Was Roe v Wade Correctly Decided? Reconsidering Roe v Wade & Abortion Rights

Reconsidering Roe v. Wade:
It has become increasingly popular among liberal supporters of abortion rights to argue that while women should be able to obtain abortions, it is a mistake to rely on Roe v Wade as a guarantor of abortion rights. Some say that it was decided incorrectly and that abortion rights would be better based on some other argument — or more controversially, that the abortion debate should be turned over to state legislatures and courts, eliminating it from federal politics.

Roe v. Wade is Overly Broad:
Most Americans support basic abortion rights, but primarily in the earliest stages of pregnancy. This works out well because 95% of abortions occur in the first 15 weeks and 99% in the first 20 weeks. Abortion opponents focus on the few abortions that occur after 20 weeks and gain a lot of rhetorical traction from the fact that Roe protects such abortions. It is thus argued that 99% of abortions are threatened by opposition to 1% and this is bad for abortion rights supporters.

Roe v. Wade Could Be Overturned:
The Christian Right focuses a great deal of time and money on the goal of completely overturning Roe v. Wade. If this is the primary guarantor of abortion rights, then if it is overturned the right to abortion will end across the entire nation. It is argued that this is too slender of a thread upon which to hang something as important as abortion rights. Supporters of abortion rights need to take time and money away from defending Roe and invest them in other ways of preserving abortion rights.

Roe v. Wade Could be Gutted Without Being Overturned:
Roe v. Wade has been precedent for so long that a complete elimination seems unlikely; this does not mean, however, that it can't be gutted of any substantive meaning and effectiveness. A formal, technical right to abortion could exist in the context of so many restrictions and caveats that as a practical matter, few women can obtain one. This is not what abortion rights supporters want but it may be what happens if they put all their eggs in the basket of Roe v. Wade.

Abortion Should be Decided by States, Legislatures:
Some people who support abortion rights disagree that the courts are the appropriate venue where they should be debated and protected. Perhaps a very general right to abortion might be appropriate for courts to decide, but legislatures are the best venue for debating the exact points at which abortion should be legal and what sorts of restrictions should and should not be allowed. Judges who make such decisions are merely legislating from the bench.

Fighting for Abortion Rights Wastes Time:
Abortion has been legal for so long that many people have never lived at a time when abortion was illegal. They have no conception of what it's like for abortion to be criminalized and either don't think that the situation will be as bad as some claim, or believe that it isn't likely to happen — that if Roe is overturned, abortion will continue to be legal anyway. Therefore, investing so much time and money defending Roe is a waste.

Republicans Use Abortion to Exploit Christian Right:
The most common argument for dropping Roe v. Wade is the manner in which the Republicans shamelessly exploit it and the Christian Right's opposition to it. It is "safe" for Republicans to rhetorically oppose abortion because they don't have to act substantively against it — if they did, they'd lose a lot of support from other quarters. If abortion became a legislative issue again, some argue, Republicans might have to choose between the Christian Right and the ability to win elections.

Defending Abortion Drives Away Potential Democratic Supporters:
Most people support a basic right to abortion, but they don't support a right which is as broad as Roe allows and which Democrats defend. The Democratic Party is perceived as a "single issue party" and people who object to abortion ignore everything else the Democrats support. If the Democrats dropped their uncompromising defense of Roe, they could attract more support for even more progressive issues. Abortion rights should be sacrificed for the greater good.

Abortion Debates Undermine Privacy Rights Generally:
A primary subject of attack by opponents of abortion rights is the underlying right to privacy used in the Roe v. Wade decision. Successful attacks on abortion rights are, in the long run, successful attacks on privacy rights generally. If abortion is removed from the debate, will privacy rights be more secure? That would be reasonable if the Christian Right didn't object to just about everything that falls under privacy rights today. Privacy rights would not be secure absent abortion.

What Would Happen if Roe Were Overturned?:
Abortion rights supporters who would like less attention paid to Roe v. Wade, or even see it overturned, generally do so because they believe that the benefits outweigh the costs — that, in the long run, abortion rights, privacy rights, and progressive causes will be advanced more than they are retarded. In some cases it's simply a matter of strategy and tactics; in others, it a matter of sincerely held beliefs that abortion debates have become too large in modern political debates.

Their intentions are good and their arguments are interesting; yet their calculus is wrong and their suggestions would make matters far worse than they are now. Roe v. Wade cannot be overturned without also eviscerating fundamental privacy rights in America because the only way to effectively overturn Roe would be for the Supreme Court to conclude that we either have no basic privacy rights, or that the privacy rights we do have do not cover sexual matters or control over our bodies — which is effectively the same as not having privacy rights. This is why fighting for abortion is not a waste of time.

Defending abortion may make some people feel uncomfortable, but there was a time when defending desegregation, racial equality and interracial marriages also made people feel uncomfortable. Arguing that racism is still a real issue makes some people feel uncomfortable today, so are these all issues that should be compromised on? Democrats should work to change those aspects of American culture which make it difficult to argue that people's private sexual affairs shouldn't be the subject of government regulation and that women's bodily autonomy requires legalized abortion. Simply going with the flow and accepting the status quo are not acceptable options.