The Supreme Court of the United States released a decision this week that was overdue for some fifty years, striking down Roe v. Wade (1973) and its constitutionally unsubstantiated “right to abortion.” Writing for the 6-3 majority in Dobbs against Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Justice Samuel Alito stated, “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision … It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
Despite all the media noise and Democrats’ impotent shouts of fury, it is clear that the Supreme Court decision wasn’t extreme. This decision didn’t reflect pro-lifers most intense desires. It did not, for example, declare a right to life applicable to unborn children under the 14th Amendment’s guarantee against the removal of “life, liberty or property, without due process of law.” Nor did the decision follow the legally correct advice of Justice Clarence Thomas, who recommended trashing the Supreme Court doctrine of “substantive due process,” a persistently and irritatingly vague rubric that generally acts as a pretext for courts to pursue their favored public policy objectives. It did not say that federal Congress could regulate abortion instead of state laws.
It is not true. DobbsThis ruling restores the status quo to abortion questions Roe. The states now have the power to decide when and how abortion should be regulated. Texas and other states will ban abortion in certain circumstances, but not in those where the life of the mother is at risk. Some states, such as New York, support abortion right up to the moment of birth. There is not a common American position on the matter. Therefore, no consensus is possible.
However, Democrats and the media believe that the revival of abortion will result in a 2022 election victory. It is hard to prove this. The state laws are based on the opinions of people living in the states. And the abortion advocates who most strongly reside in the bluest areas, where there will be no restrictions on abortion availability, tend not to have much evidence. It’s hard to believe that Manhattan residents are going to show up to the polls en masse to vote on Alabama’s abortion policy — and even if they did, it would make no difference in House or Senate elections in Ohio.
Democrats also face another problem. This problem is also for Democrats. The parties’ attitudes toward abortion in general are what they base their voting. And today, the party of abortion extremism is the Democratic Party, which long ago abandoned the logically unsound but emotionally appealing rubric of “safe, legal and rare,” instead substituting the hideously monstrous “shout your abortion.” The Democratic Party moved away from moral condemnation of abortion because Democrats now believe that human happiness is rooted in subjective self-definition, particularly with regard to sexual activity; that biology, particularly pregnancy and childbearing, is an active imposition on such a vision of human happiness; and that abortion is therefore a sacrament to be protected.
These bizarre and unflattering ideas are not shared by many Americans who live outside the solid blue states. Democrats claim that their pro-abortion messaging will be embraced by voters, who might fear restrictions on abortions that would prevent them from ending their pregnancies. However, this misses a larger point. Their vision of happiness and the steps necessary to attain it is not consistent with most Americans. This means the Left’s culture war is turning against them as it should.
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