Who’s Really to Blame for the End of Roe?

One possible candidate rode horses on a farm where Scalia liked to shoot quail.

There is a lot of blame going around on social media for how we got to this apocalyptic moment, in which it looks as if a 6–3 conservative court will overturn Roe v. Wade, and end bodily autonomy for women. Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama, Susan Sarandon, Ruth Bader Ginsburg—people on the internet have called out all of them, and more. I’m not sure how helpful that is. But if we’re going to blame anyone for the potential loss of this fundamental American right, I suggest we start with the woman who petitioned the Supreme Court to review Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization: Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch.

Fitch has said that overturning Roe will “empower” women. She explained it to a Catholic television network this way: “Think about this—the lives that will be touched, the babies that will be saved, the mothers who get a chance to really redirect their lives.” I don’t know how taking away the option of ending a pregnancy would “empower” someone. In fact, it sounds like doublespeak to me. But Fitch uses her own experience as a model, so let’s talk about that.

According to a December profile by The Lily, Fitch raised three children as a single mother—after spending some childhood weekends on an 8,000-acre Mississippi property called Galena Plantation (or “Fitch Farms” at Galena Plantation), apparently once a quail-hunting haunt of the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. A subsequent opinion piece in The Daily Beast pointed to a magazine feature that had been reposted on the farm’s now-defunct website, highlighting the fact that Lynn’s father, William “Bill” Fitch—a “history buff”—had “bought, transported, and restored Nathan Bedford Forrest’s old cabin home,” rendering it “complete with old Civil War and Nathan Bedford Forrest memorabilia.” You may remember Nathan Bedford Forrest as a Confederate general and the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

Hayes Dent, Fitch’s campaign manager on her first race, for state treasurer in 2011, claimed to The Lily that Fitch’s largest donor in that race was her father. I myself grew up with privilege, so I’m not faulting her for that. But it’s easier to “have it all” when you can afford child care, health care, day camps, sports programs, private schools, etc.

The profile of Fitch in The Lily explained that she “has always relied on her community for help … especially after her divorce. When her kids were young, she benefited from a tightknit network of six other moms, who would swoop in for school drop-offs and football practice pickups when she couldn’t leave her desk. Fitch believes those are the kinds of supports every mother needs.” Oh, and “she also paid for day care and a nanny.”

The Dobbs petition Fitch filed to the Supreme Court in 2020 stated: “Today, adoption is accessible and on a wide scale women attain both professional success and a rich family life, contraceptives are more available and effective, and scientific advances show that an unborn child has taken on the human form and features months before viability. States should be able to act on those developments.” How many of the hundreds of thousands of women in poverty in Mississippi would agree with the ease of life that Fitch describes here? The idea that another mouth to feed would somehow “empower” these women is the stuff of fiction.

Asked about Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion, which would strike down Roe v. Wade, Fitch said, “We want the final opinion. We’re waiting for the ultimate decision to come down, and certainly giving deference to the court and what they will speak to.” She then, of course, complained about the leak. Many conservatives have painted themselves as the victims, somehow, of this leak, which is a smart play politically but preposterous in reality. As with so many conservatives, it's worth pondering whether Fitch really believes what she’s saying. But if Roe is indeed overturned, it won’t matter what Lynn Fitch believes—just what she’s done.