Quote:
Originally posted by Say_hello_for_me
A specific Version 1.0 of his dooms-day scen-ar-i-o.
Going three times here.
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Jesus Christ. Pay my hourly rate if you want things on a timeframe.
[list=1][*]O'Connor or Stevens die during Bush II presidency. Anti-Roe ideologue appointed to Supreme Court.[*]Some state (doesn't matter which) immediately enacts law that places substantial burden on woman's ability to obtain abortion.[*]Law is struck down in district court and circuit court of appeals as contrary to Roe and Planned Parenthood cases.[*]Supreme Court accepts cert; says Roe was wrongly decided in 1973 and at all later times thereafter. Departs from current stare decisis law by overturning law notwithstanding its recent reaffirmation and substantial body of law below further developing and relying on that precedent; just says we've changed our minds.[*]With no constitutional issue raised by abortion controls, about 15 states (I'm making this up) ban abortion outright without exception for rape and incest. Another ten or so enact severe controls that basically substitute statutory standards and permit abortions to be performed only upon showing before court of some set standard.[*]States with constitutional provisions guaranteeing personal privacy continue to permit abortion solely upon request by pregnant woman. I imagine this will be somewhere around sixteen to twenty states.[*]Nation is now split in three: states allowing abortion "on demand"; states allowing abortion to be performed with court order; and states allowing no provision whatsoever for termination of pregnancy.[*]Politicians in states allowing no abortions rail against the Sodoms and Gomorrahs allowing abortions; candidates for President are asked whether fetus is a person in all future presidential debates (because candidates will no longer be allowed to use Roe federalism as a euphemism for the moral issue).[*]Congress stages weekly debates on whether there is a national policy to "favor" carrying a fetus to term. Findings are entered into the legislative record about birth rates and fetal development stages and all the same shit that came in during the partial birth abortion ban.[*]The states banning abortion elect single-issue House reps who will be the Dana Rohrbachers and Bob Dornans of abortion policy, repeatedly introducing legislation to end the holocausts of abortions being performed in NY, CA, MA and elsewhere.[*]It will begin to be seen as a legitimate policy goal at the federal level to "encourage" birth, and it will be seen as a legitimate means of achieving that goal to employ coercive funding conditions (like what federalized drinking age and basic speed law) to coax states to standardize "personhood" law.[*]States banning abortion will enact anti-travel provisions, which will be struck down in the courts, further inflaming the voter base. State legislatures there will instead do things like revise medical profession regulations to ban doctors from informing patients of their right to travel across state lines. States will also be free to enact laws banning insurance coverage for abortion and contraceptive-related medical care, which affect even the provision of out-of-state abortions. States free to enact laws that require insurance companies to report and publish names of covered women who've obtained abortions. Congress is asked to step in, but no idea how this plays out.[*]With no constitutional right to privacy in the doctor-patient relationship, Congress enacts federal controls on interstate travel for the purpose of procuring abortion. Maybe favoring; maybe restricting --- depends on how the elections go.[/list=1]
In short, I think the people who think it's simply going to be a matter of the states making up their own minds once, and the nation becoming comfortable that American babies are put to death depending solely upon which side of a state border the mother resides, is hopelessly naive. I must say I'm a little surprised that the conservatives on this board all think abortion is a states' rights issue. I surmise that those people have never lived in a Southern state. It's a matter of morality, and it will not stop with ending abortions in a 100, 200, or 500 mile radius. Hell, Bilmore can say it's a state's rights issue at the same time he's describing how anguished his friends are to think of babies being slaughtered. You think it's just Minnesota babies that keep them up at night?
I'm sure a much smarter person with more time on a Thursday night can think of other messy little open issues that will arise once there's no constitutional limit to what State A can do to State A residents.
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