Abortion Rights in the US: How to Win Every Battle and yet Lose the War

If you’ve been following the news in the past week, you must know by now that Roe vs Wade hangs by a thread after decades of sustaining relentless assaults by a religious-driven and partisan-based effort hell bent on turning back the clock to the Middle Ages. And if you’ve been paying attention for years instead of days, you’re certainly no more surprised than I was.

So what happened? Simply put, mainstream Americans took their rights and freedoms for granted. They were largely satisfied that they had won every battle before the courts, and that they still prevailed in the court of public opinion. But they lost the battle on the ground, where it matters the most. Just like Afghanistan is ruled by bearded zealots with automatic rifles even though they’re outnumbered by a people that just wants to catch up with the rest of the world, so is the US largely ruled by a sizeable minority of religious radicals and misogynistic bigots that would use any means to wind up the clock back to the times of the Reformation—if not that of the Leviticus.

Indeed, have you never wondered why the Evangelicals supported Trump all this time, even though he looks and behaves like the spawn of Satan? It was precisely for this moment. They were determined to win even if that meant sleeping with the Devil. They knew the key was to nominate favourable judges because the court system is an inherently political entity; if you can’t win over the justices, nominate your own.

Likewise, have you never wondered why they made so many Quixotic attempts at overruling Roe vs Wade via state legislatures? It was of course a tactic of erosion, used by people without imagination yet effective if the rest of society sleeps on its laurels thinking “it could never happen here”. Because that’s how it ends up happening here. One little loss left and right until the whole edifice crumbles.

People are waking up now, when it’s arguably too late, after their territory have been encroached upon by fundamentalists in suits to the point that the war over reproductive rights looks as good as lost. In one word, it was due to complacency. There was too little activism and too few counterprotests all these years to match the efforts of the right’s socially regressive agenda. Every effort at preserving these rights was purely defensive in scope, instead of attempting to either win over the other side or break it into submission.

Enshrine your rights all you want, they mean nothing to those that would trample them on the ground. Quit dreaming that the court system and the bureaucracy will magically protect them, because that only leads of strings of Pyrrhic victories. Think of it the Chicago way: the answer to one hundred so-called pro-life fanatics with signs and megaphones is one thousand counterprotesters wielding two-by-fours with cardboard, looking like they’re itching for an excuse to use them as bludgeons. And please kill these scruples of yours already, because the other side has none and will not play by your rules. Anything less is a betrayal of your Founding Fathers who fought, bled, and died for future generations to enjoy the freedoms you take for granted.