Those who are sincerely opposed to abortion based on their firm religious view are abolitionists, as they should be, since they believe that life begins at conception, that destruction of not just a fetus but even a fertilized egg is worse than murder, and that abortion constitutes genocide. Abolitionists opposed to abortion won't settle for a mere reduction in the number of abortions, just as abolitionists opposed to slavery wouldn't have settled for a mere reduction in the number of slaves.
Abolitionists are a minority, however. The latest polls say that those who believe that abortion should be "illegal in all cases" are about 15-25% (cf. <http://www.pollingreport.com/abortion.htm>).
Moreover, according to Gallup, abortion "consistently ranks among the least important issues to the electorate in choosing a president, yet it is one of the most visible election issues because candidates use it to energize their base supporters" (Lydia Saad, "Abortion Issue a Minefield in Battleground States?" April 6, 2004, <http://www.gallup.com/content/login.aspx?ci=11221>). Abortion becomes a decisive electoral issue only because the two parties of the ruling class have consensus on issues that are more important to the majority of voters -- like scarcity of well-paid jobs and a disastrous war -- than abortion, so even many voters for whom abortion is "among the least important issues" (Saad, April 6, 2004) feel compelled to make a decision based upon it (the same goes for gay marriage).
The Republican Party is therefore not interested in overturning Roe v. Wade or making abortion illegal in all cases. As I demonstrated above, abolitionists are a minority. 61% of Americans would not want President Bush to nominate Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade (Associated Press-Ipsos, Nov. 3-5, 2004, <http://www.pollingreport.com/abortion.htm>). More importantly, if the Republican Party made abortion illegal in all cases, it would not only lose a valuable wedge issue that it could keep using every two years but also ignite a powerful social movement. Far better to save Roe v. Wade and push for more and more restrictions on abortion at the state and federal levels than kill the goose that lays the electoral golden eggs.
Here is the result of electoral politics of abortion: "Reams of anti-abortion proposals were introduced in the states, including delay periods, parental consent laws, mandatory lectures against abortion, and the near-total elimination of access to abortion for women reliant on government-sponsored health insurance. According to the new state-by-state review of abortion laws released by NARAL Pro-Choice America on Jan. 15 [2003], the states have enacted 335 restrictions on abortion since 1995. The organization's legal director, Elizabeth Cavendish, said 34 new anti-choice measures were enacted last year alone" (Cynthia L. Cooper, "Roe v. Wade at 30: Dreams and Predictions," January 19, 2003, <http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1188/context/cover/>).
Pro-choice Americans who campaign for the Democratic Party on the grounds that it protects Roe v. Wade that the Republican Party attacks are defending the Maginot Line*, unable to muster forces to confront the Republicans' actual line of attack.
* "The World War II German invasion plan of 1940 (Sichelschnitt) was designed to deal with the Line. A decoy force sat opposite the Line while a second Army Group cut through the Low Countries of Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as through the Ardennes Forest which lay north of the main French defences. Thus the Germans were able to avoid assaulting the Maginot Line directly. Attacking from May 10, the German forces were well into France within five days and they continued to advance until May 24, when they stopped near Dunkirk. By early June the German forces had cut the Line off from the rest of France and the French government was making overtures for an armistice, which was signed on June 22 in Compiègne. But the Line was still intact and manned with a number of commanders wanting to hold out; and the Italian advance had been successfully contained. Still Maxime Weygand signed the surrender and the army was ordered into captivity" ("Maginot Line," <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maginot_Line>). -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>