Meanwhile in America
South Dakota just made abortion illegal, and Congress voted to renew the Patriot Act. I don't know if I even want to live here anymore.
[Addendum 3/8/06]: What really scares me is that I saw this coming, but didn't believe it. Roe v. Wade overturned? Not in my lifetime. I bought into some of the rhetoric about abortion being a republican distraction—a polarizing fringe issue that conservatives wanted the Left to focus on so that they wouldn't talk about poverty, healthcare, jobs, etc. That may still be part of the reason South Dakotan republicans pulled this stunt—after all, if I heard correctly, the anti-abortion guy Chris Matthews had on NerfBall last night said there's only one abortion clinic and no abortion doctors in the whole state. If that's true, there's really nothing to outlaw is there? No reason for the government to get involved at all. But this isn't about South Dakotans' right to live according to their own values, which they're apparently already doing. It's about the governor and legislature of South Dakota trying to make national policy at the state level.
I have to admit that even now, there's this nagging rationalist in my head that says the whole thing is just too ludicrous to fly. I have to remember that same rationalist was convinced back in March of 2003 that no one could possibly believe the Bush administration's rhetoric about our needing to invade Iraq like yesterday. I just kept thinking, Everybody sees right through this, right? Right?
By the way, the first Senator who goes on television and says, "I voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq because it was politically popular, I was afraid not to, and I regret it now," gets my vote for President in 2008. And if they weep a little during their speech, I'll vote twice.
Comments
Crap. Here we go.
Posted by: A. J. Patrick Liszkiewicz | March 7, 2006 09:03 PM
Edwards did it over the weekend, more or less.
(He's not a senator anymore, though he still ^is^ graced with the honorific. Close enough?)
Posted by: Stuart | March 8, 2006 08:01 PM
In 1970, when I was in my sophomore year in high school in Minneapolis, abortion was illegal almost everywhere in the United States.
This was before the Roe v. Wade decision. The Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion came during those years when massive protests of every kind (against the Vietnam War, against racism and police brutality and poverty, and so much else) -- and occasional full-scale riots -- were tearing up the cities all across the country. The Supreme Court decision happened in that context. It's useful to keep this in mind. It may take that kind of constant widespread political upheaval again, to start blowing the political winds back in another direction, with regard to abortion and pretty much everything else these days.
During my sophomore year in high school, we had a guest speaker one day in one of my classes. He was a man who (with a semi-underground network around the country) helped arrange for women to have abortions, medically safe ones, usually by arranging for them to travel outside the U.S., or (sometimes) to one of the 1 or 2 states where abortions were legal under certain limited conditions. He spoke to our class for the hour that day, answered questions, etc.
He did the abortion help as a volunteer. (He made his living as a salesman for a steel company or something like that.) The last I knew, he's still around. In more recent years, he's been operating an odd interesting place in Minneapolis called the Museum of Fraudulent Medical Devices, featuring various bogus gadgets used by snake oil merchants over the past century or more.
Posted by: Lyle Daggett | March 9, 2006 12:25 AM
Stuart, from what I know of Edwards's politics I'd probably vote for him ahead of most of the current Democratic hopefuls. Sadly I think this abortion thing is going to play the same kind of role in '06 and '08 that gay marriage did in '04. And if McCain stays healthy for the next few years, we're in serious trouble.
Lyle, I took part in several of the large demonstrations leading up to Iraq War, and it was incredible how little impact they had, even on public opinion. Of course, the media did a great job of neutralizing them in their coverage. Most of the stories were human interest type pieces that trotted out comparisons to the '60s, but very few reporters took them seriously as politics. I contacted my local NARAL chapter yesterday about volunteering, because my own sanity demands I do *something* but I can't say I feel terribly optimistic about any of this.
Posted by: Ginger | March 9, 2006 08:40 AM
Ginger,
I live in MS, and our latest news revolves around a push to make abortion illegal here as well. Our state is being accused of following in SD's footsteps just to get attention from the Supreme Court.
Whatever the reason, nothing's been signed yet, but apparently, the quest is to make it illegal in every case, including rape or incest, except for instances in which the mother's health is at risk. The governor has been quoted as 'believing' he will sign the bill.
I'm very alarmed by this to say the least.
Posted by: melissa | March 9, 2006 07:48 PM