The Runback: After Roe
I've never been more hopeful that Roe v. Wade will be overturned. But the pro-life movement better be ready for what's next
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2022 Candidate Information
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News and Politics
Science vs Schifanelli: Dan Cox's running mate has some thoughts about COVID. But they are misleading and anti-scientific.
Let's Rate the Gubernatorial Campaign Logos: Design doesn't make the campaign. But it helps.
Guest Post: Activists Remain Silent on "Fair" Baltimore County Congressional Maps: Baltimore County Councilman David Marks weighs in.
Homicide Prosecutor for Baltimore’s Marilyn Mosby Charged Criminally: Baltimore Prosecutor charged with stalking ex-girlfriends with illegal subpoenas and threatening a criminal investigation to extort money.
December 2021 Republican Presidential Power Rankings: Things Have Changed Dramatically Since the Start of this Year...
Who Creates The Fear With Omicron? Dan Cox, who is your medical advisor for your campaign?
Cox Trying and Failing to Raise Money off of Omicron: Hits Keep on Coming for Doomed Dan's Campaign.
Eyes Off the Prize: The Special Session starts today, but you wouldn't know it from what some local Republican groups are prioritizing.
Sports
The OCHO: Week 12: Take a look at our newest column about the NFL. Take a look for it every Monday.
Let's Have a Playoff: Final 2021 Edition: Where Everybody Would be Happier. Including Notre Dame.
Business and Marketing
Is #GivingTuesday Too Saturated? Are too many non-profits asking for money at the same time?
Chalk Session
This week: Mike Rosenbaum for Governor of Maryland. Uncoincidentally, Rosenbaum dropped out hours after this show was released.
Shameless Plugs
In my latest for The Capital and the Carroll County Times, I previewed this week’s Special Session of the Maryland General Assembly.
Also, if you want to play competitive wiffle ball in Anne Arundel County, register now.
The Monday Thought
After this week’s arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, I’ve never been more hopeful that the awful decision in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey would be overturned. Something that I said would likely be coming when I reminded everybody after the Texas debacle that Dobbs was the main event in SCOTUS regarding abortion.
If you’re not as hopeful yet as I am, you will be once you read David French’s take on the matter:
As I listened to almost two hours of oral argument in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, a case challenging Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks, I kept returning to a single thought: Ruth Bader Ginsburg was right. She accurately identified the inherent instability of Roe v. Wade. Because of that instability, it is now quite possible that Roe will be overturned and the ultimate legality of abortion rights will be decided by legislatures, not justices….
….If the Court reverses Roe, it won’t do so because the majority hates women or views women as second-class citizens. Indeed, a woman would almost certainly be in the Court’s majority, and the Court would leave intact the ability of legislatures to protect abortion rights. Instead it will be because the majority embraces a constitutional order that limits the power of the judiciary to write laws and expands the power of the people to define the heart of liberty for themselves.
Read the whole thing. The legal fiction that created Roe will be what ends it. It’s unfortunate that 65 million innocent unborn children had to die in the process.
But one Roe gets overturned, that will create a who new world for Republicans in Congress and pro-life advocates around the country.
The first will be something I identified back in September:
Republicans in Congress to finally get serious about passing a Human Life Amendment. No such amendment has been introduced in this Congress. Only the Life at Conception Act has been introduced. But even those bills are only supported by 122 House Members and 17 Senators. Too many Republicans in Congress are missing in action on life issues and the fact that so few members of the Republican caucus are supporting these bills is alarming.
A Human Life Amendment that really accepts the idea of the Consistent Life Ethic would help.
The second will be preparing for new legislative battlegrounds on abortion. The abortion battle will now be engaged primarily at the state level, where individual states will be responsible for passing abortion legislation. The more states end abortion, the closer we will be to outlawing it once and for all.
But Ryan T. Anderson really gets to the heart of the matter.
He’s absolutely right. It will no longer be good enough for Republicans who say they are pro-life to say so on the basis that they are against abortion. It is time for Republicans who are truly pro-life to expound upon what that means. To be pro-life is to be pro-family, and it will be time to finally talk about the policies supported by pro-life activists and politicians that are far beyond abortion.
This does not mean that the government will need to be involved in these things. There is already plenty of private sector and non-profit infrastructure to provide support for women, babies, and families in need. We can start by asking more pro-life activists to vote with their wallets and actually support those charities with your charitable giving, especially this Holiday season.
It also means streamlining the adoption process. Pro-life activists have often pointed to adoption as one of the reasons why abortion should be illegal, but many have done nothing to make the adoption process less complicated, stressful, and expensive. We need better laws both at the federal and state level to make adoption easier both on kids and adoptive parents. We also should make sure that the Foster Care system is up to snuff and has adequate oversight.
There are several existing policies that support families that Republicans and pro-life activists generally support. It is pro-family to want lower taxes on workers. It is pro-family to want lower taxes on businesses that employ workers. It is is pro-family to want lower sales taxes that so that the goods your family needs aren’t so expensive. It is pro-family to oppose tariffs that raise the goods of big ticket items your family needs. It is pro-family to keep government out of health care and let parents make decisions for their kids. It is pro-family to promote changes in health care laws that streamline the ability to purchase coverage across state lines.
All of these policies are in the playbook of many pro-lifers; it’s just a matter of framing them better.
One finish line looks near, as far as overturning Roe v. Wade goes. But a whole new series of races await beyond that. Let’s hope we get there.
I'm feeling pretty good about things right now. The big question as you said is will we continue the fight and not figure it done?