Wednesday, June 02, 2004
And you thought the abortion debate was in a holding pattern. Not so fast.
A federal judge in San Francisco struck down the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act yesterday, ruling that the law jeopardizes other legal forms of abortion and threatens the health of women who end their pregnancies.
Raising the subject of partial-birth abortions was a brilliant maneuver on the part of the Pro-life camp. By bringing into the foreground a nasty procedure which only occurs in the thousands per year and making it a pivotal issue, they left the proponents of abortion rights in a vice. Either agree that partial-birth abortions were unacceptable unless the life of mother was at stake (which, not for nothing, is about the only time they are used) and give precious ground/momentum, or hold fast on a topic nearly 80% of Americans are against you on.
My personal problem with the legislation itself is the Congressional finding of fact that the procedure is never medically necessary. When dealing with issues of health, especially grave ones which could mean life or death, a doctor's hands should never be tied. That's simply common sense. Should the bill have contained a mother's-life exception, I don't think it's too objectionable. It's hard to see situations where there would be non-medical circumstances, and that late in the pregnancy the threshold for determining life is much harder to hedge around.
Of course, the precedent it sets is another matter entirely, and I think in some ways the pro-Choice camp allowed itself to be played; the partial-birth bill, in reality a relatively minor act, became exactly what the pro-Lifers wanted -- a perceived political victory. The capital and impetus they gained far outweighs any moral triumph from stopping a few thousand women getting the medical care they need.
Yesterday's ruling throws a not unexpected nuance into the works. This law is certainly headed to the Supreme Court at some point, and there the justices will have their first real chance to speak regarding Roe v. Wade. Prognosticating the outcome at this point is fruitless, because it's not even clear if the same nine men and women will be sitting on that bench come the ruling. Depending how long this takes to work its way through the appellate system, the stakes for November's election just got even higher.
To expand to a macro level:
Americans seem eminently capable of blinding themselves to hypocrisy. In post-9/11 word perhaps more than ever, we have come to clutch our individual rights to the point of violence. We have gone to war in Afghanistan and Iraq in the name of protecting the liberty which makes this nation great. We decry enemies of the state as those who hate freedom, those who seek to destroy our open and democratic way of life. The collective identity of "Americanness" has rarely been stronger. God Bless America, for United We Stand.
Yet at the same time, our domestic agenda seems bent on obliterating that which we seek so stridently to save. Gay rights and abortion rights are coming under heavy assault, while behind a shadowy wall of "national security," racial profiling, lawyer-less detentions and wiretaps continue unfettered. Americans need to take a hard look at what we really stand for, and make certain that we practice domestically the ideals we preach to the world.
Partial-birth abortion is but a grain of sand in the overarching landscape of the country. But by scrutinizing the debate surrounding it, the vituperative rhetoric permeating it, and today the litigious ramifications weighing on it, we can throw into relief just how torn America has become.
It's worth thinking about.
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