Our Families, Ourselves

To many liberals and feminists, George W. Bush's mishandling of the war on terrorism and reckless economic agenda are not the only reasons to oppose him. There is also a more intimate fear. "President Bush has said he will model nominees after Justices Scalia and Thomas--the Court's most vocal opponents of the Roe decision," warns a fundraising letter circulated recently by NARAL Pro-Choice America.

It's an understandable concern. But what if the principle animating it--that every woman should be assured the basic right to control her body--has already been so severely compromised as to render Roe meaningless for millions of Americans? And what if part of the responsibility for this lies with the very groups entrusted to serve as uncompromising advocates of reproductive rights?

In his new book, Bearing Right, William Saletan argues that the struggle for abortion rights has already been settled--only the victor is not who you might think it is. Thirty years after the Supreme Court issued its historic ruling in Roe, abortion remains legal in all fifty states. Yet according to Saletan, a political correspondent for Slate, it is not liberals but conservatives who have won the abortion war.

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