Happy Birthday, Phyllis Schlafly: Round 1

It's been an interesting couple of weeks in the culture war over women's reproductive rights, to say the least.

There's a lot of research out there detailing exactly how the tides have shifted over the past thirty years, but recent polls and ever tightening restrictions on abortion at the state level have shown that for the first time since the good old days of coat hangers, the pro-life movement has the upper hand by a nice solid margin.

It certainly appears that the cumulative effect of a decade's worth of millions of dollars spent attempting to overturn Roe v. Wade one red state at a time (touched off by the Webster decision in 1989 that kicked Roe in the ovaries and hard) is paying off. Looking at the numbers, it's clear to see why U.S. Senate hopeful Todd Akin felt comfortable talking candidly about how he justifies his position, even in the event of rape or incest.

Of course, another way of looking at the data is that the number of voters who immediately recognized the pro-life movement's connection to the "woman's place is in the kitchen" crowd has been slowly replaced by a younger group of voters who don't really understand how powerful that movement is, or how comprehensively they have been marketed to. Speaking for myself, I'm a Gen Xer. Coke vs. Pepsi, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the first war in Iraq were the big issues of my day. The feminists who fought for the ERA before I was born had been re-branded as feminazis by the time I was in high school, and burning my bra in my twenties seemed like a waste of perfectly good lingerie. Hell, I didn't even know who Phyllis Schlafly was until I had been out of college for years, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in my demographic. She's worth getting to know a little better, particularly for those of us who weren't around when she was fighting the ERA.

This matron-saint of the movement to end all abortion, even in the case of rape and incest, gave a speech at the Republican National Convention yesterday in which she said:

“The pro-life plank of the platform...is really not controversial in the Republican Party anymore. It is just a blind statement and, I think, one of the things we have done to make the Republican Party pro-life. Almost all of our candidates in 2010 were pro-life, and they are again this year.”

She's certainly correct about that. But I think there are some important details Schlafly is leaving out. One woman's "pro-life" stance for herself looks very different from a "pro-life" stance that criminalizes abortion. The same set of data, when expanded to allow for a more nuanced approach to the issue, looks quite a bit different.

Looking at the second chart, it's clear to see why Akin maybe should have saved that speech for the country club, where most of the people in that 22% figure are already drinking the same Kool-Aid and calling it science. Don't get me wrong. It's time that we started having a serious national debate about these issues. When some mothers are already being put in jail for crimes against the unborn, it's arguably past time.

Finally, the issue of abortion is getting the deep analysis it deserves on the national stage, instead of a shallow treatment in which we're all free to hold our own opinions and now back to American Idol.

Paul Ryan's followup interview in response to the, shall we say, negative publicity probably didn't help. He rather nonchalantly referred to rape as a "method of conception" just as the headlines were starting to focus on his partnership with Akin in co-sponsoring "personhood" legislation. Did I mention Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed a law redefining the date of conception as taking place two weeks before intercourse back in April? That's getting some attention now, too. But wait, there's more. Just when you thought the crazy train couldn't possibly make any more spectacularly blunderstruck stops, we get another Republican U.S. Senate candidate, Tom Smith, hopping on board to say that carrying a rape baby is not all that different from having a child out of wedlock. (And yes, he actually used the term wedlock.  Quaint, no?)

The backlash is starting to (if you'll pardon the grim pun) bleed over into Romney/Ryan's once solidly red numbers in Missouri. Still, Phyllis Schlafly ended her remarks at her little birthday shindig by telling an enthusiastic crowd, "We're winning. We're on the winning side."

All I have to say is I hope she enjoys that layer cake. If my generation and the younger voters rise up to meet this tectonic shift toward the insane the way I think we will, it will turn to humble pie come November.