Texas Abortion Ban Author: State Can Control Private Sex
Calls sodomy-law bans and same-sex-marriage “lawless”
Do you think your consensual adult sexual behavior in your own home is nobody’s business but yours? Do you think The Scarlett Letter is a cautionary tale? Do you believe you enjoy the fundamental right to be free from state control of your sex life?
Jonathan Mitchell says you’re wrong. The architect of the Texas law that bans abortion at about six weeks after conception (before many women even know they’re pregnant) says the government should have the power to regulate your private sexual conduct.
Yes, really.
He and co-counsel Adam Mortara just spelled that out in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, a friend-of-the-court filing in a Mississippi abortion case in which they urge the justices to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade.
They don’t stop with the high court’s abortion-ban precedent. They take direct aim at privacy rulings that bar states from banning same-sex marriage or criminalizing private sex like same-gender sex, oral sex, and anal sex. They tell the court outright that people in the U.S. do not enjoy a fundamental right to private sex lives.
