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July 20, 2005
As NARAL says, "Don't Let His (George W.) Choice End Yours", Do Not Let Them Confirm John Roberts!
Let's not lie to ourselves.
Yes, it may seem unlikely they would overturn Roe. Why? Even though the country is split on abortion, overturning Roe is an unpopular option. The half that are pro-choice will become galvanized, perhaps in a way the Iraq War and Plumegate, Social Security and Terri Shiavo (which was an important issue of states rights) have not yet inspired. I see mass protests. I see people brandishing wire hangers in the streets.
And it will happen. Because Roberts wants to overturn Roe. And he, Scalia and Thomas will attempt to do so. With Congressional and White House backing.
He said so in a 1990 brief when he was principal deputy solicitor general (under then-solicitor general, our old buddy, Ken Starr.) "Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled. [T]he Court's conclusion in Roe that there is a fundamental right to an abortion finds no support in the text, structure, or history of the Constitution."
We turn to our trusty Bill of Rights, Amendment Number Nine (Number Nine, Number Nine, Number Nine, as the Beatles say): "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
Justice Blackmon, Roe V. Wade, 1/22/73 Section VIII, Paragraph II "This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy."
Seems like Harry was able to find some constitutional backing in his opinion after all, Johnny Boy. Blackmon, by the way, was a Methodist appointed by Nixon.
You may not want an abortion yourself (and if you are a man, let me tell you, it'll be very hard to find a doctor to perform one for you.) You may hate that idea. But this isn't about your moral indignation and belief about "when life begins." (I say at eighteen.) It is about privacy, doctor/patient confidentiality and our basic liberties. If you, like myself, have no compunction about abortion and this misbegotten idea of "pro-life" (and how many children have been killed in Iraq, Mr. Bush? Oh, they're not American children. I see.), you can easily see that this is about women's rights, population control (don't cringe; I'm not suggesting we become China), honest family planning and economic stability.
Monkey Face was never going to appoint a Thurgood Marshall Two or a Earl Warren Two. But don't let the relative blank record of this man WHO WORKED UNDER KEN STARR (a man always associated with fairness and judicial restraint) fool you. Like when the holographic doctor from Star Trek Voyager guested on West Wing as the Supreme Court nominee with no opinions, Roberts will be described to us as someone who will roll with the judicial punches. A lie. He will overturn Roe.
Get out the wire hangers, kids. It's back to the good old days.
Posted by emily at July 20, 2005 2:07 PM