Last week marked the 40th anniversary of the
Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. The landmark 7-2 ruling said that the a
right to privacy under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment
extended to a woman’s decision to have an abortion, and has that right until
viability.
And the fight has gone on ever since.
I’m comfortably in the keep abortion safe, legal and rare
camp. And while I genuinely admire their passion, I have to admit to being
entirely uncomfortable with the unearned sanctimony of the pro life crowd.
These people live lives surrounded by shades of gray, but can only see black
and white. These are the people who in one breath will tell you that all life
is sacred, and in the next vote for a person who would deny needy children and
mothers food. They are pro life . . . until the child is born.
The republican party has provided a comfortable niche for
the anti choice crowd, and has given them plenty of lip service — from it’s
anti abortion party platform, to Speaker of the House John Boehner’s recentannouncement that republicans will soon put an end to abortion.
Yeah. Like that’ll happen.
If the republicans were even
remotely serious about ending abortion, they would have done so during the disastrous
term of George W. Bush. For six years republicans controlled the House, Senate
and White House. And during that time they never introduced a single piece of
legislation that would curb abortion, let alone ban it.
Their lack of action was
intentional, because the only thing about abortion that republicans are truly
dedicated to is using it as a campaign issue in order to collect from the saps
in the anti abortion movement. And that’s what Boehner’s latest announcement is
all about. Desperate to keep control of the House in the 2014 mid-term election after republican ideas were
so clearly rejected in last November’s election, republicans are desperate to
raise massive amounts of cash to assure they retain control of the house. And that's the only reason for Boehner's pledge.
Abortion may well be the only
wedge issue the republicans have left. From marriage to the military to the Boy
Scouts for crissake, the gay rights movement is steam roller no number of Family Research
Councils will be able to stop. The closet (and out of the closet) racism of the
conservative movement was trampled by minority voters in November, not to
mention the African American re-elected president in a landslide. And 20 dead
Connecticut first-graders, not to mention the complete lunacy of its leadership, spells doom for the National Rifle Association as we know it.
God, guns and gays no longer
work to benefit republicans. Abortion doesn’t either, but that won’t stop the
pro lifers from being sucked in.
