If Roe Goes, Our State Will Be Worse Than You Think (Barf Alert)

Washington Post ^ | Sept 28, 2008 | Linda Hirshman

[CMoran325]

In the 1980s, when abortion was severely limited in then-West Germany, border guards sometimes required German women returning from foreign trips to undergo vaginal examinations to make sure that they hadn't illegally terminated a pregnancy while they were abroad. According to news stories and other accounts, the guards would stop young women and ask them about drugs, then look for evidence of abortion, such as sanitary pads or nightgowns, in their cars, and eventually force them to undergo a medical examination -- as West German law empowered them to do.

Sounds like a nightmare of a police state, doesn't it? Like something that could never happen in this day and age -- and certainly not in the United States? But depending upon the outcome of this presidential election, it could happen here. This is how.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain opposes abortion, believing that life begins at conception. Imagine that he's elected to the White House and, not long after, one of the aging Supreme Court justices dies or resigns. President McCain appoints a suitably conservative replacement, and a complaisant or cowed Senate confirms the nomination. Then, an ambitious district attorney in Alabama, Delaware or any one of more than a dozen other states with old abortion laws still on the books or a new, untested abortion restriction prosecutes a local clinic for performing the procedure. (Legal scholars pretty much agree that laws from before Roe v. Wade can be revived.) The clinic goes to federal court; after appeals, the case goes to the Supreme Court, which votes 5-4 to overturn Roe. And we're back to the '60s .

[CMoran325]

Liberal women's groups have been apoplectic since the announcement of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate. They immediately sounded the alarm that their sacrosanct rite of abortion was in peril. Never mind that abortion on-demand has not delivered on any of the promises made by the lawyers who argued in favor of Roe v. Wade -- child abuse has climbed exponentially, women still predominantly bear the responsiblities of parenting, women still do not have equal leverage in the work force. Maybe we need more abortions -- because over a million a year in this country still isn't getting it done. Or not. Perhaps instead, Sarah Palin and her fellow pro-life feminists are the ones who have got it right. They recognize that having a child is not a barrier to success, and sacrificing our children will not bring about change in society. Society must change to accept the fact that pregnancy and parenthood are not the problems. Why do we continue to allow women to think it's alright to feel incapable of facing a challenge? Why are we not offering concrete support for women and their children, and not just a euphemistic "choice"? It's not an implausible police state these women fear, it's the possibility that they will be proven wrong -- that they fought so hard for something that ultimately did incalculably more harm than good.

[CommieCutter]

OMG! The end of the World! We can’t slaughter babies!!!!

[anonsquared]

Conservatives should announce that we’re for abortions, but only for registered Democrats.
Roe v Wade would be overturned the next day.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

I do not for one minute believe this stupid story about vaginal exams...really.

[kcvl]

I wonder why she thinks she would have to worry about an abortion?

http://www.gettoworkmanifesto.com/

As a union side labor lawyer

[wastedyears]

“If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

- B. Hussein Obama

[rovenstinez]

I have wondered if Senator Obama ever had a serious thought that if abortion would have been legal when he was conceived, his mother might have destroyed his life in the uterus. I wonder if his mom would have been giving CHOICE, what she would have chosen...

[Farmer Dean]

Face like an iodine bottle.

[Clintonfatigued]

This is “The End Of The World As They See It.”

[hinckley buzzard]

I do not for one minute believe this stupid story about vaginal exams...really.

Its all complete BS from the babykillers trying to panic the peasants. Too bad the peasants are smarter than the abortion whores like Hirschman.

[sobieski]

This woman’s story is laughable. I entered the RFN by car, rail and air (but not boat). There was a porn shop at the Frankfurt Airport, but not vaginal exams.