Common ground on abortion
Published in the Boulder Daily Camera 06/09/09
On May 17, 2009 President Obama told a graduating class at Notre Dame that it is time for America to seek "common ground" on abortion. It most certainly is. Abortion has been a polarizing issue at the forefront of American politics for almost four decades now -- way too long for an issue that was well on its way to being resolved in state legislatures across the nation in 1973. No one needs to find a this common ground on abortion more than the Republican Party that is still struggling to reconcile its platform positions with popular opinion in America. As perhaps best demonstrated locally by the nearly 3-1 vote against Amendment 48 (that attempted to define human life as starting at conception), legalized abortion is now supported by a wide majority of voters in our state.The Republican Party has long been strongly associated with the anti-abortion movement in America and, while that has often energized the "base," it has also put us at odds with mainstream American thinking on the issue. Many Republicans, myself included, have always fully supported a woman's right to make this very difficult choice. Letting a woman "choose," one can argue, is far more consistent with the core Republican philosophy of trusting individuals to make choices for themselves rather than allowing government to decide for you. So, what is the problem we Republicans have with the abortion debate and, to the President's point, where might we find common ground to put this debate behind us?
I believe that the search for common ground should start with the recognition that the 36-year rage over abortion should never have happened. As I said at the outset, at the time of Roe vs. Wade, abortion was being widely debated in state legislatures across the country. In fact, in 1973 when the Roe vs. Wade decision was handed down by the Supreme Court, I lived in New York, where abortion had already been legalized and it was clear that the tide was turning against legally prohibiting abortion. Had this debate continued, I have no doubt that abortion would have been legal in nearly every state in America and available to anyone willing to cross a single state line by 1980. While people holding extreme positions on the abortion might find this insufficient, I think that most would agree that this would have been a preferable outcome to the 36-year culture war that still rages. Over the past 36 years, abortion has consumed endless hours of heated thought and political debate, as well as becoming a litmus test for many voters. While the issue of a woman's right to choose to abort a viable fetus is important, it should never have consumed us so much for so long. What went wrong?
The answer is, quite simply, we as a nation never got to finish the argument on the morality of abortion. The argument was cut off by a Supreme Court decision in what has become the clearest example in our lifetime of the price of judicial activism and legislating from the bench. Using the dubious argument of a woman's right to "privacy" (and privacy, while a fine principle of life in America, is nowhere guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution), nine unelected judges ended the national debate on abortion just as it was building a head of steam and, in many cases, being resolved at the state level. However you may agree with the product of their decision -- legalized abortion -- we should all now see how corrosive the use of judicial fiat in making a significant societal decision was.
That is, I believe, where the common ground across America can lie -- we need to oppose the use of the Supreme Court to make decisions that are best left to democratic process. Abortion, and all other like issues behind it, should be left to the elected bodies (e.g., legislatures) or through direct democracy (e.g., the amendment process). Through the democratic process, we as a society can debate complex societal issues and decide them in a way that will put the issue behind us once a decision has been made. Courts have a role in interpreting the laws, but not in making them.
Abortion, while significant, did not warrant a 36-year long cultural war. American political culture has lost in many ways by all sides and we would have all been better had we moved on to other important issues long ago. Let's take this moment to learn from history and not select judges that believe that their wisdom is greater than that of our democracy, leading them to legislate from the bench. Whatever the issue, the price that society will ultimately pay is not worth it. Let the democratic process do its job.
If the President truly wishes to seek common ground on this issue, then he needs to strongly make the case that judges should judge the laws as written by the people, not make their own. In making this Supreme Court nomination, the President has already spoken against judicial activism, albeit weakly. On the other side, Republicans, particularly Colorado Republicans, must also do their part and recognize that abortion is now widely accepted and, even though the process by which it was made legal was fatally flawed, the people have now spoken clearly. That is where the common ground lies, if we let it.
Ron Laughery is a District Captain in the Boulder County Republican Party
On May 17, 2009 President Obama told a graduating class at Notre Dame that it is time for America to seek "common ground" on abortion. It most certainly is. Abortion has been a polarizing issue at the forefront of American politics for almost four decades now -- way too long for an issue that was well on its way to being resolved in state legislatures across the nation in 1973. No one needs to find a this common ground on abortion more than the Republican Party that is still struggling to reconcile its platform positions with popular opinion in America. As perhaps best demonstrated locally by the nearly 3-1 vote against Amendment 48 (that attempted to define human life as starting at conception), legalized abortion is now supported by a wide majority of voters in our state.The Republican Party has long been strongly associated with the anti-abortion movement in America and, while that has often energized the "base," it has also put us at odds with mainstream American thinking on the issue. Many Republicans, myself included, have always fully supported a woman's right to make this very difficult choice. Letting a woman "choose," one can argue, is far more consistent with the core Republican philosophy of trusting individuals to make choices for themselves rather than allowing government to decide for you. So, what is the problem we Republicans have with the abortion debate and, to the President's point, where might we find common ground to put this debate behind us?
I believe that the search for common ground should start with the recognition that the 36-year rage over abortion should never have happened. As I said at the outset, at the time of Roe vs. Wade, abortion was being widely debated in state legislatures across the country. In fact, in 1973 when the Roe vs. Wade decision was handed down by the Supreme Court, I lived in New York, where abortion had already been legalized and it was clear that the tide was turning against legally prohibiting abortion. Had this debate continued, I have no doubt that abortion would have been legal in nearly every state in America and available to anyone willing to cross a single state line by 1980. While people holding extreme positions on the abortion might find this insufficient, I think that most would agree that this would have been a preferable outcome to the 36-year culture war that still rages. Over the past 36 years, abortion has consumed endless hours of heated thought and political debate, as well as becoming a litmus test for many voters. While the issue of a woman's right to choose to abort a viable fetus is important, it should never have consumed us so much for so long. What went wrong?
The answer is, quite simply, we as a nation never got to finish the argument on the morality of abortion. The argument was cut off by a Supreme Court decision in what has become the clearest example in our lifetime of the price of judicial activism and legislating from the bench. Using the dubious argument of a woman's right to "privacy" (and privacy, while a fine principle of life in America, is nowhere guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution), nine unelected judges ended the national debate on abortion just as it was building a head of steam and, in many cases, being resolved at the state level. However you may agree with the product of their decision -- legalized abortion -- we should all now see how corrosive the use of judicial fiat in making a significant societal decision was.
That is, I believe, where the common ground across America can lie -- we need to oppose the use of the Supreme Court to make decisions that are best left to democratic process. Abortion, and all other like issues behind it, should be left to the elected bodies (e.g., legislatures) or through direct democracy (e.g., the amendment process). Through the democratic process, we as a society can debate complex societal issues and decide them in a way that will put the issue behind us once a decision has been made. Courts have a role in interpreting the laws, but not in making them.
Abortion, while significant, did not warrant a 36-year long cultural war. American political culture has lost in many ways by all sides and we would have all been better had we moved on to other important issues long ago. Let's take this moment to learn from history and not select judges that believe that their wisdom is greater than that of our democracy, leading them to legislate from the bench. Whatever the issue, the price that society will ultimately pay is not worth it. Let the democratic process do its job.
If the President truly wishes to seek common ground on this issue, then he needs to strongly make the case that judges should judge the laws as written by the people, not make their own. In making this Supreme Court nomination, the President has already spoken against judicial activism, albeit weakly. On the other side, Republicans, particularly Colorado Republicans, must also do their part and recognize that abortion is now widely accepted and, even though the process by which it was made legal was fatally flawed, the people have now spoken clearly. That is where the common ground lies, if we let it.
Ron Laughery is a District Captain in the Boulder County Republican Party
