Pharoah Did it First
For Black women, these state-forced pregnancies can be deadly. Because of implicit bias in health care, Black women still receive prenatal care at lower rates and are still more likely to die during and after childbirth than every other race. The Dobbs decision ignores the possibility of harm. It ignores the impact of Black maternal mortality on the future of the Black community. It ignores the lack of access to adequate health care and the possibility that Black mothers who choose to opt out of dangerous hospital births risk losing their children to the foster care system. Like Pharoah, the Supreme Court’s decision willfully disregards the suffering of the least of these for the sake of preserving the power of the state, for the sake of preserving white Christian nationalism.
Wolves, Lambs, and Lions … oh my!
Isaiah 65:17-25 is not the hope for the obliteration of differences, where the oppressor and oppressed might co-exist. The fantasy of the white liberal - that sees the fight for the sovereignty of Black lives on the same binary plane as white supremacy - that recreates the text to suggest that those who suffer might make room for those who caused the suffering is anti-Biblical and, frankly, idolatry.