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> It's telling that simply saying "this is not a matter for the supreme court but the people's representatives" is so incredibly controversial. There are of co

> It's telling that simply saying "this is not a matter for the supreme court but the people's representatives" is so incredibly controversial. There are of course two followup questions here: 1. Would the current supreme court allow a federal abortion law that codifies roe? The SC opinion explicitly notes that their ruling returns this to the states, but federal representatives are representatives too. 2. Does it really make sense for rights to be up to the whims of the legislature? If it takes 60 votes to pass a national abortion legalization, and 50 senate votes to repeal it, will we end up with lasting legislation, or just a de-facto ban because abortion is repealed every 2-4 years?

InTheArena 4y ago
1. Yes, they say as much in the opinion. (Take it for what it's worth). I think conservatives have not factored this into their plan. 2. I think at some point people will punish parties for that. Right now both parties could take absolutionist positions on abortion (late term versus outlawing for all reasons) because they didn't have the power to do anything because the USSC ruled on the issue. That made it a red meat promise to their supporters, without them ever having to really do anything about it.. now they do.
kcplate 4y ago
Regarding #2, the congress legislatively and the constitutional amendment process is truly the only place that makes sense to establish federal abortion rights. Frankly the amendment process is literally the best place because it’s the only way to establish enumerated rights. Will it be hard? Extremely. Is it likely to fail before it’s done? Absolutely. But when it’s finally done, at whatever compromise, those rights will be enumerated and well established and it will take millions of people to take them away…instead of six people. In the meantime we have states democratically choose their path.

InTheArena 4y ago

1. Yes, they say as much in the opinion. (Take it for what it's worth). I think conservatives have not factored this into their plan. 2. I think at some point people will punish parties for that. Right now both parties could take absolutionist positions on abortion (late term versus outlawing for all reasons) because they didn't have the power to do anything because the USSC ruled on the issue. That made it a red meat promise to their supporters, without them ever having to really do anything about it.. now they do.

kcplate 4y ago

Regarding #2, the congress legislatively and the constitutional amendment process is truly the only place that makes sense to establish federal abortion rights. Frankly the amendment process is literally the best place because it’s the only way to establish enumerated rights. Will it be hard? Extremely. Is it likely to fail before it’s done? Absolutely. But when it’s finally done, at whatever compromise, those rights will be enumerated and well established and it will take millions of people to take them away…instead of six people. In the meantime we have states democratically choose their path.