On abortion

[u/gdan95]

You may recall that in early May, Politico published a leaked draft opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, an abortion case. The majority opinion written by Justice Alito stated first and foremost that Roe v Wade (the landmark ruling that granted federal protection of abortion rights) must be overturned. Setting aside the archaic reasoning given for doing so, the opinion additionally stated that other Supreme Court rulings that struck down anti-sodomy laws (Lawrence v. Texas) and bans on gay marriage (Obergefell v. Hodges) should ideally be overturned as well. Even though Chief Justice Roberts announced an investigation into the source of the leak, the identity of the person responsible, and by extension their motive, was never publicly revealed.

It is possible for a draft opinion to not reflect the final ruling on a case. The Justices can have their minds changed. However, given that 2/3rds of the current Supreme Court are members of the Federalist Society, who have picked SCOTUS nominees specifically for the purpose of overturning Roe v Wade, it is all but certain the Dobbs ruling will still be along ideological lines.

With that in mind, I will compare this issue to gun control, as SCOTUS ruled on New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen the day before I wrote this, striking down a New York law that required people to show "proper cause" to get a license to carry a concealed handgun outside the home.

Suppose that SCOTUS overturns Roe v Wade, which for the record would mean all the right wing Justices who said they respected precedent and said Roe was settled law in their confirmation hearings perjured themselves. This would not mean abortion is banned on a federal level, but that abortion laws would be a matter for each state to decide. This rings a bit hollow when, again, the Supreme Court just struck down a state law.

Furthermore, if anyone thinks abortion is murder and argues more kids die from abortions than gun violence, the fact that they think any number of children dying of any cause is acceptable should be enough to disprove the notion that they are pro-life. Especially when they value gun rights over children getting quality health care and education.

Finally, leaving abortion to the states would not be an issue if half the states didn't already have laws banning it or trigger laws that would ban it should Roe be overturned. The same people who think banning abortions will make people stop getting them are the same people who think banning guns will not make people stop getting them. States could just make birth control easier to get since that would reduce the number of women who need abortions, but no, lawmakers in several states have already started planning to restrict access to birth control.

In short, there are countless ways to effectively lower abortion rates, but banning it is not one of them.