Rising fear for retraction of women’s rights

On June 24, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to overturn the landmark case of Roe v. Wade.

This news shocked many people to their core as the right to have a safe and legal abortion had been protected by the government for decades. The effects of a ruling like this present the question of how many of our rights are at stake. Considering Roe was protected under the right to privacy it begs the question: What other privacies are next on the chopping block?

What’s almost worse than seeing the leading country of the free world going back in time is seeing the rights of every woman fading in front of our eyes.

Living in Texas where a trigger law was already in place meant that the minute the overturning was finalized, the tension in the air was palpable. In a world that already deals with so many political and economic issues, there is now the added stress of losing bodily autonomy. If the choice of what can and can’t be done medically is now endangered, what does that say about other individualistic choices? From clothing to TV shows and music preferences, what will the government decide to choose for people next?

So many of the decisions made on a daily basis are rooted in the right to privacy, from whom people choose to be in a relationship with to the media they consume. Those decisions are theirs to make, and the criminalization of abortions just goes to show that any of these rights could be taken away within a

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Justice Clarence Thomas has already made it clear he wants the rulings on same-sex marriage and interracial marriage to be reevaluated next. This is what the land of freedom has turned into in the 21st century– constantly looking over one’s shoulder and refreshing news apps to see what could be overturned next.

The stress of seeing every issue plaguing the country within seconds of it happening takes a major toll on one’s mental health. Not only do people now have to worry about accessing legal and safe health care — they also have to consider if anyone in a place of power didn’t approve of their life choices, those practices could now be at risk for criminalization.

Mental health is already a pressing issue for many people nowadays, but to have to deal with the constant knowledge that you can no longer make choices regulate your own health and well-being is enough to take anyone over the edge.

The right to make decisions about one’s own body should not be the government’s decision. This doesn’t just affect the way young people will go about their intimate lives. This issue now spreads to medical privacy and emergency situations which can’t be made without the consultation of a lawyer first. Decisions like overturning Roe will cost the lives of many people, most from low-income and minority households with nowhere to go.

The saddest thing is that making abortions illegal won’t stop people from getting them. It’ll only stop people from having safe access to the health-care they need. So make no mistake, people will die – whether it be from botched backyard abortions or from being kept from the life-saving procedure they need because it’s now illegal.

It seems that the Supreme Court doesn’t really care about those lives or the lives of the families they will be leaving behind.

If this was truly about saving lives, maybe the focus should be on the people who are already alive.

When a person can no longer make such personal decisions, it will affect their lives in every sense of the word. People will have to consider all of their options before choosing to be intimate. Families will have to worry about what the political views of their states look like before trying to get pregnant for the fear of a potential emergency.

Worst of all, we now have to live our lives with the knowledge that although we may live in our bodies in a sense, they are not just ours. And that is a haunting reality to face.

RABBIA MOLAI managing editor rabbia.molai@my.tccd.edu

Every year as the spring comes to an end, we’re force-fed this narrative that the greatest time of the year is finally upon us. Summer is presented as a never-ending opportunity for late-night memories, popsicles and beach days.

It’s all lies.

Summer has been shoved down our throats since grade school. Back then, it was the greatest time because we didn’t have to go to school, our parents would let us run wild with our friends and, most importantly, we were too young to know about all the problems in the world. Let’s not kid ourselves people: Summer is the sweaty overhyped armpit of all the seasons.

I mean, think about it. First of all, we’re in Texas. We don’t get the luxury of cute hot weather. It’s 95 degrees at 10 p.m., not to mention the humidity. I don’t know about y’all, but I don’t particularly enjoy feeling the weight of the atmosphere every time I step outside.

On top of that, we also have to deal with ungodly amounts of mosquitos, and of course the constant companionship of screaming cicadas.

Some things about summer I can admit are nice, like summer fruits. I mean, watermelon is the absolute boss of fruits. However, that does not make up for the disappointment that comes from not getting a “The Summer I Turned Pretty” type of experience.

There’s just too much pressure during the summertime. It’s like you‘ll waste the whole thing if you don’t do something extraordinary every single day. If you’re anything like me, your summer was probably spent shoving as many extra hours in your seasonal job as possible to save up for the fall.

Also, no one ever seems to talk about summer allergies. You always hear about them in the spring, but I would argue summer allergies can be worse. Not only is your nose running like a continuous faucet, you’re also sweating profusely while constantly wiping at it which, of course, makes it start chafing.

I know a lot of these issues could easily be solved by living in a different place. For example, if you live near a beach, I can absolutely see summer being the best time of year. Living in DFW though, we don’t get the beautiful ocean views. Instead, we get the lovely view of charred grass.

Before anyone criticizes me and says that we have lakes and rivers, I think we can all agree that it’s not really the same thing. I mean, a clear blue ocean and a musty brown lake can’t really be qualified as equals. Sure, you can still enjoy the lake, but you also run the risk of leaving with some weird disease.

So while those in coastal areas enjoy their heat waves and summer days, I’ll be here prematurely putting out Halloween decorations, sipping hot chocolate and preparing for the actual best season of all time. Fall is almost here, ladies and gentlemen, and I, for one, am ready to welcome it.

The cowboy state has melted like the Wicked Witch of the West without any water provided.

It seems the main thing that people can agree on is how laughably hot it is, but it was a problem before the sunny season even started. While sitting directly in front of a fan on a palatable 99 degree June day I received a well meaning message from a friend, “Happy first day of summer!”

Somehow the temperatures were frying the great state of Texas without it even being in the right location around the sun.

Everyone knows summers here are hot, but who could have predicted that we would be soon drowning in our own sweat and tears before even a dark cloud graced the sky.

Almost as if that message were an omen, day by day, week by week and month by month passed without a single drop of rain. Lake’s water levels fell lower with every hour under the blazing sun’s unforgiving rays, plants turning dry and brittle without their life-blood. According to WFAA the DFW area had a 65-day dry streak which is the second longest ever recorded.

In this period of void precipitation, people began to worry more and more about the performance of our power grid. Texas’ energy system is notoriously unreliable in times of stress as we learned in the great freeze of 2021, and now with the scorch of 2022 the problem still remains.

There was a downpour of distrust and even insults thrown online at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas or ERCOT because of the requests of conservation they made to the Texas community.

When it was obvious that the heat wave that swept the nation would hold nothing back, they pleaded with the public to limit the consumption of electricity. But I know I didn’t.

In fact, I cranked up my window air conditioner as well as the home unit just so I could be useful to society and not a puddle of melted goo. It felt like the heat was more oppressive than ever before and I lived in fear that ERCOT would send a letter in the mail personally asking me to help the cause.

The standard of living had hit an all time low when on Tuesday Aug. 8, we were graced with the barest drizzle and it was the best thing to ever happen at that moment. I received texts with so much enthusiasm and happiness over the simplest weather event it was disconcerting.

That’s what this summer has done to us, we celebrate the smallest movements in the stratosphere as if it were the Olympics, but then at least the weather was tolerable for a while. But then the first week of school came, and it started to pour. Suddenly I had to start driving through puddles on the road big enough that a new ecosystem could form and my car felt like it was snaking through a water slide tunnel.

If there is one thing you can always count on when it comes to Texas weather it is this, it will always find a way to betray you.