily autonomy are protected.

“While not surprised, we are dismayed and appalled by the Dobbs opinion overturning the right to abortion and gutting the foundation of our privacy rights,” Lawyers Club president Maggie Schroedter said. “The ability to control our reproductive choices has been an important underpinning for women’s ability to advance toward equality.

“Lawyers Club has always been a pro-choice organization, and we will continue our fight to protect reproductive rights – both here in California where we likely will retain our rights to safe and legal abortions, as well as on behalf of pregnant people who are forced to travel to obtain necessary reproductive health care.”

MANA de San Diego, a nonprofit group empowering Latinas, spoke against the Supreme Court ruling saying it will disproportionately affect minorities and the poor.

“The United States Supreme Court released a decision that will dramatically limit the ability of many people nationwide to access abortion care,” said Inez Gonzalez Perezchica, MANA’s executive director. “Despite the Supreme Court’s decision, abortion remains legal in California as well as in at least 15 other states. Across the nation, women in need of abortion services will have to travel to a state where abortion is legal.

“Poor women, many of them Latinas, will be the most impacted by this decision. Voting has always mattered. More than ever, we urge the MANA de San Diego community to show up to the polls and make their voices heard this November and hereinafter.”

Two Peninsula men spoke out on the landmark court ruling.

Jerry Lohla felt the ruling had religious – and political – overtones. “This is simply about males needing to control females, and evangelical Christians wanting to exert their own religious values over Constitutional freedoms,” he said. “As a male, I have no right to tell any woman what to do about her own health, and neither do any other males. The Supreme Court has become not just partisan Republican, but far-right-extremist Trumpian. It’s a tragic day for America.”

Robert Tripp Jackson said the ruling had poor timing. “With COVID, the war in Ukraine, and overall general discontentedness in this world today, now they drop this ‘bomb’ to boot on the USA?,” he asked adding, “Now the Supreme Court has ripped a 50-year-old bandage off the wound – and on such a personal level.”

Pointing out all the social changes and advances over the last 50 years, Jackson questioned the wisdom of “reversing such an old decision from 1973 without any ‘middle ground’ at all. This could undermine case law for the last 50 years, create enormous conflicts among states, and put our female citizens in desperate circumstances, and very real medical risk. This should be between the expecting woman and her doctors, not the Supreme Court. What’s next?”

PHOTO BY LORIE SHAULL/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS