Roe and Dobbs

Finally, Roe v. Wade has been overturned. This is a very good thing. Even supporters of legalized abortion should have recognized that a Supreme Court ruling was the wrong way to accomplish it. (I’ve seen a quote from Ruth Bader Ginsburg that suggests she might have agreed.) In a democracy, public policy should be determined by discussion and compromise, not by a group of appointed judges. Now the issue has been returned to state legislation, where it always belonged.

Almost everybody is concerned about the political polarization we have today. While not the sole cause, Roe v. Wade certainly contributed significantly to this polarization. After that decision, abortion advocates didn’t feel like they needed to listen to the other side, while those who opposed abortion felt they had little or no way to be heard. Without any real dialogue going on, people were pushed to the extremes.

The Dobbs decision does not make abortion illegal, as some hysterical voices seem to think. Instead, after half a century where the Supreme Court seemed to feel their role was to impose elite opinion on recalcitrant masses, the current court has made it clear that they do not see that as their function. Instead, state legislatures will have to wrestle with this issue, as well as several other issues that some might have hoped to resolve by judicial fiat. With any luck, people on opposite sides of the abortion issue, and other issues, might start talking to each other and work out compromises, instead of just yelling past each other.