Forty-nine years ago, seven activist justices on the Supreme Court concocted a constitutional right to abortion out of whole cloth. What had been a state issue in America since the country’s founding was thrust into the national spotlight when the Supreme Court created a constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade in 1973. With the Roe ruling, states as culturally different as Alabama and California were both unable to ban abortions until the unborn child reached what was deemed to be viability in the third trimester. Grassroots pro-life activists immediately mobilized to shift public opinion on abortion and waited for the day they could get Roe overturned. Finally, that day came last Friday. Different states can now decide their own laws regarding abortion. Some will choose to protect unborn human lives while others will legalize abortion up until the moment of birth. The overturning of Roe v. Wade relegates the issue of abortion to the state level, likely for good. Neither party currently has the votes to codify Roe v. Wade on the national level or implement a national ban on abortion. And the Republicans do not currently have the votes to begin the process of amending the Constitution to protect the unborn.
Of late, there has been a pervasive feeling that our country is coming apart at the seams. The culture wars are raging, unencumbered. Americans of each party increasingly see their counterparts as immoral and close-minded, and majorities of both parties believe their political opponents do not share the same values and goals as they do outside of politics. In a country of 330 million people, there are unsurprisingly vast political, cultural, and moral differences among Americans. This is why relegating the abortion issue to the states is so important.
Google searches for “How to move to Canada from the U.S.” are surging, nearing the rates seen after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. However, pro-abortion Americans might make the simpler choice of moving from a state with protective abortion laws to one where the governor has publicly committed to making the state an “abortion sanctuary.” It is possible that the overturning of Roe v. Wade could bring about waves of migration within and possibly from the U.S. Americans may move to states with like-minded people and leaders who share their values. This is not necessarily bad. It is the natural consequence of an increasingly polarized nation, and it may be the only solution that will keep Americans coexisting peacefully in the same country.
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