Fwd: [MargiesWin] SAY SAYONARA TO ABORTION

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[MargiesWin] SAY SAYONARA TO ABORTION

 

Forwarded, no URL. Ted Rall on why we can say goodbye to abortion in this

country. (Soon to be followed by making birth control difficult to come by or

illegal - just my opinion). Rall isn't sure the end of R v W would be such

a bad thing - in that, I've come to agree with him. Until the right of

women to control their own reproduction is lost, the vast majority in this

country won't realize, as the song goes, what they had till it's gone. Nor

will

they realize that Democrats stood between the GOP and the loss of all kinds of

rights, not even chiefly R v W. Margie

 

SAY SAYONARA TO ABORTION

 

By Ted RallWed Jul 27,12:26 AM ET

NEW YORK--Now is a superb time to get that abortion you've been putting off.

Officially, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts' opinion of Roe v. Wade is

" opaque, " " mysterious, " or--my favorite--just " unknown. " But if I'm no genius,

it doesn't take one to suss out how Roberts will vote when the next big

abortion case hits his docket.

Three facts indicate that Roberts' confirmation spells the end of Roe v.

Wade, the decision guaranteeing American women the right to an abortion.

First: Despite repeated denials, it's clear that Sandra Day O'Connor's

shoo-in replacement is an active member of the Federalist Society, the far-right

cadre of scary college kids who worship Ayn Rand, dress like Tucker Carlson and

care deeply about your sex life. " Many key policymakers in the Bush

administration are acknowledged current or former members, " reports the

Washington

Post. " In conservative circles, membership in or association with the society

has become a badge of ideological and political reliability. " The group takes

a hard line against abortion, comparing Roe v. Wade to the infamous 1857

Dred Scott decision defining slaves as property.

Second: Roberts' wife is a militant anti-abortion activist, a member and

ex-board member of a Catholic group called " Feminists for Life. " She performs

pro bono legal work for the group's pro-life agenda. Democrats, Republicans and

even NARAL Pro-Choice America say that that doesn't mean anything-- " My wife

has opinions on things that may or may not conform with mine, and I think most

couples are in that situation, " says GOP Senator Rick Santorum--but it does.

Even before being tapped for the high court Roberts was an ambitious,

well-connected judicial up-and-comer in right-wing Washington political circles.

If he felt annoyed or embarrassed by the sight of his wife waving bloody fetus

photos outside Planned Parenthood clinics, he would have asked her to cut it

out. (Pun intended, yet undeleted.)

Third: Americans, including many Republicans, are pro-choice. The

ABC/Washington Post poll says the numbers haven't changed since 1995--55 percent

say

abortion should be " legal in all or most cases, " 25 percent " in some cases, "

and only 17 percent not at all. And pro-choicers are more likely to consider the

issue when voting than pro-lifers. Given the popularity of abortion rights,

the Bush Administration would have told us if Roberts were neutral or

pro-choice. They're not. He's neither.

Federal abortion rights are doomed. Liberals and feminists had might as well

accept that. Pocket the TV ad budget and upgrade the website.

The world won't end with Roe. Female residents of the blue states and those

with carfare will be able to terminate their pregnancies long after the

realization of the Bush Right's babes-behind-burqas " Handmaid's Tale " -style

fantasy world. And in the red states? Sympathetic doctors with burdensome

mortgages

will provide discreet coathanger-free procedures for rich teenagers unable

to work a condom-vending machine.

In a sick way, the end of Roe v. Wade may turn out to be a net positive for

America. For one thing, Roe was a legally dubious decision based on flawed

constitutional logic. Rather than pass abortion rights into law, 14 cowardly

congresses and seven weasely presidents have relied on the 1973 ruling to avoid

taking political fire from the Bible-thumpers.

Besides, a party-line overturning of Roe would validate years of liberal

prophecies that the right plans to take away our freedoms. Every news story

about a cheerleader bleeding to death in an Alabama high school locker room will

remind Americans, especially the women who make up an increasing share of the

swing vote, that the fundamentalist Christianists are happy to replace the

necessary evil of legalized abortion with the optional horror of despair.

-

TreasonGate--the scandal surrounding Karl Rove's outing of a covert CIA

expert on WMDs in order to get even with her Bush-bashing diplomat

husband-- " hasn't gripped the public's attention, " says USA Today's Susan Page.

Lazy summer

days interfere with political passion, particularly with opposition Democrats

unable to frame the central issue, which is treason.

But that doesn't matter. The White House press corps, feeling betrayed about

having been lied to, is keeping the story alive. Apparently, getting lied to

about Rove is more offensive than getting lied to about, well, everything

else--but hey, whatever gets Bush and Cheney into a Gitmo dog cage is fine.

White House incompetence is also keeping the story percolating nicely.

Stonewalling reduces the flow of information to a daily trickle rather than a

sudden deluge that would disappear after a day or two. The Roberts appointment,

mostly unchallenged by Democrats, has only bought Bush a few days of

distraction; Alberto Gonzales would have kept guys like me going for weeks.

Finally, a

quick Rove resignation could have back-burnered the whole shebang.

As things stand, Treasongate isn't going away. Now it's about Lewis " Scooter "

Libby, Cheney's right-hand man and apparently the primary source for the

Plame leak for which Rove served as confirmation. If prosecutor Patrick

Fitzgerald nails Libby, Cheney--who must have approved the betrayal of

Plame--could

become his next target.

Spiro Agnew, call your office.