Matters of Life and Death

ShowMeBack Saturday returns again to a handful of my cartoons from the momentous year of 1989 (and one from 1999).

Abortion was a hot topic in the spring of 1989. The arguments haven't changed much on either side since then, so I needn't rehash them here. While there were passionate single-issue voters for and against abortion rights, for most people, it was only one issue among many. In the words of the Hasting Center's Daniel Callahan, "The debate is dominated by the activists. I don't think the activists' views reflect those of the large, muddled middle."

"Lost in Translation," UW-Parkside Ranger, March 30, 1989

Thirty years ago this month, the United States Supreme Court revisited the issue of abortion rights in the case Webster v. Reproductive Health Services. Only four of the justices who had voted in the 7-2 majority in Roe v. Wade remained on the court, and anti-abortion advocates believed they had a golden opportunity to overturn the 1973 decision.

"The Moral High Ground" in UW-Milwaukee Post, April 6, 1989

At issue in Webster was a Missouri law positing that "life begins at conception" and forbidding use of state money or facilities for abortion procedures. Missouri's law had been crafted by anti-abortion activists Lee and Andrew Puzder in hopes of taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court. The two dissenters in Roe, Justices William Rehnquist and Byron White, were still on the court, now joined by Reagan-nominated Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy.

Although the general concern over a right to privacy had been part of Democratic opposition to Ronald Reagan's failed nomination of Bork to the Supreme Court (more media attention was given to his role in Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre), believers that the right of privacy extended to a woman's right to choose whether to carry a pregnancy to term registered hardly any protest against Reagan's other court picks.

"Uh...Charlene..." in UW-Milwaukee Post, April 27, 1989

If the pro-choice crowd and much of the Great American Middle had been lulled into thinking that Roe v. Wade was settled law, the anti-abortion movement had been hard at work to unsettle it. They protested in Washington every year, blockaded health clinics, waved bloody photos, and got their cause into the Republican party platform. And now they had the full force of the Bush Justice Department behind the Missouri law.

"Wishful Thinking" in UW-Milwaukee Post, May 4, 1989

In July, the two Justices who had dissented in Roe plus the three Reagan had placed on the court ruled that Missouri's anti-abortion law was entirely constitutional. Chief Justice Rehnquist's opinion for the majority pretended that the ruling in no way chipped away at Roe. It opened the door, however, for anti-abortion legislatures to regulate abortion rights out of existence, which they have pursued with a vengeance ever since.

Any believers in marriage equality who think that Obergefell v. Hodges is settled law just because it's the law and it got settled once, please take note.

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My "Charlene, Could I Have a Word With You" cartoon above referenced another divisive issue in 1989 (when is it not?), gun control.

The murder of five children in a Stockton, California schoolyard in January prompted passage of a series of gun control laws California and elsewhere, mostly trying to ban or limit the sale of semi-automatic weapons. This was followed in turn by a surge in "get 'em before you can't" gun sales fueled by NRA fear-mongering.

"I Think We've Located the Problem" in UW-Milwaukee Post, April 11, 1989

The gun used in the Stockton shooting had been purchased legally in Oregon. In response, Oregon bill HR 3470 lengthened the waiting period for the purchase of a gun from five days to fifteen. To win NRA support, the bill also provided for concealed carry statewide. The waiting period has since been replaced by instant on-line background checking; the concealed carry provision remains.

Today, of course, is the twentieth anniversary of the Columbine school shooting, which cannot pass without comment here — particularly in light of the attraction it holds for those sick individuals interested in not letting it pass without a sequel.