DEAF DEATH LOBBY:

Prochoice, out of touch (Joan Vennochi, September 18, 2005, Boston Globe)

HELLO, NARAL? It is getting easier to ignore you. The same is true of Planned Parenthood.

These abortion rights advocates have not adjusted their tone or message to 21st century political realities.

First obvious reality: George W. Bush, not John Kerry, won the last presidential election.

With Bush in the White House, the best-case scenario for abortion rights supporters is a Supreme Court justice who agrees, at minimum, that there is a constitutionally protected right to privacy. That is the underpinning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision, which extended the privacy right to abortion.

During last week's confirmation hearings, John Roberts said there is such a privacy right. It is also true that Roberts refused to state whether he believes that privacy right specifically includes a woman's right to abortion. But did NARAL Pro-Choice America or Planned Parenthood Federation of America really expect a Bush nominee to do that? Again, they got the best they could expect. Regarding Roe, Roberts said, ''It's settled as a precedent of the court, entitled to respect under principles of stare decisis" (Latin for ''to stand by that which is decided").

Next political reality: Respect for precedent is not an absolute commitment to it. With conservatives controlling all three branches of government, expect greater restrictions on abortion at the national level. That makes every state an important battleground. Electing prochoice legislators and governors becomes vitally important to protecting a woman's right to an abortion. Access to abortion can end up being an accident of geography.

But the biggest political reality is how much the abortion conversation is changing on the pro-choice side -- and how little prochoice groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood seem to understand the change and the challenge.

The right-to-lifers contend they have God on their side. Minus a deity, the left needs something. How about reason and logic, the opposite of hysteria?

She's quite right that reason and logic are the opposite of God's side.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 19, 2005 6:49 AM