As you are almost certainly aware the Supreme Court has ruled in Dobbs v Jackson that Roe v Wade is no longer the law of the land. This happened yesterday but I decided to not write about it then for several reasons, the biggest of which is that I wanted to go fishing instead. Given the hysteria online it was probably better for me to go out and touch grass so that is exactly what I did. Plus it gave a bit of time for the most unhinged people to calm down a bit.
This post is going to be more of my own personal reaction to the case and the aftermath and not as much a round up of what happened and why it happened. There are a million places to get that and at this point it's not super relevant. Apologies in advance for the listicle format.
1. My own views on abortion are esoteric and not strongly held. I have never really cared too much either way about abortion as it has been a total non issue for my entire life. It's just not something I think about much and a total ban or total access would not affect me in anyway, with the possible exception of me getting a woman pregnant accidently. In all honesty that is not very likely at my age and level of social interaction. If I had to make a choice, gun to my head, between a total ban and no restrictions, I would probably go with a total ban, but that's like asking me who I think the President of Argentina would be. It's just not something I feel strongly about.
Generally speaking people tend to view abortion as a black or white issue and I don't. I would allow it in some cases, forbid it in other and make it mandatory in some extreme cases. That alone puts me outside of the mainstream on the issue, even though I think a lot of America would agree with a compromise between pro-life and pro-choice. I personally think that the only people that would have a problem with at will abortion in the 1st trimester, extremely rare in the 2nd and banned entirely in the 3rd (outside of the rare rape/incest/mother's health exception) would be acceptable to almost anyone except hardcore pro-life and pro-choice people.
I also tend to think of things on a more strategic level. Though I lean towards pro-life, I do have to admit that the Democrats would have had their demographic total victory if they hadn't left three entire generations of babies behind the dumpster at Planned Parenthood. If winning was the only consideration, I would expect the positions on abortion to flip, with Democrats being against it and Republicans being for it (and that does seem to be the case among the fringe left and fringe right). I was going to write an entire essay about that at one point but I figured both pro-life and pro-choicers would be infuriated with me for saying it...
2. I find both sides annoying. I said I lean pro-life and that is true, but it's not because of the quality of the arguments they make. Indeed, I think I was pro-choice out of spite when I was in high school because there were often protesters that would have posters with aborted babies on them while I was just trying to drive home from school. Seeing an aborted baby didn't change my mind, it just made me sick to my stomach and it annoyed me so much I was pro-choice out of spite.
It's like how I didn't have any opinion on gay marriage at all but when it came up to a vote in 2006, I voted no because I lived in college at the time and I couldn't leave my dorm room without being harassed about gay marriage. Seeing pictures of aborted babies made me even more angry than that did, but thankfully, it largely stopped after my time in High School.
Plus, I'm not a very religious person, and most pro-life arguments are religious in nature. I'm a lapsed Lutheran and abortion didn't come up much when I still went to church, but I have certainly heard enough from Catholics and other more dedicated pro-life Christians. They just don't resonate with me at all. It's a shame because the secular arguments against abortion are stronger, but they just simply aren't made.
With all that being said, I hate the pro-life people even more. They have gone nuts in the past few years. Seeing former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam say that he wanted post-birth abortion was shocking to me, but elicited nothing more than yawns from the pro-choice community. They have become parodies of themselves.
And the quality of their arguments are pretty terrible. When they aren't referencing The Handmaiden's Tale they are spouting off about woman's rights and how men can get pregnant too. Plus they defame their opponents by saying it's not about saving babies lives but about "controlling" women. I never bought that argument and I never will.
Finally, both sides don't seem to get that abortion hasn't really been banned nationwide. It's just going to be left to the states to decide. In red states (or purple like my home state of Wisconsin) it will be illegal. In blue states, nothing will change! But it's the blue states that are whining about this the most, which boggles my mind...
3. I would have much preferred that the political capital that the Republicans just spent was spent elsewhere, specifically gun rights. This was a huge deal for Republicans and one that they will have to spend a huge amount of political energy to preserve.
This is incredibly annoying to me given how much of a threat our gun rights are under. Unlike abortion, I care deeply about gun rights and it's the only issue I'd be willing to lay down my own life for. Abortion is a major distraction and will help people forget how terribly the Republican Party just betrayed us on gun rights.
I also think that the ruling will probably galvanize the left and though I think the Republicans will destroy the Democrats in 2022 anyways, if the Democrats have a chance at all it's because their voters will be motivated now. If it was going to happen I am glad that it was overturned now because if this was a normal political cycle with a Democratic President that was in anyway popular or competent it would probably cause a huge amount of damage in the next election. As it stands right now, I don't think the disadvantage this gives the Republicans does not outweigh the huge advantage having a terrible economy and terrible president on the other side, but if the Democrats do manage to keep the Senate it's going to be because of this issue.
4. Despite all that I am happy with the ruling. Regardless of what you think of abortion in the first place, Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey, were badly decided cases. The court invented the right to privacy out of thin are and the ruling was simply wrong on the facts of the constitution. It was always going to be overthrown eventually. I also think that massive social issues like this should be handled by the legislative branch, not the judicial. Indeed, Democrats only have their selves to blame for this as they had 50 years, some of which they held both houses of Congress and the Presidency, to codify abortion and they did not.
But it's also just good to have my "team" get a major win like this. This is the biggest win since Donald Trump was elected in 2016 and should be rightly celebrated on the right. Even if it's not something I care about it, it is good to finally get a win after the absolute disaster that has gone on since 2020. It gives me some hope for the future, which, I have to say, I have not had much of lately. I also think that it is an another example of how people are shifting to be more conservative. Outside of the internet most in real life reaction I have seen to this ruling is non-existent. People are just sick of the left and I hope that continues.
And I think it's another example of just how badly the left is doing right now. Biden has been a total failure as President from any perspective but now even hardcore Democrats have to be wondering what on earth is happening in the White House. I don't know how Biden could have stopped this ruling (and I am glad that he can't) but it has to be totally demoralizing for Democrats to have one of their cornerstone issues like this ripped out from under them. Honestly, if it hadn't been for the gun rights ruling SCOTUS just put out, I would feel the same way about gun rights, but at least Republicans are in a "one step forward, two steps back" situation there. The Democrats here didn't so much as step back but fall down the stairs and break their necks. It's horrible for them and that is something I am happy about.
5. I think people will adjust to the new status quo pretty quickly. Indeed, that's what happened when the news leaked in the first place. Democrats were really upset for a week but then they got distracted because of the Uvalde School Shooting and then the January 6th hearings. The issue is back for now but I am sure something else will come up to distract them yet again.
As for normal people, the issue won't come up unless they are hardcore into the issue or they are considering an abortion. The former will be status quo ante, only with the pro-life side on top for the foreseeable future and the pro-choice folks being the underdogs. Normal people will go along with their lives...
As for me, I hope this means I don't have to write about abortion for a long time. Like I said, it's not a topic that I am deeply interested in, and I almost felt compelled to write about this time. To be fair it's probably the biggest supreme court decision in recent history, so a post was warranted. But unless something major happens, like the continuing wave of pro-choice terrorism, I doubt I will write about it again for quite some time..
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