Wisconsin Bans B/C on College Campuses [Update]

My earlier post was a bit hasty, so I've nuked the original and will attempt to clarify.

According to a July 27 article in the Minnesota Daily, Wisconsin passed a bill that "prohibits University of Wisconsin campuses from prescribing, dispensing and advertising all forms of birth control and emergency contraceptives."

Evidently the column's author was incorrect, and while it has, indeed, been proposed, it's presently expected to die in committee, having been deemed unconstitutional. Thank heaven for small favors.

Having said that, however, these details are beside my main point:

This is likely to be the first of many attempts at the state level to further reduce women's access to reproductive liberty. Should the antipated challenges to Roe v Wade result in its reversal, we must remember that abortion rights are not the only thing in jeopardy. Among "states-rights" derived objections, the primary fault found with the Roe ruling among conservatives is in its "right to privacy" doctrine. I'm sure someone lawyerly will turn up and provide a comprehensive list of the cases that cite Roe and it's privacy stipulation, but in the meantime, I'm all but certain that if this "penumbra" right comes into question, Griswold v. Connecticut is next on the chopping block. That's the happy 1965 ruling that says the states cannot prohibit the sale or prescription of birth control. It's where the right of "privacy" is first asserted. SCOTUS rulings, to a degree, are a house of cards, one relying on another for its stability. Privacy is, effectively, reproductive liberty's pair of clay feet, and is the target the neocons have been drooling over since The Boy King was elected... appointed... whatever.

The radical right has been hell bent on insisting that the "right to privacy is nowhere in the Constitution" for 40 years, and they're not about to give up the ghost now. I don't intend to wander into an armchair-scholar's critique of "privacy" just yet (oh, but you know I will, dear readers... stay tuned), but suffice to say that this is still very much on the SCOTUS table.

So what's today's call to action, you ask? Stay on top of this. Don't wait until Roe is overturned to start filling your warchests with knowledge. Regardless of your ultimate position on abortion, birth control, sex ed and everything else that lives in our loins, now is the time to keep your ears to the ground. We don't want to hear the reversal announcement on CNN and watch the staunchly pro-life fire their fully-loaded cannons at the state legislatures, while those of us in the center and on the left stand there looking shocked and appalled, scrambling to "get ready" to tackle the debate. Prep time is now.