Republicans Legalized Abortion

This is a couple of days old, but I thought it was a great editorial in the Palm Beach Post.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/10/13/a14a_blackburncol_1013.html

Before 1972, abortion laws were spotty. It was "on demand" in two states.

Several, including Florida, allowed it in cases of rape, incest and for the health - which would later become controversial - of the mother. It was totally illegal in much of the country. Then in 1972 came Roe vs. Wade in which the Supreme Court said states couldn't interfere with abortion in the first trimester. That's the decision anti-abortion folks rally against in Washington each January.

Who wrote it? A Republican justice (Harry Blackmun) appointed by a Republican president (Nixon). The court's majority consisted of four Republican appointees and three Democrats. The dissenters were one Republican (William Rehnquist) and one Democrat (Byron White).

SNIP

In Congress, Republicans could complain that Democrats thwarted efforts to curb abortions. But then that excuse ran out. From 2003 to 2006 they held both houses of Congress. And the White House. And the Supreme Court.

You'd think something would happen after all the talk. They could have set up a law case for the current court with seven Republican appointees to use to reverse the 1972 decision.

In 2003 they passed the "partial-birth abortion" ban, which their floor managers explained would apply to only a very few abortions. The Supreme Court upheld it in 2007. That's all they accomplished on abortion while they controlled everything. It's all they tried to do.

I didn't know this about Harry Blackmun (from Wiki):

"Roe caused an immediate uproar, and Blackmun's opinion made him a target for criticism by opponents of abortion, receiving voluminous negative mail and death threats over the case."

Oh those crazy Right-to-Lifers, so willing to end any life they disagree with.

Thanks, k&r