Shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling that birthright citizenship will remain the law of the land, I started hearing a new phrase. Maybe it had been used before, and I wasn’t paying that close attention, but after the 6-3 ruling, conservative politicians, talking heads, and social media posts really started using the term “birth tourism.”

The expression “birth tourism” sounds kind of funny. It evokes an image of travel agencies in China, Mexico, Colombia, or other countries chartering planes to have groups of pregnant women fly to America just to give birth. You know, like we have excursions to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower or to Liverpool to visit where the Beatles used to live.

President Trump and the racists who follow him are upset at the obvious ruling. One of his top advisors, Stephen Miller, even proposed a ban on foreign pregnant women flying into the country.

Which also sounds kind of funny. What is he suggesting, and how would you make that work? Would he have women between the ages of 14 and 40 pee on a stick when they land at LaGuardia?

I almost feel sorry for people like that who let their hate of different people overwhelm them to the point they lose all common sense.

Speaking of losing their common sense, let’s talk about Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Samuel Alito. The three Justices who voted to allow President Trump to negate a Constitutional Amendment with the stroke of a pen. What were they thinking?

Were they planning on stripping those born on American soil with foreign parents of their citizenship? Would you deport these former citizens after you’ve told them they are no longer American? Where would you send them? If they aren’t citizens here, where would they be citizens?

Even if the Constitution didn’t spell it out, the logistics of a different ruling would have been a nightmare.

I’m no constitutional expert, but it seems to me that if the 14th Amendment only applied to the children of slaves, as some on the far right have suggested, they would have specifically put that in writing or added a cutoff date to the amendment. They did none of that.

I’ve listened to a number of different opinions from lawyers and scholars, and most, if not all, were surprised that three justices voted the way they did. These experts felt as if the decision should have been unanimous. But then again, I listened to the experts on outlets like CNN and the POTUS channel on SiriusXM and read opinions in the Wall Street Journal.

I’m sure I would have gotten a much different story if I had gotten my news from Fox, OAN, Steve Bannon’s War Room or TikTok reels.

On the same day the Supreme Court ruled on birthright citizenship, it ruled on transgender women in sports. I believe that transgender people should be treated with decency and respect. But that doesn’t mean transgender women should be allowed to compete in women’s sports. That’s just common sense.

The whole transgender women in sports issue is blown waaaaayyy out of proportion. Currently, there are fewer than ten trans women competing in NCAA sports. There are currently over 500,000 NCAA athletes throughout the three divisions.

But politicians have made it such a big issue because they can use it to scare people and get votes. Riley Gaines is a swimmer who tied a trans woman for 5th place at the 200-yard freestyle event at the NCAA championships. Immediately after the event, Gaines had nice things to say about the trans woman. But after conservative media got hold of her and made this an issue, she has made a profitable career speaking and writing about being a victim of the trans community.

Our Founding Fathers were wise when they formed a government with three separate and coequal branches of government. On their final day of this session, the Supreme Court made a mistake and ignored its policies by giving the president even more unchecked power.

But I don’t have time to write about that now. I need to get to work and see what I have to do to start my new business idea. I have to check bulk rates for airlines, cruise ships, hotels and hospitals. I’m going to jump on the bandwagon and cater to that new group of travelers I’ve heard so much about. The “Birth Tourists.”

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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