Friends, conservatives, including President Trump, are for the most part immensely pleased with the fact that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and returned power over abortion policy to the states. For those who are pro-life, and for those who are pro-Constitution, you can see why. The sad truth, however, is that this "win" comes at a grievous cost, and has not led to the blossoming of a "culture of life" as many might have wished. Read all about it in my latest article:
The GOP's Abortion Dilemma
President
Trump gets a lot of credit on the right for creating the conditions
that led to the overturning of Roe
v. Wade. That's totally
fair. One suspects that any Republican president would have nominated
more or less the same SCOTUS justices, but it's Trump who got the job
done.
Now,
to put all this in context, some states have, in the wake of the
Dobbs
decision, substantially impeded
public access to abortion. Others have expanded
it. In
addition, although Republicans scored a political “win” by
returning power over abortion policy to the states, Democrats used
Roe's
demise as a way to rally their base and exceed expectations in the
2022 midterm elections. Thus,
the abortion ledger, if you will, post-Roe,
may be more in balance politically than many people realize.
But
what's the bottom line in terms of abortion itself? Has the number of
abortions performed in America actually declined since the Dobbs
decision, and, if so, by how much?
That
data has recently become available, and it comes to us courtesy of
the “Society of Family Planning”, which, since it is essentially
a pro-abortion
organization, has little incentive to minimize the impact of Dobbs.
And yet the Society's extensive
analysis
shows that the incidence of abortion in America since Roe's
demise is down by
only 3%. 3%!!! That's a lot of hullabaloo for what many would
consider a fairly marginal change in the abortion landscape. And
keep in mind that, during
Trump's presidency,
the number of abortions actually increased
by 8%. Ergo, the abortion baseline is actually higher today than it
was when Trump, the slayer of Roe,
took office. In short, reports of the death of “abortion rights”
are greatly exaggerated!
None of this, needless to say, prevents the Left from claiming that
the Supreme Court has abolished “women's rights” and reinstituted
a form of fascist patriarchy. Just as, the more people of color vote
in America, the more the Left claims that “Jim Crow 2.0” is
blossoming, we can assume that the truth about abortion will
similarly have little or no impact on progressives' ramblings, or,
indeed, on the political ramifications of the issue. He who controls
the media narrative controls everything.
Republicans have an additional problem on their hands.
Democrats
are increasingly coalescing around a common view of abortion that
posits the fetus as a contemptible parasite, and embraces the
termination of as many fetuses as possible as the most morally,
socially, and environmentally sound approach. They therefore have
gone far beyond the quaint logic of Roe
itself, which only fully protected a woman's “right to choose” in
the first trimester, by advocating instead that abortion should be
allowed (and encouraged!) up to the moment of birth. This perspective
is profoundly disturbing and dangerous, but it has the virtue of
being intellectually and politically coherent.
The
GOP and conservatives, by contrast, have long disagreed on whether
abortion should be permissible in cases of rape, incest, and serious
health risks to the mother. Now they
are also wringing their hands and wondering whether to "outlaw"
(ineffectually, as it turns out) abortion at six weeks, or fifteen,
or some other magic number. Very few of them are trying to outlaw
abortion altogether. This is highly problematic, because it makes it
appear as though Republicans are “pro-life” only when it is
feasible, convenient, or popular. If, on the other hand, every fetus
is endowed with “personhood” and is worthy of preservation, then
why do Republicans and conservatives shrink from the logical
conclusion: that all abortions constitute murder?
The
answer, unfortunately, has been staring rank-and-file Republicans and
conservatives, and ardent pro-lifers, in the face for several
decades: most GOP politicians talk about abortion only when it is
politically advantageous to them, and they are unlikely to support
any anti-abortion measure that would effectively suppress the
practice (like punishing women who pursue an abortion). Driving women
seeking abortions out of one state and into another, or online to
obtain medication
abortions
via virtual clinics, does not, at the end of the day, reduce the
incidence of abortion – but it is not at all clear that Republican
politicians care, as long as they have placated their pro-life
constituents.
Post-Roe,
therefore, Republicans and conservatives are increasingly confronting
two depressing realities: one, the number of abortions performed, and
thus the number of human lives snuffed out, is essentially unchanged;
and, two, the abortion issue has become a winner for Democrats and an
albatross for the GOP.
That sounds an awful lot like the worst of all possible worlds.
Dr.
Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred
and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com.
He appears on the Newsmaker Show on WLEA 1480/106.9.
And here it is at Townhall:
https://townhall.com/columnists/nicholaswaddy/2023/06/27/the-gops-abortion-dilemma-n2625009
***
In other news, you might wonder how leftist puppet masters invent the news -- by which I mean, how do they create stories (that advance leftist interests) out of nothing, and how do they convince the media to pick them up? This article sheds light on this fascinating process:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/courts/left-wing-funding-network-behind-propublica-targeting-conservative-supreme-court-justices
Finally, some good news -- if you're a godless Marxist. Church attendance has been waning for years, and since the pandemic it's fallen even further, with young people leading the way. Some of it, of course, may be the result of the coerced closure of many churches during the pandemic, but mostly it's the result of a long-term social and cultural transformation that reflects the domination of our popular culture by "secular humanists".
https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2023/06/26/poll-u-s-church-attendance-below-pre-pandemic-level/