PrintDecember 28, 2005
What's the Matter With South Dakota?
On Tuesday the Washington Post ran a front—page story on the rarity of abortion in South Dakota. A good news story, right? No, not to the Post. Though liberals often say, a la Bill Clinton, that they prefer abortion 'rare,' they usually treat its rarity as bad news and an alarm bell for renewed abortion activism. The subtext of the Post's story, 'South Dakota Makes Abortion Rare Though Laws and Stigma,' is: unless Roe v. Wade is shored up, even strengthened, the whole country may go the way of South Dakota, and we can't have that.
What's interesting about the press's alarmist abortion coverage of the last few years —— the Roe—v.—Wade—is—almost—dead storyline it uses instinctually—— is that it undercuts the stare decisis sophistries it simultaneously pushes. That is, these stories suggest that abortion is not deeply interwoven in the American social fabric, which undermines the left's stare decisis claim that overturning Roe...(Read Full Article)
