NO RIGHT BUT THE RIGHT TO LIFE.

I’ve unlocked another newsletter issue -- yes, I know, so generous! (But remember, the vast majority of my brilliant posts are paywalled so the smart play is to subscribe at the current outrageously low rates.) 

The topic is the imminent overturn of Roe, either in so many words or as a winked-at matter of fact with states empowered to establish whatever impossible limits on abortion they think are clever. As has been noted elsewhere, this will inevitably lead to a cascade of assaults on other recently-acknowledged rights based on the right to privacy, which conservatives used to honor as “the right to be left alone” but now openly mock because it protects women, gays, and other out-groups.  (They've always been shit, but the transformation of the conservative movement by evangelicals cannot be overestimated.)

We can already see the rightwing spin in action, most notably from Sam Alito, who compared overturning Roe to overturning Plessy v Ferguson, as if abandoning precedent to remove the rights of millions of people* were the same thing as abandoning it to grant them. (*I mean actual people, not zygotes and fetuses.) The retail version was promulgated today by Henry Olsen at the Washington Post, who explained how the public, which polls show decidedly does not want Roe overturned,  can be brought to heel:

The good news for the pro-life movement is that public opinion can change relatively quickly. In 1996, only 27 percent of Americans favored same-sex marriage. That share increased to roughly 60 percent by 2015 when the Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage to be a constitutional right and sits at 70 percent today. Only 4 percent of Americans favored interracial marriage in 1958; today, 94 percent do.

If we can get them to accept expanded rights, surely we can get them to accept reduced rights! Stands to reason, right? 

Speaking of Reason, the rest of the libertarian bigbrains (including Jane Galt!) seem very hot to ban abortion, in case you wondering whether they were still full of shit.