The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the abortion rights precedent, triggering heated discussions around the world.
Many people say that the United States, which is known as the most modern and civilized country, does not even have the right for women to have an abortion. What is the difference between this and medieval Europe?
In fact, there have always been extreme conservatism and extreme Puritan ideas in American social trends, which really have roots in medieval Europe.
▲ Anglo-Saxon restoration map. When the United States was founded, white people were mainly from Anglo-Saxons.
Many of the chaos in the United States today are closely related to the ultra-conservatism of the Anglo-Saxons. From the Freud case From the black protests, the riots on Capitol Hill and the "anti-intellectual behavior" of the COVID-19 epidemic, to today's public demonstrations on the issue of abortion, the streets of the United States have witnessed the kidnapping of the United States by Puritan ideas.
So, what ultra-conservative ideas has the United States inherited? After independence, what kind of tragedy and comedy happened in the United States because of these ideas?
1. The Mayflower and the introduction of British Puritan thought
When the European religious reform was in full swing, British Protestant thought also gradually took shape. In 1526, in order to terminate his engagement with Queen Catherine of Aragon, Spain, King Henry VIII of England, as a Catholic, submitted a divorce application to Pope Clement VII.
But at that time, Spain had already controlled the Kingdom of Naples in the southern part of the Papal States. In order not to offend Spain, the Pope chose to refuse.
▲The Papal State is now the Vatican State in Rome, Italy. Naples is just south of Rome
Henry VIII became angry. He decided to take advantage of the reformation and break away from the Holy See to provide religious support for his divorce. defense arguments.
Between 1533-1534, the Church of England was ordered to issue a series of rules and regulations such as the "Restriction of Complaints Act", "Teaching Appointment Act", " Supreme Act" and "Act of Succession to the Throne". The Church of England also Called , Anli Ganzong has taken shape. From then on, Britain officially became a Protestant country.
During the reign of Mary I, the daughter of Henry VIII, as a devout Catholic, she went against the grain and persecuted Protestants. The nightmare of burning burned from London to Dublin . Tens of thousands of Protestants were overwhelmed and fled to other places to seek refuge. Therefore, she was also dubbed "Bloody Mary".
Various protestant groups in different places hold different ideas. Some are the Reformed sect that was originally formed, some are the Calvinist sect that developed and expanded in Europe, and some are the Anglican sect in England.
Some people in the Anglican sect believe that although the Church of England is a Protestant religion, it still retains many cumbersome Catholic rituals. They advocate eliminating the remnants and maintaining purity, hence the name Puritanism.
620, a ship named the Mayflower, full of British Puritans escaping religious persecution, began their "expedition" to the North American continent.
When they were about to arrive at their destination, the people on the ship signed a contract together, which is also known as the "Mayflower Compact." The convention stipulates that after arriving on the North American continent, the people on the ship voluntarily form a self-governing group of people and formulate and implement just laws, regulations, ordinances and charters that are beneficial to the interests of the group. All members promise to abide by and obey the "Mayflower Convention" .
▲The Mayflower
Subsequently, the Mayflower, which sailed for 66 days, began to spread European civilization in the Massachusetts colony. The Puritans on the ship kept their promise and formed a colonial autonomous group, hoping to establish a free religious holy place and realize their lofty religious ideals.
Therefore, before the founding of the United States, the United States had religious genes.
The widespread spread of Puritan ideas in North America has greatly changed the thinking patterns and living habits of local residents.In the American continent, far away from the hustle and bustle of Europe, there are many European immigrants who originally abided by religious rules and attended mass regularly but gradually became more indulgent. However, the increase of Puritan immigrants made North America more religious.
For example, the number of churches and monasteries in Massachusetts doubled in the 17th century. Churches on Sundays were even more crowded, and donations to churches from celebrities poured in. The colonial government of Massachusetts even gave legal effect to government decrees and religious creeds, implementing a unified government system of church and state in North America.
▲Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts
Under the dual arrangements of policy and doctrine, Massachusetts has also ushered in a wave of "baby boom". Because Massachusetts, as a colony, needed a large amount of cheap labor to engage in production for the mother country.
Puritan thought also inherited the traditional Catholic concept, that is, the birth of a child is the will of God, and the child is "created" by a couple under God's arrangement. In this way, Puritan ideas began to penetrate into all aspects of American social life and gradually became a common practice.
2. The development of Puritan thought and the outbreak of the Civil War
As we all know, the United States has experienced very few wars. In addition to the two large-scale wars such as the two independent wars and the Mexican-American War, the most noteworthy one is the American Civil War. The Civil War was the deadliest and most injured war in modern American history.
At that time, the United States had already won the war against Mexico and was gradually advancing towards the Pacific coast. Its power was at its peak in the Americas. So, why did the United States, which was developing well, break out into a civil war with heavy losses?
▲Mexican-American War
It turns out that the contradiction between the north and the south of the United States has been reflected since the founding of the country. The economy in the north was developed, industry and commerce were prosperous, and the Puritans were more open-minded.
Although the Puritans of the North and the South agree that God's salvation for each person has already been decided by God when a person is born. But the North is more inclined to what Calvin said, that achievements in earthly careers can gain God's favor and support people to move forward.
The South believes that destiny is such that it is difficult to modify. They rely on hereditary manor land to exploit black slaves and live a leisurely life as a "manor lord".
The ideological differences between the North and the South have intensified with the disputes over economic interests. In the 19th century, many northern states in the United States declared black slaves freedmen status and arranged jobs for them in factories, providing the necessary labor force for the country's industrial development.
But southern agriculture required black slaves to be bound to the land as serfs, so that southern slave owners could get more value.
In the 50s, a large number of black slaves fled north, causing dissatisfaction among the "southern masters". Politicians' meetings in Congress have been difficult to move forward due to North-South differences, and some members have even gotten into fights during the meetings.
For example, In 1856, Republican Congressman Charles Sumner who supported the free states gave a speech in Congress angrily denounced the Democrats who supported the slave states . He said, "If slavery is a woman, then she is a Ugly woman, and the congressman from South Carolina would make some dirty deals with her.”
Brooks, the Democratic congressman in the audience, gave him a beating. After this incident, all members of Congress felt insecure and carried weapons to attend the meeting, feeling uneasy all day long.
In 1860, Republican Lincoln was elected, and the southern states went completely berserk, fearing that Lincoln would confiscate slaves in the name of the Union.
In 1861, South Carolina held high the "Lone Star Flag in the Blue Sky" and announced its formal withdrawal from the Union. Subsequently, Virginia, , Mississippi, , Texas and other southern states followed suit, and the flames of independence burned throughout the United States. All corners of the South.
In 11865, the Northern Army successfully suppressed the rebellion.The southern states were forced to accept the plan to establish a federal unified market and launched in-depth economic cooperation with the north.
But "It is easy to break the mountain, but it is difficult to break the heart." American Puritanism still has a deep-rooted understanding of "black lives are cheap", and discrimination against black people is not uncommon.
After the war, in order to make up for the large number of casualties, the U.S. federal government encouraged people to have children. Puritan priests also became active in American society again under the background of the separation of church and state after American independence.
The church firmly controls large tracts of rural areas in the southern United States. Due to financial constraints, rural women cannot go to big cities for clandestine abortions. At the same time, due to the constraints of traditional concepts, the population of rural America increased sharply after the war, and most of them went to work in factories. Or become a farmer and plant in the southern farmland.
In short, they all contributed to the development of American capitalism. But will the mass births women are forced to have really bring long-term prosperity and stability to the country?
3. The tearing apart of society by contemporary American Puritanism
Recently, the U.S. Federal Supreme Court overturned the ruling of Roe v. Wade in the 1970s, and feminist movements continued to break out in many places across the United States. At this point, we have to mention what "Roe v. Wade" is.
In 1969, a Texas waitress, Norma McCovey, became accidentally pregnant due to rape. However, due to her poor family, it was difficult to afford the high cost of clandestine abortion surgery. In desperation, she had no choice but to seek help from a lawyer, hoping that after the child was successfully delivered, he could be sent to an orphanage to wait for adoption.
The two lawyers are named Weddington and Coffey. They often participate in women's activities and have long fought to protect women's rights.
After hearing about Norma McCaw's experience, they decided to work together to overturn Texas' anti-abortion law. They used Article 14 of the Constitutional Amendment, the clause protecting citizens' privacy rights, as theoretical support and publicly declared that the state law was unconstitutional. Starting from the appeal to the Northern District Court of Texas in March 1970, it took three years for the nine justices of the Supreme Court to vote 7:2 and declare that the right to privacy includes the right to abortion and that abortion is legal. Since then, American women’s right to abortion has been protected by the Constitution.
Justice Alito of the Supreme Court this time pointed out that the constitutional amendment did not explicitly mention women’s right to abortion, and the "Roe v. Wade" case was completely random behavior by previous judges.
He also used "American political correctness" in the draft, emphasizing the relationship between black people and abortion, and preaching that the ban on abortion is to prevent the genocide of black Americans.
The original sentence in the draft: "There is no doubt that the Roe case has a demographic impact. Among aborted babies, black fetuses account for a highly disproportionate proportion." This is the embodiment of Judge Alito's aforementioned view.
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court held a vote of judges. The vote ended with a score of 6:3, and the conservative judges won a resounding victory. Subsequently, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to abortion is not a civil right contained in the U.S. Constitution, allowing states to legislate abortion.
After the verdict was released, Missouri was the first to announce the triggering of the abortion ban. As of 8 a.m. on June 25, Beijing time, there were at least 14 states including Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas. State abortion bans have been triggered, overwhelmingly with conservative Puritan ideas.
▲ In the 2021 U.S. Senate election, the Republicans will win in red states, and the Democrats will win in blue states. The majority of Republican votes are in ultra-conservative states, as noted in the chart above.
In some states, relevant bills not only prohibit abortion, but also give the state’s Ministry of Justice the power to initiate criminal prosecutions against women who perform abortions and their helpers. This is undoubtedly a major blow to women’s rights in contemporary times.
After all, the conservative puritanism of contemporary America still hangs over the United States.
As a secular country in the United States, it is paradoxical that the formulation and implementation of national policies are influenced by traditional Puritan ideas. Most of the states that have followed the abolition of abortion are Republican vote bases.
This situation can not help but remind people of the civil war that severely damaged the United States and tore it apart 161 years ago. Where should the United States, which is divided by two-party politics, go in the future in the international community?
