The ACLU has an article promoted on Facebook about Alito’s draft, so I clicked on the link to see if they managed to mention women at all. The answer: as little as possible.

What to Know About the Leaked Supreme Court Abortion Draft Opinion, and What’s Next

On Monday night, Politico published a leaked draft of the highly anticipated Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The draft majority opinion, penned by Justice Samuel Alito, overturns the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which has been on the books for nearly 50 years and has ensured abortion is a protected federal constitutional right. If this draft decision is issued as the official decision, it would be unprecedented and would take away a fundamental right for millions of people…

No, it wouldn’t. It would take away a fundamental right for millions of women. That isn’t incidental, it’s central in all sorts of ways.

The word “women” appears only four times in the piece, which is not short. The first appearance is in the first para, above – it’s in the title of the case, so they’re stuck with it.

The second:

Brigitte Amiri: If this is really where the Supreme Court is headed — that you only have a constitutional right if it was contemplated by white men in the 1700s — then there’s a whole host of issues that we work on here and that people care about in our country that are at risk, like access to contraception and LGBTQ rights. These are rights that will most directly impact women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community.

No again. Women, including women of color and lesbians. There’s no reason to drag “people” and “communities” into this except as a craven attempt to shove women backstage. If they want to say this will fall especially hard on women of color, lesbians, poor women, immigrant women and so on, by all means, but don’t pretend they’re not all women.

ACLU: Justice Alito also refers to a 13th Century treatise that designates abortion as homicide, and relies on medieval common law in which women are likened to chattel.

Yes. Women, not people in general. Makes you think, doesn’t it.

The last one:

BA: Right, so we know these are Justice Alito’s views, and maybe this is ultimately written as a concurrence, rather than the majority opinion. But it is really terrifying that someone who is so powerful holds these views about people’s roles in society and women’s roles in society.

Oops. She slipped up there – she must have realized it doesn’t make much sense to talk about Alito’s views on people in society. Sometimes you just have to use the word “women,” dammit! It’s so embarrassing and awkward.

These people are about as useful as a leaky rowboat in the middle of the Atlantic in Janurary.