The Next Civil War

A woman’s ability to terminate her pregnancy under Roe v. Wade is under attack on several fronts, but these are just the opening battles in a long war. The new anti-abortion measure signed into law by Alabama’s governor is so extreme that even evangelist Pat Robertson can’t quite stomach it. The law won’t take effect anytime soon, due to legal challenges.  But the anti-abortion forces are rolling out their artillery in the hope of fighting their way to favorable ground at the Supreme Court.


Those against abortion often stand on the belief that life is sacred. That’s kind of shaky ground in Alabama, which is among the top 15 states in carrying out the death penalty. Isn’t it interesting how often those two positions seem to go together, especially in the South?


Just so you know, I am in favor of a woman’s right to choose, but abortion has always been a little troubling to me. For example, Ohio just passed a law banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. It’s very hard to believe that something with a heartbeat isn’t actually alive. Or that a fetus isn’t quite a human being.


That said, our laws permit the taking of life under certain circumstances. There is self-defense, of course, and the aforementioned death penalty. But we have also come around, at least in some states, to allow assisted suicide; why shouldn’t a choice be allowed at the beginning of life? There are good reasons why a woman may need to make this choice. In the first trimester, she doesn’t have to have a reason satisfactory to anyone but herself. I believe, however, that there are very few pregnant women who make this choice casually.


Many commentators say that while draconian laws like Alabama’s won’t make it through the Supreme Court, other state laws chipping away at Roe will survive, and there will be an expansion of “abortion tourism,” with women fleeing restrictive states to get their procedures done in the liberal ones. The first Civil War was fought over a social condition. So might the next one.


The current phase of the conflict is just the beginning. But before anyone  thinks victory is in the bag, our history has shown that those on the Supreme Court don’t always do what the Presidents who appointed them intended. Conservative or liberal, they have their legacies to consider, and public opinion does get through.