The GOP’s Anti-Abortion Crusade is Not Pro-Family at All

In fact, every time I've had occasion to write about Republican-backed efforts to restrict abortion rights, it's been painfully clear that only the tiniest handful of anti-choice lawmakers also have sponsored bills to support and protect pregnant people and children.

I also was treated to solemn condemnations of the person (or people) who had leaked Alito's draft opinion — which may or may not be the final product the high court makes public when it issues its final ruling, likely in late June.

"Leaking a premature Supreme Court opinion — regardless of subject matter — undermines the Court as an institution and erodes America’s trust in this pillar of our constitutional structure," Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said in a statement.

Keller offered a similar sentiment in his own statement, saying the "breach of confidentiality represents the undermining of the Court’s ability to deliberate impartially on our nation’s most pressing issues."

Toomey, who has the nominal fig leaf of being one of the few Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for his role in fomenting the insurrection, nonetheless supported every single high court nominee the constitution-battering White House sent his way. Thus, any concerns about compromising the institution went out the window the moment he cast his votes in the affirmative.

But it won't end there.

Because, as Esquire's Charles P. Pierce writes, if the high court can lay waste to one constitutionally protected privacy right, it can come after another. And that means same-sex marriage is at risk. It means that access to contraception is at risk. And it means that interracial marriage is at risk.

Keep in mind, the likely high court ruling will come even though a majority of Americans say they believe the high court should uphold Roe, validating years of steady campaigning by a noisy, but exceptionally well-organized, minority who do not speak for the rest of us.

If Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis can try to 'Don't Say Gay' his way onto the 2024 GOP ticket, it's not a question of whether, but when, Republicans will move to further marginalize our already vulnerable friends, neighbors, and work colleagues.

Indeed, as the past few months have shown us it's already happening.

The fight's not over. Not by a long shot.

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An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek. Copyright 2022 John L. Micek, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.