Within the pro-life movement, the overturning of Roe v. Wade was greeted with guarded optimism. The pro-abortion folks, however, know that the decision deals a crippling blow to their side.
“Outraged, Scared and Heartbroken”
One reaction is fear, like this comment from Russ Feingold of the American Constitution Society:
“I am outraged, scared, and heartbroken, as I know you are too. Our pain, anger and fear are valid and appropriate. Never before has the Supreme Court taken away a fundamental right. These are dark days. Please take care of yourself and your loved ones.”
After fifty years of frustration, pro-lifers are used to legal setbacks and the resolution to fight another day. Now pro-abortionists are tasting bitter defeat that is strange to them.
Academic “Expert” Opinion
Many “scholars” lament the Dobbs decision and cannot believe they have been bested.
Dr. Deirdre M. Condit, a political scientist at Virginia Commonwealth University, criticized the Supreme Court for its willingness to oppress women.
“The court overtly ignores the fact that its decision immediately wrought enormous trauma to women’s lives all across the country; women in states with trigger laws are suddenly rendered politically powerless to take care of their own health.”
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To the liberal academic mind, the idea that the Dobbs decision is part of a search for justice is inconceivable. The decision flies in the face of progressive attitudes about the inevitability of history. David H. Gans, AlterNet’s legal expert who leads the Human Rights, Civil Rights and Citizenship program at the Constitutional Accountability Center, said:
“This is a radical Court dominated by conservatives who treat the past practices of state legislatures as determinative of the Constitution’s meaning, warping the broadly worded language that was meant to enshrine fundamental principles of liberty and equality in our national charter. This is a Court that insists it is following history and tradition where they lead, while cherry-picking the history it cares about to reach conservative results.”
Claiming that Vice is Virtue
At Salon, Jaimie Arona Krems and Martie Haselton argue that abortion threatens the well-being of traditional or “sexually restricted” women.
“Consider that sexually restricted women often get married young and have children early in life. These choices … tend to leave women more economically dependent on husbands. Other women’s sexual openness can destroy these women’s lives and livelihoods by breaking up the relationships they depend on. So sexually restricted women benefit from impeding other people’s sexual freedoms.”
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Probably by accident, they are on to something. Today’s over-sexualized society harms families by undermining marriages. Unfortunately, these writers see such conflict as liberating.
Don’t Forget the Children
The left uses the Dobbs decision to continue the sexualization of children. Fox News drew attention to a recent New York Times op-ed.
“New York Times guest essayists Dr. Eva Goldfarb and Dr. Lisa Lieberman argued Wednesday that sex education is ‘more vital’ following the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade reversal that transpired last month, casting blame on ‘religious-right political groups’ for attempting to undermine not only abortion, but ‘accurate’ sex education in schools as well.”
Lacking any sense that unbridled sexual license leads to moral, emotional and physical damage, these “doctors” see those who want to protect children’s innocence as either idiotic, evil or both. They think traditionalists wish to keep children ignorant and repressed.
In an article for NJ.com showing her support for gender ideology, Dr. Goldfarb said educators need to inform children “as young as five.”
“The CDC estimates that one in four women have an abortion in their lifetimes [C]hildren should know that they or someone they know and love may want or need an abortion someday. And it is up to us as adults to give them the tools they need to understand the fight around reproductive rights …”
Fears of the Unknown
Fear is a powerful motivator, especially in an atmosphere of change. Many pro-abortion writers focus on dark scenarios that never happened but might happen.
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United Press International described the concerns of Gretchen E. Ely, a social work professor at the University of Tennessee. She is concerned about women who live in states that forbid abortion. “The cost of getting an abortion is rising for many of these patients, as people may need to travel farther to one of the 28 states, or to Washington, where abortion—at least for now—remains legal.”
Building a Crisis Mentality
Slate promises a series titled “Dispatches From an Abortion Island.” The first installment quotes an official of the Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois, Amy Redd-Greiner.
“Just this morning, someone reached out and said, ‘I’m afraid. Am I going to get arrested if I come to Illinois? I know that it’s legal there, but it’s not legal in my state. So will I get arrested when I come back?’”
Redd-Greiner knows that this woman is in no danger of arrest, but rather than say it, she leaves the narrative dangling as if to say that the fear is all-too-real.
Meanwhile, Jessica Glenza at The Guardian relates the concerns of Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute. “We’re looking at probably about 15 million women living in a state with an abortion ban right now. That number we expect to increase, because more states are looking to ban abortion—and we could see as much as half of the country without abortion access very soon.”
Poor Arguments for Choice
Some pro-abortionists assert that abortion is the hardest decision a woman can make. No one does it for convenience. The following three anecdotes refute that assertion.
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For example, television actress and producer Sophia Bush is delighted that her husband “helped” his then-girlfriend procure an abortion. She wrote in Glamour magazine:
“I type this as I look across the kitchen at my husband. A man with whom I am deeply in love… who might never have come into my life, nor me into his, had it not been for an abortion. Not my experience—I have never had an abortion—but his. An abortion that he and a former partner had is what got us here.”
A photo that accompanies the article shows the couple smiling broadly.
Ms. Bush’s narrative concludes with the observation that the girlfriend’s abortion contributed to lives that are “Bigger. Brighter. More loving.” In his July 24 column for CNN, John Wood discussed a former girlfriend’s decision to abort the child they had conceived. He was relieved when the girlfriend called to say that she had decided to procure an abortion. Mr. Wood then provided a few details about his remarkable life.
“I have traveled America, found fulfillment in deeply meaningful work, and have raised three children with a beautiful wife who is the woman of my dreams.”
Mr. Wood added a final insult to the memory of his never-born child. “[O]ur story is a hopeful argument for choice,” he said.
Abortion Aids Promiscuity
Rebecca White had an abortion using the abortifacient “Plan B.”
Openly promiscuous, she prefers the modernist term “sexually active.” She told The Daily Beast that she fears for coming generations.
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In light of the Dobbs decision, Miss White fears that today’s young women will not be able to make the same decisions she made. “[T]oday, I realize the privilege that comes with not really knowing how many different men I’ve slept with. I lived during a time when I was lucky enough to be able to separate my sex life from the rest of me. I was not weighed down by fears of pregnancy.”
Going South
According to CNN, the situation is so dire that American women consider going to Mexico for “reproductive health care.”
Sandra Cardona—a Mexican abortion activist—and abortion clinic worker Verónica Cruz are the twin foci of a CNN essay by Catherine Shoichet.
Both Cardona and Cruz worked hard on the campaign to make abortion legal in Mexico. That goal was tragically achieved when the Mexican Supreme Court decriminalized it in 2021. They are eager to share the lessons of their campaign with abortion advocates in the United States now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe.
“‘Now it’s time,” Cruz said, “for the north to learn from the south.”
Vice President Kamala Harris summed up the situation nicely: “Women are getting pregnant every day in America, and this is a real issue.”
However, the real problem is abortion, not pregnancy. Until that issue is solved, the pro-life movement knows its work is incomplete.