Abortion is going to be a big issue in the 2024 presidential primaries and the November elections. Along with inflation, immigration, and the Biden administration’s debacles in handling Afghanistan and Ukraine, the abortion issue looms large. Now that nearly two years have passed since the monumental Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court, let’s take measure because the doomsday scenarios haven’t come to pass. So, what is everyone angry about?
I’ll get to that in a minute. First, I want you to ask yourself this question: Regardless of where you stand on the Life vs. Choice debate, do you think getting your preferred policy on abortion is more important than democracy?
Almost nobody understands why the Dobbs case is so important. They are caught up in the debate over whether there is, isn’t, should, or shouldn’t be a “right to abortion” and the proper moral and legal limits to such a right. I tend to agree that there are powerful and credible arguments on both sides of the abortion issue. That’s not what’s at stake with Roe and the Dobbs case that overturns it. What’s at stake is federalism and the very idea of Constitutional democracy.
The Dobbs ruling, issued on June 24, 2022, was widely and falsely described as denying American women the right to abortion. Nonsense. What the Court did was return the authority to confer such a right to the individual states — confirming the founding principle of federalism which allows each state and people to govern themselves. Consider the opening lines: