ALL IN A ROE: Today marks the 30th anniversary of the most controversial Supreme Court decision of the past half-century, Roe v. Wade. And while it's generally considered the most contentious issue in American politics, I find it kind of funny that in the eight-month history of this blog, this is I believe the first time I've as much as mentioned abortion. I discuss much more grave, much more catastrophic world events on an almost daily basis, yet somehow the A-word is some sort of blogger third rail. So enjoy; I've got a feeling this is the last time I'll address it for awhile.
Despite my various shifts to the right in many other matters in recent times (as illustrated three posts below this one), abortion is one issue where I fall pretty squarely into the liberal camp; my brand of pro-choicism is generally in line with the mushball Clintonite ideal of "safe, legal, and rare." I also think that since Roe v. Wade has already been on the books for a full generation, it's a little too late now to suddenly take those rights away from women all over again. And I would be for the banning of partial-birth abortion if I were convinced that it actually existed, and that it wasn't merely invented as an issue to create a precedent for overturning Roe.
However, where I part company with the NARALs and NOWs of the world is that they caricature all anti-abortion people as vile sickos who want nothing more than to control women's bodies, while ignoring that many good people have legitimate reasons to oppose abortion- and don't think the pro-life side isn't guilty of this sort of thing themselves. Also, while Kim Gandy and Kate Michelman's jobs require a certain Chicken Little quality (or else they'd have nothing to say in their fundraising letters), I personally don't believe there's much likelihood of abortion ever being illegal again in our lifetimes. For one thing, knowing the current makeup of the Democrats in the Senate, they're likely to continue Borking Bush Supreme Court nominees forever until they find one that's suitably abortion-friendly. And more importantly, the political will simply isn't there among the American people: save for a continuing recession or a series of catastrophic terrorist attacks, the only thing that could make George W. Bush lose in 2004 is if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned before election day.
(Which again illustrates the peril the Democratic candidates find themselves in: in order to have any hope of winning, they have to root for economic disaster, terrorism, and/or the banning of abortion!)
So in conclusion, I hope in the coming years to see abortion remain safe and legal, as well as a greater amount of civility from both sides in the debate. Too bad the latter is so much less likely than the former...