If John McCain had been elected president four years ago, the chances are very strong that Roe v. Wade would have already been overturned. How many women (or men) know that? In the last four years, two pro-choice Supreme Court Justices retired. They were replaced by two pro-choice Justices, which meant that the Court retained a 5-4 majority in favor of choice. If Romney wins the election, he will have at least four years to try to replace one of those five pro-choice Justices, and the chances are not bad that he will succeed. So, what would that mean? Here’s an article from 2008 that looked at the stakes back then. The situation wasn’t as dire in 2008 as it is now. That’s because the Republicans did incredibly well at the state level during the 2010 elections. But even in 2008, the best estimate was that 21 states would immediately ban abortion. Do your friends know about this? Would they care if they did know?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
My friends and family know this but it always amazes me when I talk to conservative women that they are so quick to write off this possibility.
And if they really believe that Republicans threaten this just to be manipulative in order to gain anti-abortion votes why would they reward being treated that way?
I think there are too many people who don’t realize just how extreme the Republican party has become.
I have yet to meet a conservative woman who is the slightest bit aware of her own fate under the policies espoused by her party.
These women are so utterly vulnerable, and they don’t even know it.
While agreeing with your larger point, about how critical it is that we have a democratic president making the appointments to the bench, I disagree that Roe v. Wade would be dead by now. More likely, Souter and Stevens would still be hanging on, waiting for a democrat to be elected, so that they could retire with some assurance as to who would be appointing their replacement.
Because Roe v Wade was decided almost 40 years ago, I think many women assume it will remain the law of the land. Of course, it is a mistake to assume this, but it is human nature to take things for granted if they have been in existence for 4 decades. Because Roe v Wade survived Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II, people figure it will survive another Republican president. They don’t think Repubs are serious about reversing the decision. However, with the right-wing taking control of the Repub party, there is a strong possibility that this decision will be reversed if President Obama is not elected. Romney preaches “states’ rights” at every opportunity; however, I don’t think some people realize just what “states’ rights” truly mean.
Yeah, but neither of them died yet. So, we could instead presume they’d be smart (and dedicated) enough to wait out four years of McCain enabled economic clusterfuck to let Hillary save the world, and the wimmenz, in 2012.
Souter and Stevens probably wanted to quit for years, but they stuck it out through Dubya after all.
I wouldn’t argue from this perspective. If this is your argument, I’d say he saved Gris v. Connecticut. That is where the right to privacy was established, and it’s what the cons hate the most. Moreover, birth control is a hell of a lot less controversial than abortion with the public writ large.
It’s shocking to me that this seems to be the direction they are going – I had always assumed it was as MomSense mentions, anti-abortion to raise $ and get votes.
over at TPM Josh Marshall has a piece up about Ryans budget designed to pass under reconciliation in the senate.That aught to scare the crap out of everybody
Also something about turning medicare into a voucher system equally rapidly. I truly think the the republicans steal this one we’ll have a Constitutional crisis.
I don’t want to go too far back but I feel like I should mention that Bush was able to put two-extremely right wing Justices on the court in Alito and Roberts.
We could have had two open minded or liberal Justices and have avoided Citizens United and have a nice buffer now.
And to think that there were so many “progressives” who didn’t think there was a difference between Gore and Bush. I still get crazy when I think about it.
agree. I even mentioned SCOTUS to colleagues who said “no difference”