RBG: Roe v. Wade Hurt the Progressive Movement
Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued Roe v. Wade set the pro-choice movement back by turning abortion into a lightning rod issue by having an unelected court of men making such a sweeping anti-democratic decision…
Roe became a right-to-life symbol. Around that extraordinary decision, a well-organized and vocal right-to-life movement rallied and succeeded, for a considerable time, in turning the legislative tide in the opposite direction. Roe v. Wade invited no dialogue with legislators. Instead, it seemed entirely to remove the ball from the legislators’ court.
Ginsburg’s argument is supported by the experience of Europe where abortion was legalized via legislation and referenda rather than court action.
She believes that had the court’s decision been more limited in scope instead of sweeping in its affect then overtime, as was evidenced in her time, their would have been an even bigger bipartisan progressive movement for sweeping abortion reform, such as she saw for women’s workplace rights and no-fault divorce.
We may disagree on if democratically-elected legislatures would have gone far enough on their own, but we can all agree that at the very least every liberal state would have become pro-choice.
