In one of the most recent challenges to Roe v. Wade since President Obama’s re-election, North Dakota lawmakers passed a measure Friday allowing the public to determine whether life begins at conception. While it is not surprising that another league of Republicans have proposed such a measure, the continuing idea that American voters should have the ability to make such important decisions for their fellow citizens is increasingly alarming.
As was true for Proposition 8, as was true for a plethora of 2012 initiatives that allowed voters in Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina and Washington to implement laws regarding legalization or rejection of same-sex marriage, North Dakota’s measure signifies the backward notion that voters should be able to influence or change the very personal lives of other voters. The civil rights movement of the 1960s fought against this very premise, but somehow, government officials seem to believe that those activists’ victories do not apply to other social minorities.
The Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 was based on endless research, the justices’ highly acute understanding of the right to privacy and, ultimately, their intellectual prowess. Personal biases may or may not have influenced the ultimate vote, but it is certainly true that personal biases rule the majority of everyday voters. This is perhaps one of the few occasions that we can be grateful for elitism. The fact of the matter is that allowing North Dakota voters to make such significant decisions for a minority, and a minority that still faces the challenges of sexism in every facet of their lives, sets an extremely dangerous precedent.
From a logistical perspective, the ban could “charge doctors who damage embryos with criminal negligence,” according to ThinkProgress. It could also prevent them from performing in vitro fertilization, which could eliminate the possibility of pregnancy for many straight or gay women who cannot “naturally” conceive. Heteronormativity strikes again.
Ultimately, it is clear that this latest attack at Roe v. Wade reeks of ongoing, and seemingly unpreventable, bigotry. North Dakota officials are undoubtedly aware that voters are often led by passion, and they are undoubtedly hoping that that passion leads to victory.
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