Cincinnati
I was a young political operative back in 1981, enrolled in the University of Cincinnati Law School, and the manager of a Cincinnati City Council campaign. I’d go to Law School in the morning, study for a couple hours, then campaign until midnight or so. I got a few hours’ sleep, then another study session from four am until it was time to go to class.
Like most Council campaigns at the time, we were running on a shoe string budget. We tried to make up for our lack of funding by hard work, yard signs, knocking on doors, and being almost everywhere in the City where people gathered. I think our total budget was about $15000. It all went into “the litt”, the slick brochure we handed out to everyone, and, of course, the yard signs.
Just a few years before, abortion was only one issue out of many in a political campaign. When I worked for the Carter/Mondale campaign in the fall of 1976, my direct boss was against abortions. That was not in line with the Democratic platform. But he was a through-and-through Democrat, and had no problem with that difference over a single issue. Overall, he believed in the Democratic Party.
And when I worked in Washington for the local Democratic Congressman, he was a “Pro-Life” Democrat. He even introduced a “Right-to-Life” Constitutional Amendment on the floor of the House (though it didn’t go anywhere). Pro-Life or Pro-Choice was not the defining issue in political parties.
Litmus Test
But just five years later, abortion became a “litmus test” of political party. Roe was nine years old, and the City of Cincinnati provided health services for women. That made abortion a direct issue for a Council candidate. My candidate was a woman. She wasn’t personally “in favor” of abortions, but deeply believed that women should have the choice to make up their own minds.
That was a dangerous position to hold. The west side of Cincinnati was an original hotbed of anti-abortion activity. They were led by a founding member of the “Right to Life” movement, John Wilke. He took an absolute position: no matter what else a candidate was for or against, either they were “Pro-Life”, or Wilke and his followers were utterly opposed to them.
The problem was that the “pro-choice” movement at the time was almost as “pure”. Either you were “pro-abortion” or they stood against you as well. So honest answers from my candidate satisfied no one, even though she was “pro-choice”, but not “pro-abortion”.
We ended up thirteenth in the race, with the top nine vote getters gaining Council seats. My candidate continued as an amazing school teacher, and later earned several elective offices in Cincinnati and Hamilton County. I decided that I’d rather teach and coach than do politics and law, and went onto my forty-year career.
Guerilla War
And the battle between the “Pro-Choice” and “Pro-Life” continued, like a festering guerrilla rebellion that had no end. “Pro-Life” became embedded in more conservative Christian churches (and the Roman Catholic Church) and the political parties became aligned by their stand on abortion. But it wasn’t until the mid-1990’s that the Christian Right made their “deal” with the Republican Party.
The deal was simple: the Christian Right would support the Republican Party, as long as Republican politicians and Presidents promised to appoint anti-Roe Justices to the Supreme Court. Many of these Christians also believed in Christ’s dedication to the poor and vulnerable, a view often supported in law by Democrats more than Republicans. But the one-issue “Pro-Life” focus dominated, and made “strange bedfellows” of the church and some Republican politicians.
It’s the only way that the “moral” Christian-right could support the immoral Donald Trump. Trump became the immoral “vessel” for their “moral” view, and it was Mitch McConnell who “sealed the deal”. McConnell, with the backing and vetting of the Federalist Society, was able to guarantee that Republican Justice nominees to the Supreme Court were “Pro-Life”.
And it was the “McConnell Maneuver” that prevented Barack Obama from putting Merrick Garland on the Court, then rammed Amy Coney Barrett through the Senate in Trump’s last days. He locked in three appointments for the “vessel”, guaranteeing the current six to three conservative majority on the Court. Regardless what they said in hearings or private meetings with Senators, the vetting was correct. Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett lied when they said the Roe decision was “stare decisis”. They were “Pro-Life” judges, dedicated to ending Roe. And now will have their say.
Victory
This is what the Christian Right worked for since the 1990’s. And it’s not just ending Roe they’re after. The next phase will be a nationwide ban on all abortions. And there’s also ending same sex marriages, and controlling private bedroom behavior. The leaked Alito opinion over-turning Roe and Casey creates an entire legal basis for overturning Obergefell (gay marriage), and Griswold (contraception).
It denies there is a right to “privacy” in the Constitution, as seen in the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. It takes the Constitutional “right” to private human behavior, and puts all of that behavior back in the legislative arena, where it was in the 1950’s and before.
The deal is done. The fifty year war against Roe is no longer an undercover “guerilla” war; it is out in full, bloody view. And if the “Five” on the Supreme Court are done with Roe and the rest, then it’s up to the legislatures to take charge. Democrats in Congress can enshrine the “privacy rights” in law, if only they can find a majority to get it done.
The Democrats already are desperate to motivate their supporters. With Trump off the ballot, and the post-Covid economic boom fueling inflation, Dems need something to get voters to the polls.
They’ve got it now.
