Is America Ready To Ban Abortion?
As frightening as it would be if upheld, could the South Dakota abortion ban be another case of right-wing politicians overstepping their bounds? While Americans are not in full agreement on access to abortion, a majority, when polled, consistently affirms its support for the general right to abortion. And, so, it turns out, do people in South Dakota. Obviously, many people harbor deep ambivalence about abortion being the right choice in this or that circumstance. But perhaps, as with end-of-life decisions, this ambivalence doesn’t automatically translate to support for government intrusion into beginning-of-life decisions. True, Americans do tend to support restrictions on abortion. But on the whole, Americans tend to think decisions about when to end or begin life are better left to a woman and her doctor. I suspect that the prospect of the government passing a wholesale ban on abortion—a medical procedure, after all—runs counter to most Americans’ sense of the proper role of governm
