I think Steve Chapman has been reading my blogs. He makes much the same point about Roe v. Wade here, as I did here and here. Chapman points out that many highly respected liberal legal scholars, including Lawrence Tribe and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, have attacked to shoddy legal reasoning behind Roe. So it isn't just right-wing crazies. Chapman asks the question, "Who is the real extemist on abortion?"
In a 2003 Gallup Poll, 68 percent of Americans said abortion "should be generally illegal" in the second trimester, and 84 percent said it should be barred in the third trimester. Under Roe, however, the government has to permit almost all abortions, no matter when they occur.
There's no way to know if Roberts would vote to junk the 1973 decision. If the court were to do that, though, it would merely let the electorate put its conflicting feelings about abortion into law in a way they can live with. Allowing the American people to have their way on a subject that is not mentioned in the Constitution is not extremism. It's democracy.
Recent Comments