Issue date: 1/23/08 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: File - The Battalion [Click to enlarge]

Standing on a street corner in downtown Bryan, singing church hymns with a group of anti-abortion protesters at the 2004 Planned Parenthood fundraiser, I experienced, for the first time, Roe v. Wade's legacy in the form of its polarization of the American people. Though no abortions were to occur that night, and though not a penny of the money raised would go towards providing abortions, demonstrators were out in full, completely convinced that all of us inside the gates were evil baby killers. To say they were surprised that I was a Planned Parenthood supporter who knew all the words and motions to the hymn, "Lord I Lift Your Name on High," would be a severe understatement.

When the Supreme Court ruled on Jan. 22, 1973, that a woman's decision to have an abortion is a choice to be left between she and her doctor, and that interferences by the state to criminalize this procedure without regard to the stage of the pregnancy and without recognition of other interests involved is a violation of the 14th Amendment's due process clause, it set off a bitter debate that rages on 35 years later. Emotions run deep on both sides, and the intense impact of Roe on the public's ideas regarding privacy, reproductive rights and the role of the Supreme Court cannot be denied.

Roe deals with what should be a medical, not political, issue, but not everyone thinks so. Ironically though, the rallying cry from the Republican party was that big government is bad and needs to be contained. Republicans are the biggest advocate of legislative interference into our personal sex lives. Largely due to its war on abortion rights, the Republican party has been wildly successful at getting the religious vote to overlook its less than charitable stances on what one would assume to be more important issues, like poverty and healthcare. Roe v. Wade is the shiny object in the left hand that keeps voters blind to what the candidates they vote for are doing with their right. Roe has been and continues to be the perfect political tool.

Roe is part of the continuing battle for personal privacy in the lives of Americans that began in 1965 when the Supreme Court made it illegal to prohibit the use of contraceptives, and continues through the present with the prohibition of anti-sodomy laws. The legal legacy of Roe and other such cases has cemented the social role of the judicial branch in providing checks on the legislature when it oversteps its bounds and impedes the personal liberties of the American people.

Of course, this role has influenced the way the public perceives the Supreme Court. Some, like myself, view the courts as guardians of our personal liberties, while others see activist judges out to impose their will on the public. It should be noted that this is often the opinion of those who know nothing about the courts' decisions or justifications except that the rulings contradict their personal opinions.

To me, the most serious impact of Roe v. Wade is how it has distracted us from what is important. Roe is not the enemy, and neither is abortion - unplanned pregnancy is. At present, 48 percent of the pregnancies in the United States are unplanned and nearly half will end in abortion. This is unacceptable.

As the heroic Rev. King said when accepting his Margaret Sanger award, "There is no human circumstance more tragic than the persisting existence of a harmful condition for which a remedy is readily available. Family planning…is possible, practical and necessary."

Unfortunately, so long as our government continues to push irresponsible, ineffective abstinence-only education on our youth, refuses to provide free access to the best contraceptives and fails to address the reasons so many unplanned pregnancies end in abortion, we cannot realistically expect improvement. Forcing women who find themselves accidentally pregnant into motherhood is not an acceptable goal, and should never be considered a victory - we have to get to the root of the matter. By demanding that Roe be overturned while ignoring the fact that teenagers will eventually become sexually active adults who need to know of and have contraceptives, and by doing nothing to help erase the reasons women have abortions, anti-abortion activists are fighting the wrong battle. The best step forward we can take from Roe v. Wade? Make it obsolete.

Amanda Kiser is a senior sociology major.

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