Abortion Politics Didn’t Doom the Republican Party

So says Ross Douthat in the New York Times:

"An iron law of recent American politics dictates that any Republican setback at the polls will be quickly pinned on the pro-life movement .... [but] why should abortion opponents, of all conservative factions, take the blame for the financial meltdown, or the bungled occupation of Iraq, or the handling of Hurricane Katrina?"

I agree with his analysis, and appreciate his awareness that Roe stands squarely in the way of all progress towards ever significantly and permanently reducing abortions (look at the last thought which I have underlined):

"no ... compromise is possible so long as Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey remain on the books. These decisions are monuments to pro-choice absolutism, and for pro-lifers to accept them means accepting that no serious legal restrictions on abortion will ever be possible — no matter what the polls say, and no matter how many hearts and minds pro-lifers change.

... Facing a hostile governing majority, pro-lifers can and should talk more about the possibility of compromise: They should explain, more often and more cogently, that if Americans want laws that better reflect their muddled sentiments on abortion, it is pro-choice maximalism, not the pro-life movement, that’s really standing in the way."

The best way forward? Douthat says:

"So long as the Supreme Court remains closely divided, and a post-Roe world remains in reach, the movement’s basic political task must remain the same. Not because pro-lifers are absolutists who reject compromise, but because any real compromise will always depend on overturning Roe. Giving up on this goal would mean giving up the movement’s very purpose, while gaining nothing in return."

Douthat is essentially making the same points that the US Bishops have made. Moreover, he is not trying to give political advice to the GOP, he is demonstrating that the best way to bring public policy more in accord with the views of the majority of American people on the issue of abortion is to abandon the abortion absolutism of the past thirty years and, you guess it, bring in some much-needed change.

In this case, that change is repealing Roe.