The US Supreme Court holds its nerve

The fundamental issue is not abortion. It's democracy

US Supreme Court justices. Front row: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor. Back row,: Brett Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett.

The enduring toxicity of the abortion issue is a peculiarly American phenomenon. 

For years, people in Britain have looked on in amazement at the dominance of the abortion controversy in American politics. Millions of American voters declared that, when it came to choosing the president of the United States, the issue that drove out all others was whether a given candidate would appoint a majority of justices that might rule against Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court decision in 1973 that declared abortion to be a constitutional right. 

Of course, abortion provokes deep passions on all sides of the argument. But to hold year after year that it was more important than any other issue — including war and peace — always seemed an extraordinary set of priorities.

On Friday, the Supreme Court proceeded to strike down Roe v Wade. Cue meltdown in the ranks proclaiming “it’s a woman’s right to choose,” and jubilation among those who believe abortion is tantamount to murder.

So much was eminently predictable. Others see in the judgment and the reaction it has provoked further evidence of a profound fracturing of American society which has reached a moment of acute crisis. That’s true, too.

But in order to reflect upon those wider implications, several aspects of the furious reaction to the justices’ ruling are worth considering for a moment because they are outstanding in their intellectual perversity, inconsistency and contempt for democracy.