To the Editor:

Donald Trump promised at the NRA convention to roll back gun control measures enacted under Biden and to fire the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 

To the Editor:

I was in my 20s in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Legislative and legal decisions this year brought back memories from those days, and not pleasant ones.

June 24 marked the two-year anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade. Since then, 21 of 50 states have enacted some variation of abortion restrictions, whether that be an outright ban or a time limit for when the procedure can be performed.

It’s been just over two years since a leaked draft opinion suggested the U.S. Supreme Court would vote to overturn its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion ruling, and it’s now been nearly two years since that actually happened.

The United States Supreme Court shocked the world during its last term, issuing several rulings that had most conservatives cheering and liberals mournful over what they claim is a politicized judiciary.

Almost 50 years after the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling was handed down by the United States Supreme Court, justices last week overturned it — throwing the issue back to the states to decide for themselves, just as they had for the previous 185 years before Roe.

Using Samuel Alito’s logic in proposing to strike down the “right” to an abortion, other rights that you take for granted could also be eliminated. The argument is that if something is not mentioned in the Constitution, that “right” is based only on the majority opinion of the Supreme Court. Thus, if the Roe vs. Wade decision was wrong, the current court could reverse that decision.

Just three days after protesters gathered on the courthouse lawn in Waynesville to demonstrate  their support for legal abortion, a nonprofit with a different perspective on the issue that has roiled the nation since May 2 — when a leaked draft  of a U.S. Supreme Court decision showed that the landmark Roe v. Wade precedent is in danger — opened on the other side of Depot Street in downtown Waynesville.

As it often does, the Historic Haywood Courthouse played host to a rally on May 14 that drew about 50 people, an equal number of signs and a small contingent of counterdemonstrators. Unlike in recent years, it wasn’t a rally supporting Black Lives Matter, or law enforcement officers, or local issues like the proposed jail expansion.

When President Donald Trump appointed conservative jurist Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court, there was an outcry among pro-choice activists afraid Roe v. Wade — the 1973 case that protects a woman’s right to an abortion — would be overturned.