|
The New York Times
Opinion
Voting for
Reproductive Freedom
EDITORIAL,
nytimes.com from the Web, November 9, 2008
Voters in three states did the right
thing last week by defeating dangerous anti-abortion measures on their ballots.
In Colorado, an overwhelming vote of 73 percent to 27 percent rejected a wild
initiative that would have amended the state’s Constitution to bestow on
fertilized eggs, prior to implantation in the womb, the same legal rights and
protections that apply to people once they are born. In addition to ending
abortion rights, this doozy threatened to ban widely used forms of
contraception, curtail medical research involving embryos, shutter fertility
clinics, and criminalize necessary medical care.
In South Dakota, 55 percent of voters said no to a sweeping abortion ban that
its backers had hoped to use as vehicle for challenging Roe v. Wade, the
1973 Supreme Court decision that recognized a woman’s right to make her own
childbearing decisions. The defeated measure was a near-twin of the
abortion ban handily rejected by voters just two years ago.
In California, meanwhile, voters turned back an attempt by abortion-rights
opponents to mandate parental notification, the issue’s third ballot defeat in
the state in four years.
It would be wishful thinking to think these outcomes mean supporters of
reproductive rights can now breathe easy. Proponents of the losing
initiatives have already said they plan to try again, and no doubt the future of
Roe v. Wade will continue to be slugged out in the courts, state
legislatures, and in Congress.
Yet, along with the election of a new president and at least five new senators
supportive of reproductive rights, the fate of the three ballot initiatives is a
powerful affirmation that this remains a nation that values women’s privacy and
health.
|
