That the Bible-bangers and fetus obsessives were coming for Roe has been obvious since the day that decision was handed down. What people couldn't seem to understand was that even Roe was nothing but a key to something larger—namely, Griswold v. Connecticut. Once they came for that, they were coming for birth control. But even Griswold isn't the heart of this repressive nesting doll.

If Griswold falls, then so does the right to privacy it derived from the text of the 14th Amendment, and that has been a right wing target literally for decades. That's the final triumph. Conservatives—especially those masquerading as "originalist" legal scholars—have never accepted this right as fairly derived. And once you break down a constitutionally-derived right to privacy, once you control the mechanisms of government, you can do almost anything.

If you don't believe this scenario to be possible, take a look at the law signed on Wednesday in Georgia by Governor Brian Kemp, whose election did not exactly drip with legitimacy. From Slate:

The primary purpose of HB 481 is to prohibit doctors from terminating any pregnancy after they can detect “embryonic or fetal cardiac activity,” which typically occurs at six weeks’ gestation. But the bill does far more than that. In one sweeping provision, it declares that “unborn children are a class of living, distinct person” that deserves “full legal recognition.” Thus, Georgia law must “recognize unborn children as natural persons”—not just for the purposes of abortion, but as a legal rule.

This radical revision of Georgia law is quite deliberate: The bill confirms that fetuses “shall be included in population based determinations” from now on, because they are legally humans, and residents of the state. But it is not clear whether the bill’s drafters contemplated the more dramatic consequences of granting legal personhood to fetuses. For instance, as Georgia appellate attorney Andrew Fleischman has pointed out, the moment this bill takes effect on Jan. 1, 2020, the state will be illegally holding thousands of citizens in jail without bond. That’s because, under HB 481, pregnant inmates’ fetuses have independent rights—including the right to due process. Can a juvenile attorney represent an inmate’s fetus and demand its release? If not, why? It is an egregious due process violation to punish one human for the crimes of another. If an inmate’s fetus is a human, how can Georgia lawfully detain it for a crime it did not commit?

So, that's a lovely bit of Jesuitical argument, but the criminal consequences in this law go far beyond any proposed prior to the current anti-choice frenzy in many of the several states. Women who terminate their own pregnancies could be charged with homicide, and so could doctors who provide procedures now illegal under the law, and so could women who lose their pregnancies through risky behaviors. And then there's this possibility, for anyone still nostalgic for the way things were under the Fugitive Slave Act.

Even women who seek lawful abortions out of state may not escape punishment. If a Georgia resident plans to travel elsewhere to obtain an abortion, she may be charged with conspiracy to commit murder, punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment. An individual who helps a woman plan her trip to get an out-of-state abortion, or transports her to the clinic, may also be charged with conspiracy. These individuals, after all, are “conspiring” to end of the life of a “person” with “full legal recognition” under Georgia law.

At the moment, it's likely that existing Supreme Court precedents will short-circuit these potential legal horrors. But, given the current makeup of the Nine Wise Souls, it's more likely than ever that Roe goes down and then all the other dominoes come clattering afterwards.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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