Rudy, Roe and Reproductive Rights

An Opinion article in today's New York Times suggests that the election of Rudy Giuliani would hasten the overturning of Roe, and send the question of a woman's right to access abortion services back to the States. It's a scary scenario that the writer portrays, but at it's core as disingenuous as you can get.

The movement to outlaw abortion in this country always rests it's argument on the premise that if Roe is overturned it will simply return to the States to decide the issue, where they argue, it rightfully belongs.

What they fail to tell you, as esteemed Constitutional lawyer Michael Dorf reminded us in a The American Prospect article from July 2005, is this...

"Thus it is not alarmist to predict that within weeks -- if not days or hours -- of a Supreme Court decision overruling Roe v. Wade, Congress would enact legislation outlawing most abortions nationwide. At that point, the fate of legal abortion would depend on the justices' views about the limits of congressional power."

And that's why we remain vigilant, and that's why we care so deeply about Supreme Court appointees, and that's why we vote.