Letter to the editor: Overturning Roe is a disaster for national unity

One of the stranger assertions in the Dobbs opinion is that Roe v. Wade is “controversial.” In the first place it’s not true — nearly all polls show a staunch majority against overturning it. But Roe was also a compromise, between the two strong positions that abortion should be fully legal or fully illegal. This is the stance of the American people and almost every western country.

By overturning Roe, the Supreme Court has removed this guardrail. Previously, debates over abortion took place in the margins. Now they are about whether or not abortions exist at all. Every gubernatorial election has just become far more high-stakes, including ours.

The obvious legal complication of 50 different abortion laws will make this even worse. The governors of California and Massachusetts have both declared that they will not extradite those accused by other states of illegal abortions. It’s hard to see how this does not lead to states’ rights being significantly violated, or in efforts for a federal abortion ban, which, it goes without saying, will escalate further.

We should ask ourselves exactly how close to boiling the court is willing to raise the national temperature.

Daniel Kline

Delmont