Abortion will not disappear from America

Cards on the table: While I find abortion to be awful, I would not ban it. Can any rational person “like” it?

Going back to the 1992 Bill Clinton dictum, it should be safe, rare, and legal.

That was brilliantly crafted as an umbrella to include pro-choicers, alongside those who found the procedure morally repugnant, but pragmatically acceptable.

Let’s be clear on the facts: Should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe vs. Wade, abortion would still be legal and available in at least half the states. Despite the hysteria, the sky is not falling, it is not the end of democracy.

In fact, by laying the divisive issue in the lap of the states, the High Court has enabled democracy. Each state will vote and decide for itself. That is more democratic than having a non-elected juridical panel decide. 

If the Supreme Court does overturn Roe, it will fulfill a prophecy by Liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who opined that Roe vs. Wade was, in fact, based on a faulty Constitutional argument.  

When she made that statement, no angry mobs with torches and pitchforks assembled outside of the Court’s magnificent neoclassical marble building.

Why?

The Court was safely in liberal hands, as it was since 1953 when President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren chief justice in the mistaken belief Warren would lead from the center.

Instead, the Warren Court became the most liberal court in history.

Conservatives have had a slow burn for almost 70 years, and I don’t recall them seeking to burn the Court down because most decisions didn’t go their way.

The Left needs to act like grown-ups. 

You lost one. Stop throwing tantrums like a 2-year-old denied a taffy. Don’t threaten the lives and the well-being of Justices. Grow up and organize.

How?

First, politically. Get your state legislature to enshrine what should be called non reproductive rights. That’s what we are really talking about — the right to not reproduce.

Second, provide access to lower-income women, who will be impacted the most, because they are least able to get to a state with abortion services. The solution is simple: The women (and men) who are not poor will create nonprofits to connect a poor woman, in Mississippi say, with services in Illinois or New Jersey. 

Is it ideal? No. Will it happen? Yes.

Some liberal billionaire (the U.S. has seven Black billionaires) could write a check and never even feel it.

The reality is, any woman who wants and needs an abortion will be able to have it.

This reduces the argument that women don’t have control of their bodies to absurdity.

On Twitter, someone asked me in what way are men’s bodies “controlled” by the government? 

How about all men are required to register for the draft, which can put them in a foxhole under enemy guns? 

The potential ruling is nothing like the Taliban denying women an education. 

What’s next, some are asking? Will same-sex and interracial marriages be knocked down?

The answer is no, because those rights are based on equal protection under the Constitution, which is actual language. The so-called “right of privacy,” which is not language found in the Constitution, was invented to cover “liberties” that are not enumerated.

When you start to argue with me on this point, remember you are arguing with Justice Ginsberg.

Some genius analyst on MSNBC said states would prohibit women leaving to have an abortion elsewhere. He did not explain how state officials would know when citizens were leaving to go elsewhere and for whatever reason. Secret police, maybe?

Perhaps he was influenced by a crazed group airing a TV commercial that has state troopers stopping a car with two women in it to ask where they are going — and why. And then arrest them under suspicion they are planning an abortion.

TV is where lucid arguments go to die.

I think this hot mess will be a gift to Democrats because the people who are offended by such decisions turn out in greater numbers than those who are satisfied.

While a majority of Americans “favor” abortion, a majority do not favor an unrestricted “right” to abortion. (See Gallup chart above)

Only 32% of Americans want abortion without restriction, while 48% favor it only with some restrictions and 19% oppose it under all circumstances. 

The “approval” numbers go down as the duration of the pregnancy goes up.

That’s according to Gallup, which reports 49% of Americans say they are pro-choice while 47% are pro-life.

Those numbers explain why abortion is so divisive — because the dividing line is so close.

Going back to the start — about safe, rare, and legal abortions.

With 63 million (legal) abortions since 1973, it is not “rare,” and when you get into dark practices such as late-term or “partial-birth abortion,” the majority becomes a small minority.

And nothing the Supremes do will change that.