President Donald Trump’s nomination for Supreme Court Justice, Brett Kavanaugh, has stirred up major controversy. Kavanaugh is hoping to take former Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy’s key swing seat on the Supreme Court. If confirmed, Kavanaugh, a conservative, will tip the majority vote to the right. If confirmed, Kavanaugh, along with the other conservatives on the bench, could have the power to overturn legislation that helped establish Kennedy’s career. These opinions include but are not limited to Roe v. Wade and Obergefell v. Hodges, which deal with abortion and same-sex marriage rights, respectively.
If Kavanaugh were to be confirmed to the Supreme Court, a lot of things that President Trump has been talking about, such as ending abortion, could, and mostly would, become very real. Kavanaugh, a Catholic, is against the legal status of abortion even though the decision to get one is not his to make. In addition, the right to marry whomever one pleases could be erased. Same-sex marriage could also be threatened by Kavanaugh due to his religious background. If Kavanaugh gets voted into the Supreme Court, countless people’s ways of life will be changed, and not for the better.
Personally, I am not overly political and I sometimes don’t always keep up with America’s politics, but even I know that with Kavanaugh’s conservative views and stand points, many people’s ways of life will be altered. While him being on the bench may not affect everyone’s life, it will affect many others. Women and members of the LGBTQ+ community would have their lives highly affected. People need to be made aware of what might happen with Kavanaugh serving as a Supreme Court Justice.
With Kavanaugh serving in Supreme Court, women’s rights could also be taking a step backwards. With the prospect of making abortion illegal, women could once again not get a say over what happens to their bodies. Speaking as a woman, this thought is terrifying. To lose even just a little bit of control over my body because some privileged, old white man says so is scary beyond belief. Women are already taken advantage of in this society, through rape, abuse and countless other things. The last thing we need is an actual court decision telling us what we can and cannot do to our bodies. We do not need a law saying it is okay to take advantage of a woman’s body and if Kavanaugh gets voted in, we run that risk.
While I am not a member of the LGBTQ+ community, that does not mean I don’t support it. Having Kavanaugh in the Supreme Court could potentially lead to the reversal of same-sex marriages. Couples who are married may no longer be recognized as married in the eyes of federal law. This is degrading on every level. It’s one thing to get a divorce and end a marriage, but it’s totally different when a couple is still married and the law tells them they are not. The LGBTQ+ community gets enough hate as it is and if this were to happen, they would get even more.
If Brett Kavanaugh were to be confirmed to the Court, this could be one of the worst things to happen to America. Normally seen as a leader in women’s rights and equality for all, America could instead be backtracking further with the overturning of the decisions that protect us. This is not what would Make America Great Again.