The Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v Wade has convulsed America. Protests have erupted across the country to denounce the ruling, while abortion opponents rejoice.
Their contrasting sentiments illustrate the prevailing national mood: the fury and frustration of the majority, subordinated by a hijacked democracy to the tyranny of the minority. A minority motivated by white Christian nationalism pursuing a holy war against the tide of demography and history.
How did we get here?
As President Joe Biden noted, the outcome didn’t happen by accident, and it didn’t happen overnight.
It began with Paul Weyrich, co-founder of The Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council, in the late 1970s. Weyrich and his backers didn’t care about abortion. What they cared about was building a political coalition that could gain power and implement their real agenda: an anti-tax, anti-regulation, anti-worker economic revolution. Abortion was just one of many culture war catalysts, like guns, gays and race, that could be weaponised to motivate supporters and win elections.
Ronald Reagan delivered their revolution. The US and the world have been living under their neoliberal blueprint for more than 40 years. And yet for all that time, Roe endured. That’s the tell. The Republican establishment, and its middle America voters, accepted Roe. Polls have always confirmed this. They tolerated the zealots, because they were a means to an end.
Except the zealots never gave up. They found their own champion in Leonard Leo. Another faceless man who has laboured relentlessly to usher Roe’s repeal. Leo, networking via the Federalist Society and the Judicial Crisis Network, is the hidden hand that helped make opposition to abortion a litmus test for conservative judges. Working with Mitch McConnell and billionaire donors, he built the pipeline from classroom to courtroom to install reliable loyalists throughout the nation’s courts. His name will not be found on Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, but he is its silent author.
This leads to the larger reason behind Friday’s travesty: privileged apathy. Millions of women and men who support abortion rights voted for politicians and judges who don’t. They did so election after election. They did so because of political tribalism. They did so because they supported such candidates on other issues, and fooled themselves that while the zealots might chip away here and there at abortion access, they would remain unaffected. They would always have access to safe, legal abortions for their daughters and mistresses should the need arise.
They were wrong. As trigger laws shutter abortion clinics in red states, and legislators prepare harsher laws to criminalise anyone seeking or abetting an abortion, their wilful blindness has been exposed. American women are the collateral damage of their myopia.
The zealots who spent decades building to this moment have seized their greatest victory. They won’t stop now. Rights to contraception, IVF treatment, marriage equality, and consensual sex between adults — each protected by the same constitutional principles that sustained Roe — are all in their sights. They aim to ban them all. They intend to drive a stake through the Establishment Clause that separates state from religion, and impose their Christian theocracy on every American.
Many people think politics is boring, or doesn’t affect them. Many are cynical, and confuse this with being smart or superior. Many think they have more important things to worry about. Many have a “pox on both their houses” mentality. These attitudes are what the zealots count on. As Pericles warned 2500 years ago: “Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.”
Does this mark a breaking point or a tipping point for America? Will the majority resist this judicial coup, or will they submit? We will find out soon enough. Biden declared on Friday that “Roe is on the ballot” for the midterm elections in November.
If he’s right, Democrats will defy predictions and win. Should Democrats hold the House and pick up a couple of Senate seats, they can break the filibuster to enact the Women’s Health Protection Act. This would safeguard women’s access to abortion in every state. They could also clear the logjam that has blocked Biden’s agenda on other fronts, including voting rights, lower prescription drug prices, and universal childcare.
However, if inflation and gas prices matter more to Americans than their personal freedoms, then Republicans will win. And the zealots will march on. They have already signalled their intent to pass a national abortion ban. While they do, Republicans will continue their assault on regulation, and attacks on social security and Medicare.
The choice could not be clearer.
