Danielle DSouza Gill - The Choice: The Abortion Divide

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

W INSTON C HURCHILL

Abortion is the great, unexamined issue of our time. When we look at the controversies swirling in America, we see that underneath them lurks this issue of abortion, which is the driving force of what is going on, even when it is not mentioned.

In the Trump presidency, we have seen a succession of controversies from the Mueller Report to Ukraine to Kavanaugh to impeachment to coronavirus. Trump, himself, has been under constant siege since he won in 2016. Most of these controversies had a subtext that went largely unnoticed. On the face of it, the Kavanaugh hearings were about the Me Too movementwomen accusing Kavanaugh of having assaulted them or taken advantage of them. There was a fake element to this. One of the women admitted that she was lying and made it up because she wanted to get rid of Kavanaugh. She claimed she was angry because of what he represented and wanted her sexual assault allegation to grab attention.

The Kavanaugh confirmation that became a show trial was ultimately about abortion.

When we turn to immigration, impeachment, even coronavirus, we see that the Lefts focus is on blasting Trump. So what is it about Trump that causes so much apoplexy? Trump was instrumental in bringing about some of the lowest unemployment rates the country has seen in decades. And when coronavirus hit, very early on, Trump was prescient in restricting travel from China, saving innumerable American lives. The same goes for bringing jobs back to America. People quickly realized in the wake of coronavirus that relying so heavily on China has negative effects, especially during a pandemic. Under President Trump, we have even seen ISIS weakened in the Middle East and the death of one of the most powerful terrorists, Qasem Soleimani. So one would think that Trump would receive some credit for this. But, no. Why?

One of the most, if the not the most, threatening things about him is the fact that he is transforming the courts. Not only is he populating the appellate courts with one constitutionalist justice after another, a systematic overhaul of the judiciary, but he is also reshaping the Supreme Court with the Gorsuch and Kavanaugh confirmations. If Trump is reelected, then over the next four years there is a very good chance that the Supreme Court could move to a 63 majority, even a 72 majority. It was a 72 majority that decided Roe v. Wade, so it may take a 72 majority to overturn it. Supreme Court justices are appointed for life, which is to say that this would be a majority that would long outlast Trumps time in office.

So, from the point of view of the pro-choice Left, Trump signifies a reconstructed Supreme Courtand even a reconstructed America. The Supreme Court can produce lasting changes in American society. Of course, court decisions affect a range of areas, but the single most important issue that the Left is concerned about, the single issue on which the court can have a decisive and momentous impact, is abortion. At the end of the day, the Lefts vehement hatred of Trump is rooted in his ability to move the courts in a pro-life direction.

But why does the Left care so much about abortion? Because abortion is at the center of the values the Left has been trying to impose on the culture for the last fifty years. This is the central issue, now at risk, that is driving the Left berserk. Abortion is also a key issue for the Right. Pro-life activists have been fighting since before 1973, and they are not giving up anytime soon.

What makes this phenomenon so interesting is that abortion, while being at the center of American politics, is at the same time rarely openly debated in a fundamental way. This is not to say that there arent skirmishes about abortion when a heartbeat bill is introduced or that there isnt an ongoing Twitter battle about it. These are episodic instances in which people talk about abortion, take a stance on abortion, and speak about the extremities of abortion, but those on the Left are almost never willing to debate a pro-life person. They wont do it, youll notice. Almost anyone prominent on the Left, even when this is their main issue, will almost always decline. They imply that theres not a whole lot else to say about this issue. The Supreme Court settled the abortion issue in 1973, and it has remained that way for the last fifty years. Therefore, the debate is today pretty much the same as it was then, so theres nothing new to say.