Stream of consciousness from Roberts nomination to abortion

For those of you that aren't as politically dorky as I am, you may not have heard that John Roberts was the subject of a scathing report by People for the American Way earlier today. This isn't really surprising, seeing as how People for the American Way is a flaming liberal advocacy group. Don't let the name fool you -- to them, 'the American way' means rampant moral relativism, gay marriage, illegal immigrant amnesty, and abortion on demand -- not exactly in line with middle America. But, as I often do, I digress.

In another example of wide-eyed, alarmist fanaticism, the spokesman for People for the American Way said things like John Roberts is going to 'roll back the clock' on our most private rights -- which is liberal code for 'make it so we can't have an abortion whenever we want.'

This claim against Roberts, or conservatives in general, really, is nothing new. For some reason, liberals like to go around claiming that a lone conservative politician, or even Supreme Court Justice, can single-handedly make abortion illegal. Well, I'm here to explain to you why that's never going to happen.

You've all likely heard of Roe v. Wade -- the Supreme Court decision that magically found a 'right' to abortion in the Constitution. Now, regardless of your feelings on the decision, here's what it did:

It deemed various laws in various states that outlawed or restricted abortion unconstitutional. That's it. It said that states couldn't make laws that outlaw abortion. But for whatever reason, the Roe v. Wade decision has become the Alamo for liberals every where, to the point that anyone who dares even MENTION overturning it is labeled some woman-hating, religious zealot that wants to control women's vaginas.

Well, here's the thing. The hypothetical overturning of Roe v. Wade will NOT make abortion in America illegal. ALL it would do would make it to where state laws restricting/outlawing abortion were no longer unconstitutional. In order to make abortion illegal, the state legislatures of all 50 states would have to pass a law outlawing abortion. So what are liberals so afraid of? Shouldn't they be confident enough in their beliefs that they trust the American public with them? Apparently not.

As a conservative, or more accurately, as a rational human being, it might come as no surprise that I don't like abortion, and wish there was less of it. However, I'm not convinced that the wholesale outlawing of the practice is the way to go about reducing it. Abortion advocates often claim that if medical abortions are outlawed that women wanting abortions will again be resigned to dark alleys and coat hangers. And gruesome as that sounds, it's probably true. And somehow I can't resolve that scenario with my desire for fewer abortions.

Abortion by itself is not a problem. It's a symptom of a problem. It's tragic, yes, but it's mere existence is not the tragedy. The culture in this nation as well as most of the rest of the 'civilized' world that breeds the situations in which abortion is seen as a viable alternative to pregnancy, and the culture that condones, accepts, or even advocates such a practice is the real tragedy, and the real problem.

I've always been and always will be an advocate of self-reliance. And I believe that abortion provides an easy way out for those in the situation of an unwanted pregnancy. That's not to say that I want these women to have these children and raise them. However, if you're not in the position of raising a child, then you shouldn't be in the position of getting pregnant.

Various politicians and religious leaders seem to attach a stigma to birth control measures because they think it encourages sexual activity, especially among young people. There might be some truth to this, but all the abstinence education on the planet isn't going to convince every person to avoid sexual activity until marriage. And for those that don't, they should have access to other forms of birth control so as to prevent more unwanted pregnancies.

All in all, the liberal fear that a new Supreme Court justice is going to end abortion is totally blown out of proportion, as usual. And if conservatives want to make abortion in this country less common, they'd be better served going at it from the cultural and social sides, rather than the legal and medical.