For those who missed it at the time, I wrote an article last year for the anniversary of Roe that sums up some of the most important points that supporters of reproductive freedom need to make as clearly and as often as possible. Most importantly, the real question of abortion policy is whether poor women will have the same access to safe abortions that the wives and daughters of the male Republican and media elites who want the issue "sent back to the states" (except for all of the federal regulations they also inevitably support) will have under any legal regime. The "centrist" compromise beloved by so many op-ed writers just gets to the pre-Roe era through regulations that make it increasingly difficult for poor women to obtain safe abortions and for abortion clinics to operate rather than through more explicit bans. It's indefensible. It's also always worth pointing out that abortion criminalization is a very ineffective way of protecting fetal life but a very effective means of insuring that more women get maimed or killed.
And since this is an election year, keep in mind that the guy who wrote that despite lacking "reliable data" we could safely assume that women are too dumb to consider the consequences of their actions is considered the moderate among the Court's conservatives. We're one Republican administration away from Antonin Scalia becoming the median vote on the Supreme Court.
--Scott Lemieux
