WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A lot of people who want to prevent abortions think they have to vote Republican to get action. It is hard to see why.
No party that uses the distortions, evasions and dissimulation of the current administration to torture people can claim to respect human dignity. It is not pro-life. It could still be anti-abortion. Its deeds do not lend much support to that possibility, though, no matter what it says.
Before 1972, abortion laws were spotty. It was "on demand" in two states.
Several, including Florida, allowed it in cases of rape, incest and for the health — which would later become controversial — of the mother. It was totally illegal in much of the country. Then in 1972 came Roe vs. Wade in which the Supreme Court said states couldn't interfere with abortion in the first trimester. That's the decision anti-abortion folks rally against in Washington each January.
Who wrote it? A Republican justice (Harry Blackmun) appointed by a Republican president (Nixon). The court's majority consisted of four Republican appointees and three Democrats. The dissenters were one Republican (William Rehnquist) and one Democrat (Byron White).
Initially opponents thought they could get around the Supreme Court with a constitutional amendment. Oddly, that thrust abortion into presidential politics — oddly because a president has nothing to do with enacting constitutional amendments. Congress can propose them, but they go to the states for ratification without even a "by your leave" from the White House. For a president, being against abortion is as significant as being against frog legs for dinner.
After a few years the amendment route was seen to be a loser. Republican presidents stayed opposed to abortion rhetorically. In theatrical circles saying an actor "phoned in" his performance implies his heart wasn't in it. President Reagan flew to Phoenix to speak to the National Rifle Association but never drove a few blocks to make a speech to the antiabortion rallies each January outside the Supreme Court building. He literally phoned it in. Being heard by phone but not seen with abortion opponents has been President Bush's style as well.
By the 20th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade the Supreme Court had eight Republican appointees and the original Democratic dissenter (Justice White). That court upheld some state regulations but explicitly upheld abortion as a constitutional right.
Abortion was legalized and kept legal by black robed Republicans, not by a cabal of San Francisco Democrats.
In Congress, Republicans could complain that Democrats thwarted efforts to curb abortions. But then that excuse ran out. From 2003 to 2006 they held both houses of Congress. And the White House. And the Supreme Court.
You'd think something would happen after all the talk. They could have set up a law case for the current court with seven Republican appointees to use to reverse the 1972 decision.
In 2003 they passed the "partial-birth abortion" ban, which their floor managers explained would apply to only a very few abortions. The Supreme Court upheld it in 2007. That's all they accomplished on abortion while they controlled everything. It's all they tried to do.
Abortion has been very good for Republicans running for election. But for 35 years the Republicans who ran on it haven't done much to reward their supporters. People who supported President Bush for what he said about abortion now have an unnecessary war and torture on their consciences. And abortion is still legal.
Maybe Republicans think of abortion as an issue to run on, not to act on.
Could that be? The record does not disprove that suspicion.
Tom Blackburn is a former member of Editorial Board. His e-mail address is tom UNDERSCORE blackburn AT pbpost.com.
