ON THE OTHER HAND...
If Roe overturned, 30 states ready to ban abortion

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Thirty states are poised to make abortion illegal within a year if the Supreme Court reversed its 1973 ruling establishing a woman's legal right to an abortion, an advocacy group said today.

The Center for Reproductive Rights said some states have old laws on the books that would be triggered by the overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. Others have language in their state constitutions or strongly anti-abortion legislatures that would act quickly if the federal protection for abortion was ended and the issue reverted to the states.

"The building blocks are already in place to recriminalize abortion," said Nancy Northup, the center's president.

The group's report comes less than a month before the presidential election, which those on both sides of the abortion issue say will be critical in determining the future of the Roe decision.

Currently, it is believed that five of the nine justices support abortion rights, but that balance could be tipped if President Bush, in a second term, nominates a new justice who reflects his anti-abortion views. Democratic contender John Kerry is a strong supporter of abortion rights.

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Despite all my problems with Kerry's militarism and corporatism, this is one issue on which he has impeccable credentials. A woman's ability to choose what happens to her body is a sacred right. Not only is this a bedrock principle undergirding virtually all of what we consider to be human rights for both men and women, control of one's own body, but America's traditional belief in equality is also at stake here. Women cannot exist in society on an equal footing with men unless they are able to determine the circumstances under which they bring or do not bring a child into the world. Without abortion rights, women's rights in general are severely threatened. When you get right down to it, a vote for Bush, or anybody else but Kerry at this point, is a vote for a patriarchal nation, a male-dominated America. Even if you think that abortion is killing, you have to understand that there are many more important concepts in play--ideally, unwanted pregnancies can be greatly lessened with aggressive sex education and much wider availability of birth control, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for the anti-abortion zealots to reach across the aisle to join such a crusade.

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