Freedom Is Forced Pregnancy
By Shorter Verbatim Ross Douthat: “The pro-life movement is arguably more comfortable with the language of rights and liberties than its opponents. Abortion foes are defending a right to life grounded in the Declaration of Independence, after all, whereas pro-choicers are defending more nebulous rights (privacy, autonomy, etc.) supposedly grounded in “penumbras” and “emanations” from the Constitution.”
Yes, I would have to say that nothing says “freedom” to me like “using (inevitably arbitrarily applied) state coercion to force women to carry pregnancies to term.” And I guess the American public’s massive comfort with the right to privacy is manifested in such things as strong majority support for Roe v. Wade, the fact that no nominee who explicitly denied the right to privacy could be confirmed to the Supreme Court, etc.
Later, he goes on to repeat his frankly absurd implication that there has been no “rollback of Roe’s near-absolute guarantee of abortion rights.” Again, “making clear that virtually every regulation short of a ban is constitutional” is a very curious form of “absolutism.” (Were that Douthat were right that Akron was still good law.) And perhaps some day he’ll explain why there’s some moral significance to pre-viability abortions that occur during the second as opposed to first trimester, but I’m not holding my breath.
…in response to complaints that the linked data is not sufficiently up-to-date, the most recent survey asking about support for Roe v. Wade shows public support for upholding the decision by nearly 20 points, which as anyone who knows anything about the subject knows has been remarkably consistent (like most aspects of public opinion about abortion since the early 70s.) How people answer ancillary questions about abortion is, of course, beside the point in this context.