“THOUSANDS.” IN A NATION OF 330 MILLION? In 48 hours of protest, thousands of Americans cry out for abortion rights. I don’t think this headline’s doing the work Vox wants it to.
Related: John Hinderaker asks, Why the abortion hysteria? “The extent to which liberals have gone bananas over the Dobbs case is a phenomenon that demands explanation. Most liberals, after all, understand that the Court has not banned abortion, or in fact placed any limits on it whatsoever. It has simply remitted the issue of abortion to the political sphere where it was prior to 1973, and where it always has belonged, thus ending a half century of usurpation by the Court. Moreover, abortion laws in the U.S. have been extremely liberal compared with most countries–almost every country other than North Korea, in fact. This chart shows in striking fashion how liberal our laws have been compared with Europe’s. . . . One of the many ironies of post-Dobbs hysteria was French President Emmanuel Macron denouncing the decision, even though the Mississippi statute that the Court upheld was more permissive, more liberal, than France’s own abortion law.”
Yes, the Mississippi law in question in Dobbs would be among the more liberal laws in Europe. But I’m wondering how much actual hysteria there is outside of the media, Twitter, and Democratic politicians. And they don’t count because they’re always hysterical about something.
But why? Well, Hinderaker has a suggestion: “Liberals don’t want to debate, they don’t want to persuade. They want to censor. They want some higher authority, whether the Supreme Court, Twitter, or corporate America, to declare all views but theirs out of bounds. They don’t want to participate in democratic politics, they want to rule by fiat. For all their wailing about ‘our democracy,’ the last thing liberals want is the actual give and take of a democracy, which usually entails compromise. I think that is the key reason for the Left’s hysteria over Dobbs. For liberals, having to argue, to persuade, to run for office, to participate in the messy work of democracy where you don’t always win, is a step backward. They had everything going their way, and now…this. Viewed in that light, I think the demonstrations, insurrections, encouragement of assassination of Supreme Court Justices, and arson at Christian maternity centers are understandable.”