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    Why rights need proactive protecting

    Synopsis

    The quest towards a more perfect progressive liberal democratic society is never over, nor is its progression linear. Changing mindsets and social structures takes time, constant effort. As Martin Luther King Jr had aptly put it in the context of a struggle for another right, 'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

    Landmark Roe v Wade abortion decision overturnedReuters
    Abortion rights protesters gather at the Utah State Capitol after the United States Supreme Court ruled in the Dobbs v Women’s Health Organization abortion case, overturning the landmark Roe v Wade abortion decision
    Whichever way one looks at it, the US Supreme Court overturning the 1973 Roe v Wade judgment that gave women the constitutional right to an abortion until 22-24 weeks of pregnancy, is a regression that puts the US among countries outlawing abortion like Laos, the Philippines, Egypt and Iraq. Despite being a democracy, the US will now have states with less safe and legal access to abortion than, say, Saudi Arabia. The right to protected abortion access will now be left to individual states. Assessments show that 26 of the 50 states are certain or likely to ban termination of pregnancy.

    By junking Roe v Wade, the guardian of the US Constitution has made women in many states no longer have a say over their own reproductive rights and body. This is a major backslide. No amount of moral or cultural relativism in the form of 'popular will' or 'federal empowerment' can provide cover to this regression. Like the US's permissive gun laws, allowing abortion to become illegal in individual states underlines how civil liberties and protecting rights are mutually exclusive of economic development and progress. They need to be proactively protected as non-negotiable liberal values. The quest towards a more perfect progressive liberal democratic society is never over, nor is its progression linear. Changing mindsets and social structures takes time, constant effort. As Martin Luther King Jr had aptly put it in the context of a struggle for another right, 'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.'

    For people across the world, particularly in younger and less mature democracies, this moment must not be one of hopelessness. Rather it should teach us that the real threat to open societies and liberal democracies is the absence of constant dialogue and exchange, and that hardened positions that deny any segment of its citizenry their rights do not make for a democracy.

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