General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHendrik Hertzberg: Akin's Gift (best thing I've read on this)
For close to thirty yearsever since Roe v. Wade, in 1973Republicans have been battening on the pro-life movement and getting away with it. Even though, then as now, three-quarters of the public has believed that abortion should at least sometimes be legal, the Party line has moved steadily toward theocratic absolutism. The platform currently under construction in Tampa calls for total criminalization, including under circumstances of rape, incest, and lethal danger to the woman concerned. Until this week that was Paul Ryans position, too; now, post-Akin, he says he would accept a rape exception. This puts him on the same blotted page as Mitt Romney, who launched his political career claiming to be as pro-choice as Ted Kennedy. Extremism is the new moderation.
The G.O.P. has never had to pay anything like the full political price for its abortion gamesmanship. The reason is Roe v. Wade. Republican legislatures and Republican Congresses have passed plenty of laws aimed at making it functionally impossible, prohibitively expensive, or psychologically humiliating for poor or near-poor women and girls to get abortions. Because of Roe v. Wade, though, Republican politicians could pound the pro-life podium without worrying that the wives and daughters of their friends and contributors might similarly suffer. Because of Roe v. Wade, there was never much danger that a woman of means would have serious trouble arranging a safe, discreet end to an unwanted or dangerous pregnancy. If she thought that her marginal tax rate was too high, she could vote Republican secure in the knowledge that her right to choose would not be affected. The Supreme Court would protect her from Akin and his ilk.
Whats different this time is not just that the ilk of Akin now includes pretty much every Republican holder of or aspirant to public office. Nor is it that even a Tea Party President and Congress could actually muster the votes to make abortion a federal crime. Its that the Supreme Court isnt what it used to be. The flames are threatening to jump the Roe v. Wade firewall. In 1973 the vote was 7 to 2. Now, eight Republican and four Democratic appointments later, its down to 5 to 4. A Romney appointment could make it 4 to 5. Until Todd Akin came along, no one was paying much attention. Now, thanks to Akin, it may be possible for the tocsin to be heard.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/08/akins-gift.html#ixzz24f8tTK7X
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion re-criminalized, the 1% will simply send its wives and daughters abroad to receive abortion services, just like they did pre-Roe.
Thanks for posting this. I agree that it's well written although its publication in the New Yorker may limit its potential audience.
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)Because even the 1%ers will have those female members who won't dare tell anyone, who will be too ashamed to make that trip, who think they can "handle it themselves" when their male authority figure won't allow them to go get an abortion, who don't control their own money...
Women are going to die when Roe v Wade is rolled back (and I'm no longer certain at all that it won't be)
Great article. K and R!!
cali
(114,904 posts)take a trip and keep it well hidden. And that goes for the vast majority of the upper middle class and many members, perhaps a majority of middle class women.
I had an abortion just pre-Roe. I came from a family that could afford to ensure that I got good medical care and a safe abortion is comfortable circumstances. My parents weren't thrilled about it, but they would have been far less thrilled about their 17 year old daughter having a kid.
It's the poor and working class women; the lower middle class women who will suffer, and some will die.
And if Roe is overturned, some state will keep abortion safe and legal. There is, of course, no way that abortion will become illegal throughout the country. That would take a CA, and that's nearly impossible.