and that is to defend the constitution and uphold the civil liberties and civil rights of people in this country. by this ruling it has shark to this responsibility. and as you just mentioned, when we think about the people who will be most harmed by this, of the many categories the supreme court has essentially said that a ten year old girl who has been raped by a father, brother, stepfather, should and must carry a pregnancy to term if she is living in a state that bans abortion. and that being a mother at 11 years old in the united states is permissible under law. cecile richards, you have joined us on this subject, really, since the beginning of this program. and you ve been with it as a cause in your life for much longer than that. what are your feelings and thoughts tonight? look, i would agree with the professor. this is a day of enormous
you fail and edward koch in his opinion as moral authorities on abortion. our next guest, law professor jill olin, writes that justice alito relies on sir matthew hale, because, quote, he is desperate to establish that the and the american legal system was opposed to abortion. he thinks this characterization of the past gives overturning roe a veneer of legitimacy, relying on that mystery of injustice as a reason to deny modern women control over their own lives a terrible argument, but apparently the best thing alito can do. joining us now, professor of law at the university of minnesota. and emily, staff writer at the new york times magazine and fellow at the yale law school. and professor, let me begin with you and your reaction to the work of the amateur historians in the opinion. well, one thing there s a lot of things that we re striking.
participated in an abortion, possibly by paying for it. as is very common. and the idea that they actually really believed this stuff that they were saying on the campaign trail, and really wanted it to happen, is something i have never accepted about any one of them ever. but the people they put on the supreme court didn t get the memo, that stuff is just campaign talk. it s interesting to see the right, to see the antiabortion right, and see the republicans certainly pleased with what happens today. but also, worried about the electoral consequences of this, because they re the dog that cut the car here, in a way. it s one thing to talk about the horrors of abortion, and why we need to get rid of it, and how terrible it is, and we will get rid of it. then, if you do get rid of it, and if you re the person responsible for america being a country without right that is no longer available to all american women.
of the 66-page dissent, written by stephen breyer, sonia sotomayor, and elana kagan, says with sorrow, for this court, but more for the many millions of american women who have today, lost a fundamental constitutional protection, we dissent. they dissent from the majority opinions reliance, on the moral authority on the subject of abortion, of two english aristocrats, who in the 1630 s, believed that which is should be tried in court, before being put to death. the supreme court opinion, revoking a constitutional right for the first time in history, relies on men who believed in with you and believed they should be executed. and it does so without embarrassment.
the fallout of strict abortion bans for a year now in texas. while we were ready for today, that doesn t make it any easier and this is a human rights issue. my colleagues across the state and across the country in the middle of clinic today, having to stop and send people home and colleagues scrambling across the country to figure out where we can get people care, it s unconscionable to think that unelected people in this country can dictate evidence based medicine. that physicians and nurses and health care providers can t do what they ve been trained to do to save the lives of their community members, that our hands are being tied, that we are being threatened to be imprisoned, to deliver lifesaving care in our community. i want to hear so much more from all of you, but we have several more guests that we are getting to in this first hour