Judge Reminds Anti-Abortion Attorneys That No Women Helped Draft Utah's Constitution in 1895

[In It to Win It]

Judge Reminds Anti-Abortion Attorneys That No Women Helped Draft Utah's Constitution in 1895

Utah Supreme Court Judge Paige Petersen is a member of the court’s first female-majority.

Anti-abortion attorneys defending Utah’s abortion trigger ban, which is currently blocked, on Tuesday appealed to the state Supreme Court by calling on the justices to focus on the state Constitution in deciding whether to lift the injunction on the ban. They argued that Utah’s Constitution is clear that abortion should be prohibited: “There is an unbroken history and tradition … before 1973 [when Roe v. Wade was decided], of prohibiting abortion. And that unbroken history has to be part of this Court’s analysis, rather than present-day policy arguments about the benefits or the or lack thereof of abortion,” attorney Taylor Meehan argued.

In response, Judge Paige Petersen reminded Meehan of some state history that the attorneys defending the law seemed to be forgetting: “Women were in the audience, but they weren’t any of the delegates” who helped create the state Constitution in 1895, Petersen said, according to Axios. “How do we know … what they thought the meaning of their rights were? It seems important in this context because women are the ones that experience pregnancy and experience childbirth.”

[SCantiGOP]

1. I'm surprised their argument wasn't

that this fact should then nullify women having the vote.
Make the 19th Century Great Again.

[HardPort]

5. Just a FWIW: That Utah Constitution did guarantee women the vote, 25 years before the 19A.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

7. That's strong evidence that the Utah Constitution sought to treat women equally.

There is no "equal protection under the law" if roughly half the population can be forced into indentured servitude by the state.

[SCantiGOP]

8. Didn't know that

But I knew Wyoming was first state to give women the vote.
Western states used to have a strong tradition of the best aspects of populism and libertarianism. Even during the 60s a lot of the strongest opponents to the Vietnam War were Western state Senators of both parties.

[Ilsa]

12. I think women had greater representation as landowners

and therefore, wealth in some western states. I can't be certain, but women were allowed to inherit and own real estate in order to keep large estate holdings within families.

More money, louder voice.

[SCantiGOP]

17. more money, more voice

For good or bad, that is a very apt 4 word description of our political system.

[Hamlette]

2. The Justice quoted above dated Jack Smith and says he's the best prosecutor she has ever seen/known.

Good on her for this quote, btw.

[iluvtennis]

3. Wow. It truly is a small world. n/t

[ffr]

4. Bwah! True.

[Snackshack]

6. Hmmm

“It seems important in this context because women are the ones that experience pregnancy and experience childbirth.”


Doesn’t seem, it is. Certainly the neanderthals feel different. Surprised they didn’t object to this characterization of birth.

[hildegaard28]

9. Perhaps

We need to start drafting constitutional amendments that forbid men from drafting and voting on legislation related to women's genitals. If they don't have those parts, they shouldn't be allowed to draft laws about them.

[Deuxcents]

10. 👍

[slightlv]

11. I absolutely think this is fair, under the equality rules and laws.

Otherwise, why shouldn't women start proposing and (where possible) start passing all sorts of laws about men's bodies? For example, do you know how dangerous cialis and other drugs like that are to men? Yet the warnings are in the finest of fine print on the TV ads for the cheapie generics. My husband, who is 74 and has had 2 heart attacks, has never even had the warnings given to him by his nurse practitioner! Yet I was concerned enough, and love my husband enough to want to keep him around for a long time more, that I did the research. AFAIC, lack of that info from a doctor borders on malpractice. What if we women at least demanded black box warnings on all these types of drugs and their herbal knockoffs? Or even forbade the herbal knockoffs?!

And that's just for starters. That's actually proposing something that really does have men's health at heart. We could get as cocky (forgive the pun) as the men do to us where it goes to stripping reproductive rights. I'm sure we women here could come up with a whole list of ideas, modeled after the rights that we have lost recently.

[Ray Bruns]

13. "Women were in the audience, but they weren't any of the delegates"

The attorney replied,”That’s not true. Some of them were in the kitchen also.”

[usaf-vet]

15. Did they work in the kitchen barefoot?

Also.......

[Ray Bruns]

16. You betcha!