There will be a revolt among American women that will make the protests against the Viet Nam War pale in comparison if their reproductive rights are restricted. Women will never give up their right to choose. It's about economic freedom. Fear not.

Do you guys even read the column? All the way to the end?

The point here is that Roe won't be overturned - but that's not enough. Does it matter if abortion is technically legal - but poor people can't get them, underage women can't get them, rural women can't get them, women with abusive partners can't get them, health insurance won't pay for them, no one provides them where you live, public hospitals won't provide them, private religious hospitals won't provide them, and the local women's clinic has shut down due to harassment and terrorist threats?

Remember the closest place to get an abortion in North Dakota is in South Dakota. 70% of women in America live in a county where there is no place to get an abortion.

Cody's point is that we need to stop obsessing about "protecting Roe" and rather need to obsess about protecting the more fundamental right to choose AND the right to be from coercion AND the actual ability to have an abortion when the choice has been made.

Kari,

Well said.

The problem with Paulie's version of reality is that once we have enough fundamentalists on the court to overturn, all of the grit and determination of outraged women will have zero effect. You don't get a vote with the Supremes. They won't even let you sing backup.

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Cody may be right here, but I hope not, and none of the moves made by the Theocrats so far show that they have actual political intelligence as opposed to low cunning in their bag of tricks.

Recent history demonstrates that they like to pile on and punish their opponents and the polls be damned. If they stay true to form and overturn, thus throwing the decision back to the states, they will have committed a blunder that will sink the Republican Party for the next twenty years.

As someone (sorry don't remember who) said the other day, it was young women who have been under represented in the last few elections. They will all turn out screaming for the rights that they were taking for granted, while some large percentage of fundy Christians will quit voting having won on the only issue that tied them to the Corporatist wing of the Republican Party. My fundy Christian friends are already gagging at the corruption and cronyism that their so called leaders practice and feel zero ethical affinity for said bastards.

Roe has some importance, but it's largely window dressing compared to the big picture on Alito. Consider his opinion on the 3rd Circuit in Doe v. Groody... if he had had his way, he would allow for expansive warrantless strip searches of women and children. The case has the right running scared... consider the recent column by CIA outer extraordinaire, Robert Novak. He flat out lies about the facts of the case, suggesting that Alito's permissive attitude was for a mere pat down. The facts say otherwise, namely the majority opinion of the court itself. Of course little things like the facts never get in the way of Novak.

The point? Watch these nominees verrrry closely. Choice is important, but Roe cannot be one's sole focus. If you want to geek out on this more, check out the Supreme Court Watch podcast.

bill, you asked where I got that statistic. well, it turns out that I was slightly incorrect.

87% of all counties in America do not have an abortion provider. 34% of women aged 15-44 live in those 87%. Also, 86 of the 276 metro areas have no abortion provider.

The study is here.

I got harassed going into a Planned Parenthood in Houston several times. I was a college student with just enough income to pay rent on my apartment and put some food in my fridge. As such, I got free annual exams at Planned Parenthood.

They yell at you as you walk across the street from the parking lot, and they try to block you from entering the premises, which is surrounded by a large iron fence. You can't even get in the building without a valid drivers license or ID.

Finally I got tired of them and told them to stop harassing people who were coming into the facility so that they wouldn't have an unexpected pregnancy and need an abortion. But apparently since I'm not skinny, they assume I'm pregnant and coming in for an abortion.

The wackos seem to forget these clinics do more than just abortions, and teh vast majority of people entering the clinics are there for other reasons. Most visit Planned Parenthood for STD tests, annual exams, free birth control, or free condoms.

Cody is right in that they're trying to hack away at Roe one piece at a time. Some people are so busy with Roe that they forget to look at the bigger picture.

Bailie--

The people I'm talking about are progressives/Dems. I'm sure a case can be made for Republicans as well, but the ones I'm talking about are Dems.

Dems want to protect Roe so much that they often miss all the little pieces that are slowly being eaten out of Roe. Some of us are paying attention, and get alerts from groups like Planned Parenthood every time something comes up. But there are many that miss things like the small changes happening around the country to stop women from having an abortion without a husband's consent, difficulty in finding a pharmacy that carries the morning after pill and similar prescriptions, not allowing pharmacists to prescribe the morning after drugs, etc.

They know how hard it's going to be to just outright turn over Roe. Instead they're doing it a piece at a time, hoping that people won't notice or won't mind these small changes.

Without people fighting to stop those changes, abortions could become illegal even though we still have Roe.