The Case Against the Case Against Roe

I have an article in the print edition of the latest American Prospect, which examines and–I humbly submit–thoroughly demolishes the “pro-choice” anti-Roe arguments that are so prevalent among liberal pundits these days, looking at both arguments about the impact on reproductive rights and the political effects. At the current time, it’s subscribers-only, but you’ll note that you can get immediate access by coughing up a mere 15 bucks, which also nets you 11 more issues. Plus, there’s a whole package on reproductive freedom in the issue, and this includes an article by Helena Silverstein, whose terrific work about the on-the-ground impact of parental notification statutes I’ve discussed previously. So I hope you’ll consider subscribing or picking up the issue when it hits the newsstands. In the meantime, to whet your appetite (or enrage you enough to look at the article so you can attack me properly in comments), I give you the conclusion:

Ultimately, to call these contrarian arguments “pro-choice” is a non sequitur. They’re only compelling if the value of protecting a woman’s right to choose is accorded almost no weight.

Indeed, what is finally most intolerable about the new anti-Roe consensus is just this willingness to throw the rights of others under the bus while patting oneself on the back for making noble compromises. It is certainly easy for men living in blue state urban centers — who know that no woman in their family or social circle will ever be denied a safe abortion — to casually dismiss the importance of the rights of poor women in the two dozen states at high risk of banning or severely restricting access to abortion in a post-Roe world. The legislative “compromises” celebrated by the contrarians involve sacrificing the rights of those women and allowing legislators to severely restrict abortion without paying a significant political price. This is an outcome that should not be acceptable to any progressive. Core rights are not a field where expediency should trump principle, and a moment like this is no time for elite commentators — if they really do support reproductive rights — to waste ink on cute debating games.