The Authoritarian Plan for a National Abortion Ban

[SharonClark]

This is an important read for those interested in reproductive choice.

The anti-abortion movement was never going to stop with overturning Roe v. Wade.

For years, Republicans have argued that their goal was to return the issue of abortion to the states. At no point was this believable; since 1984, the Republican Party platform has called for a constitutional amendment banning abortion. Having spent decades denouncing abortion as a singular moral evil, the anti-abortion movement will not be content to return to a pre-Roe status quo, where abortion was legal in some places but not others.

So it’s not that surprising that, with the possible end of Roe in sight, some opponents of abortion are thinking about how to ban it nationally. Last week my colleague Ross Douthat wrote about a debate within the anti-abortion movement sparked by a highly abstruse article by the Notre Dame professor John Finnis in the Catholic journal First Things. Finnis argues that fetuses are persons under the 14th Amendment, and that the Supreme Court should thus rule abortion unconstitutional. The political implication, wrote Douthat, is that just jettisoning Roe is “woefully insufficient.”

Finnis’s contention is radical, but apparently resonant. Damon Linker, a former editor at First Things and author of a book about the Catholic right, writes, “That is where the pro-life movement is headed — and the rest of the country better be ready for it.”

The threat isn’t immediate; it’s highly unlikely that this Supreme Court is going to adopt constitutional personhood. The justices are “not interested in reading the Constitution to protect life from the moment of conception,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal group. “It would make so many things so incredibly difficult to give a fertilized egg all the rights and protections of a born human being.”

But the embrace, by some, of Finnis’s proposition is the latest sign of the right’s disenchantment with democracy, and its dream of imposing on the American people a regime that a majority of them will never consent to. Even Mississippi, after all, rejected fetal personhood in a 2011 referendum.
. . .
The 14th Amendment strategy, by contrast, is a plan to ignore voters altogether. It’s not surprising that it would gain currency at a moment when the right is going all-in on minority rule.
. . .

source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/05/opinion/us-abortion-bans.html

[Walleye]

1. Generations of women have already gone through their child bearing years since Roe v Wade.

All the right to life movement has succeeded in is being obnoxious. And counterproductive

[dsc]

7. Not by a long shot

abortion is vastly harder to get now than it was say 10 years ago. Some states have 1 clinic. If you think the right to life movement hasn't had a significant degree of success you really are out of touch.

[Walleye]

8. I guess it depends on what state you live in

I get a little fed up because these people keep electing Republicans

[Wounded Bear]

2. It has always been about control of women's behavior and sex lives...

it was never about the babies. I'm just a stupid man and i can see this plainly. I vote pro-choice every time and I always will.

[Freddie]

3. So fetuses are people but women aren't

According to their “reasoning”. We are just vessels. Livestock.

[JenniferJuniper]

4. "Under His Eye"

I believe the Handmaid's Tale returns this month.

[niyad]

5. The WAR ON WOMEN continues apace. Would you consider cross-posting this very important

piece in Women's Rights And Issues? Thanks in advance.

[4Q2u2]

6. The Taliban

Would be so proud of this.
We wasted Trillions of dollars fighting Religious Fanactics on the other side of the world, while ours' grew stronger and bolder every day.
Only their view of America counts. That is not what this country was founded on.
TAX THE CHURCH AND ALL IT"S INSTITUTIONS.

[Midnight Writer]

9. Last I saw, conservatives wanted to repeal the 14th Amendment.

They read the Constitution just like they read their Bibles. They just pick the things they like and ignore the rest.