Americans have always been divided.
Whether over slavery, Prohibition, civil rights, the COVID-19 pandemic or any of the countless issues confronting the nation, differences of opinion throughout history have created fissures within society.
The divisions would be exacerbated if the Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade and leaves the question of abortion rights to the states, making a unified America a tougher objective.
Most experts agree that reliably red and blue states, such as Texas and California, will have consistent abortion policies that attract people with like-minded political beliefs and encounter deep resistance from those who disagree.
“Individuals are going to gravitate, if they can, to blue states, and red state residents living in blue states are going to gravitate to red states,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “We could be developing two parallel systems, two parallel cultures, because nobody’s going to change. People are pretty set in their ways, and they have their own culture and they are satisfied with it.”
Meanwhile, battleground states, such as Georgia and Arizona, would become the staging ground for volatile politics and laws that shift from election to election.
“In areas that are purple, it forces a lot of women to live on a seesaw, where the law could change based on the whim of whatever political party is in charge at any given moment,” said Mo Elleithee, executive director of Georgetown’s Institute of Politics and Public Service. “That just puts women at the mercy of the political volatility of the state legislature.”
The possible extinction of Roe vs. Wade has thrilled abortion rights opponents and stiffened the resolve of supporters, both of whom recognize the divisions crisscrossing the country but disagree on what could create unity.
Denton County Commissioner Dianne Edmondson, a longtime Republican activist who has fought for years to curtail abortion rights, said she doesn’t understand the anger.
“I have to tell you, I’m always a little shocked to see how many people are willing to rally and et cetera in order to be able to kill their babies,” she said. “I think we’ve got a strong set of legislators in Texas, who will make sure that everything is done according to the law.”
Royce Brooks, the former executive director of Annie’s List, a group that backs progressive women candidates, said Texans will continue to resist the state’s anti-abortion laws in a post-Roe society.
During a recent family research meeting, they looked at wills and historic documents referring to her Black ancestors as “inventory.”
“The whole time I was just thinking … we’ve been here, and they can’t have it. No, they can’t have it,” Brooks said, her voice raising with emotion. “This is our home and our space and our legacy. That is why I feel so strongly that we have not only the power, but the responsibility to make the changes that we demand to see.”
Abortion debate exposes divisions
Abortion rights opponents have long hoped for the demise of Roe vs. Wade, and the appointment of three conservative justices during the Trump administration hastened the pace at which red states moved to pass laws restricting abortion.
Texas and a dozen other Republican-led states have trigger laws that would make those who perform or help a woman obtain an abortion subject to a felony. In turn — and exposing the bitter differences simmering for nearly 50 years — states with Democratic leaders, such as New York, have passed laws to enhance abortion rights.
On Sunday’s edition of Lone Star Politics, a political show produced by The Dallas Morning News and KXAS-TV (NBC 5), Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan defended the state’s trigger law – including the lack of exceptions for rape, incest and fetal abnormalities.
“Texas is a pro-life state,” he said before listing what the Legislature has done to bolster maternal health care. “That’s evident by the bills we passed. In polling of all of these issues, it’s surprisingly more pro-life than many may think here in Texas.”
Julie Ross, a Dallas health care advocate, said the danger of having states with contrasting laws on abortion is that poor people without the ability to leave will be trapped.
“This is just putting us back two centuries. This is the dark ages for health care, for women and for pregnant people,” Ross said. “It’s an attack on women, our bodies, our autonomy and our lives.”
Dallas County Republican Party chairwoman Jennifer Stoddard-Hajdu said if states with liberal abortion laws hadn’t overreached, conservative states would not have had to enact stricter anti-abortion laws.
“We wouldn’t be having the conversation had some states not pushed abortion too far,” she said. “Roe v. Wade was undisturbed for a very long time.”
Kristy Noble, the chairwoman of the Dallas County Democratic Party, countered that GOP policies were responsible for the lastest uproar over abortion rights.
“Republicans are playing politics with people’s lives, and they’re playing these politics in order to remain in power,” Noble said. “They are doing these things even though the vast majority of people do not agree with these policies, so the divide is being created and manifested by the policies that the Republicans are putting in place.”
A clear majority of Americans support abortion rights. Most Texans don’t want Roe vs. Wade overturned, but they do support limits, according to a Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll released Sunday.
Dallas lawyer Elizabeth Bingham said the trigger law going into effect, as well as others Texas could pass if Roe vs. Wade is gone, would intensify the fight over abortion.
Bingham, a Republican who opposes abortion, said there has been talk of laws that would outlaw or regulate contraception or make leaving the state to have the procedure a crime.
“All of those things we were told previously are not up for grabs,” she said.
She said both sides of the abortion debate are contributing to a powder keg.
“I’m concerned about the continued devolution of civil engagement, because for people on both sides of the aisle, they have taken to radicalizing positions on all of these issues,” she said.
Are America’s divisions overblown?
Talk radio host Mark Davis and other conservatives say that the divided America narrative has been overstated and that the nation was designed to accommodate differences over complicated issues, such as abortion.
“There are passionate people on the left and the right. And the founding fathers in their wisdom said that a lot of those things are going to happen, and that’s why we created a confederation of states, where different states can have different laws,” Davis said. “Traveling from state-to-state, it gives you a different regulatory environment and different levels of permissiveness on various activities that people may want to do. That’s not new.”
He conceded that the potential Supreme Court opinion on Roe vs. Wade has jolted the country.
“It’s just that the pressing and emotional nature of the abortion debate is the first opportunity that a lot of people are getting to understand that that’s how the Constitution works,” Davis said.
But Brooks, the former Annie’s List executive director, said the loss of Roe vs. Wade would fundamentally change America.
“If the Supreme Court overturns Roe, it will serve as a tangible, irrefutable wake-up call for a lot of people,” she said. “Overturning Roe would be the type of action that people could not readily dismiss.”
Brooks added that Texans who live under the red state policies of Abbott were ready to fight, not flee.
“Texas is among the most diverse states in the country. By the numbers, the median Texan is a millennial woman of color,” Brooks said. “This isn’t what we stand for, so I absolutely know that we have the power and the ability to have something different happen.”
As the debate over abortion rages, experts say Americans have to find a way to get along.
Sabato, the University of Virginia political scientist, said the nation should take a cue from the Cold War era, when superpower nations dealt with the threat of nuclear war.
“While we’re not talking about nuclear weapons, we are talking about very different cultures, lifestyles and laws and rules,” said Sabato, adding America didn’t need another Civil War. “The only way to stay united is through peaceful coexistence, because the blue states are not going to convince the red states to live the way they do, and the red states are not going to convince the blue states to live the way they do.”
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