Notwithstanding leftist histrionics and right-wing gloating following news of the potential demise of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that literally took abortion law into its own hands and invented a Constitutional “right” out of thin air, the issue is far more complicated than the extremes on either side would suggest.
To rational people who take a step back and actually think about the issue, the decision on whether and/or to what extent to allow abortions should be left to the states and the electorate, not to unelected judges. In other words, it’s hard to deny that the demise of Roe would be a boon for actual democracy and self governance.
In a sane world, most would agree on that basic fundamental principle. Some blue states will allow abortions up to and even immediately after birth, while some red states will ban it in almost every circumstance and stage of development. That’s federalism, and in the end that might be the only thing that holds the United States together, if by a string. But it doesn’t make extreme laws on both sides workable in the long-term, nor does it make them agreeable to the vast majority of Americans.
Unfortunately, recognizing the possibility that abortion could again become a real electoral issue across many states instead of absurdly locked up for half a century in a flawed court decision, the extremes on both sides - especially and most egregiously the left - are already polarizing the debate even more than it had already been polarized. And that’s saying something, considering that this is the most divisive issue of our lifetimes, rivaled and arguably perhaps even exceeded only by the Covid fascism of the past two years.
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On the most extreme right (I’m using “extreme” in the pure sense of the word, not as a leftist would to tarnish the right), all abortion from conception on is murder, and murderers and those who aid and abet them should be tried and punished the exact same as if they had purposefully shot someone in the street. On the extreme left, abortion-on-demand from conception all the way to birth - and in some cases even after - should be legal and performed without question in every circumstance. To both sides, ironically enough, a fully developed 9-month-old baby who happens to be inside the womb about to be born exists on exactly the same moral plane as a 2-day-old zygote.
To most Americans, however, the issue is much more nuanced. Sadly, there’s no denying that these extremes use the margins to demagogue the issue. Less than 2.5% of abortions are due to rape, incest, or to save the mother's life, and yet those situations are magnified by the left as if they represent a majority of abortions. On the other side, less than 1.5% of abortions occur during the third trimester, and the overwhelming majority - more than 85% - occur in the first, and yet third trimester and partial-birth abortions, as gruesome and morally reprehensible as those are, are magnified by the right as if they are far more commonplace.
While the vast majority of Americans in polling believe abortions should be allowed in cases of rape, incest, and medical necessity (assuming for the sake of argument that those actually exist), a telling majority also don’t believe abortions past 20 weeks should be allowed. Bottom line: The further along a pregnancy goes, the more uncomfortable people tend to be with legally terminating that pregnancy.
Yes, abortion is murder and yes, life should be protected by law. However, there is wide disagreement on when exactly, from conception to birth, that life begins. There is also understandable discomfort with the kind of police state it would take to actually enforce laws against abortion from conception onward. If laws don’t make sense to most people, they won’t ultimately be followed and they won’t last.
For far too many, it seems there’s no room for the nuance that should be allowed here. Most on the right argue that life begins at conception. Others believe it doesn’t actually begin until blood flows through the fetus’ circulatory system, at around seven weeks, and they have an interesting point. If ‘life’ begins at conception, why can a zygote or an embryo be frozen indefinitely? In 2020, an embryo that had been frozen for 27 years resulted in a healthy baby girl, again pushing the limits on what science thought possible for cryopreservation. Currently, there are more than a million embryos frozen in the United States alone, some of them decades old. What if they last 100 years? From the Christian perspective, do these embryos possess souls that exist in heaven if they are destroyed, or are they just *potential* life? Does dropping a test tube filled with them make the dropper a mass murderer? These are just a few of the many questions people have on the issue, and not all who have such questions are baby-killing psychos.
Regardless of where you and I stand on the issue, whether you think abortion is murder or a macabre form of birth control, whether you think taking the Morning After Pill after a rape is on the same moral plane as a partial-birth abortion, the post-Roe task will be to appeal to the people and get something passed legislatively. Sadly, however, what we will see in the wake of Roe will be extremes from both sides continuing to drive the issue.
In many states, the 15 weeks that originally got Mississippi in legal hot water will seem like the epitome of moderation. In Louisiana, abortion from conception onward will be classified as a homicide, and mothers could likely be prosecuted right along with any physicians who assist. On the other hand, in California, abortion will be enshrined in the state’s constitution as a fundamental right up to the point of birth and perhaps even beyond.
Going forward, conservatives will continue to rightly and righteously point to fully-formed dead babies in California trash cans while leftists will make a national martyr out of the first teenager to be charged with a felony for taking the Morning After Pill after a rape in Louisiana. Instead of settling down, the division will only continue to grow.
I’m glad Roe looks like it's going down. I want to see as many babies saved as possible, and it’s certain that this will result in that. However, I would also like to see laws passed with nuance, compassion, and understanding that protect life while at the same time having the capacity to maintain the support of enough Americans to make it politically impossible to ever go back to the leftist extreme of the past 50 years again. Unfortunately, that's not likely to happen for a long while.
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