There are at least six major Supreme Court decisions that could be overturned now that Justice Anthony Kennedy is retiring at the end of this summer, but the press is interested in only one of them: Roe v. Wade.
Open any newspaper in the country, turn on any political news show, and it’s almost guaranteed that if they’re talking about Kennedy’s looming exit, they’re also talking about the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling legalizing abortion.
Forget about the fates of Kelo v. New London, Obergefell v. Hodges, Massachusetts v. EPA, U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, and Kennedy v. Louisiana should President Trump nominate a reliably conservative justice to replace Kennedy.
Newsrooms want to know if abortion will still be legal in a couple of years.
The following chart illustrates the number of total on-air radio and television mentions that Roe v. Wade got this week versus the other major rulings that stand to be overturned by a remade Supreme Court. As you can see, it’s not even close (via TVEyes):
It makes sense that the news media would focus the lion’s share of its coverage on the fate of this 45-year-old ruling. After all, it’s the one issue where you’ll find one of the two major political parties in this country unquestionably, unblinkingly united.
Indeed, keeping abortion legal is the one issue where to break ranks or diverge to even the slightest degree is to become anathema to the Democratic Party.
Given the party’s unquestioning devotion to Roe, and the important role that support for the 1973 decision plays in determining Democratic membership, it makes sense that newsrooms would focus almost exclusively on whether the post-Kennedy Supreme Court will try to overturn it.
[Opinion: Imagining how overturning Roe v. Wade would transform US politics]
Of all the possible rulings a remade Supreme Court may overturn in the near future, going all in on the one that most animates the Democratic Party and its base of millions of news-consuming voters is indeed the savvy business choice for the press.
Of course, it also helps that most newsrooms are teaming with reporters, editors, and pundits who also agree that Roe should go untouched, which brings me to the issue of the general tenor that some in news media have adopted to discuss the possibility of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. In a word: frantic.
“It’s not just about abortion: Without Kennedy, birth control could be next,” declared the headline to a Salon op-ed authored Friday by noted crazy person Amanda Marcotte. “For years, conservatives have grumbled about women’s right to contraception. Now they can do something about it.” (Not sure where she hears those grumblings…)
Time magazine meanwhile ran an op-ed this week by Jill Filipovic titled, “America Will Lose More Than Abortion Rights If Roe v. Wade Is Overturned.” “If Roe is done away with under the theory that privacy rights don’t exist, this could mean that there is no constitutional right to birth control, either,” she argued, citing the possibility that privacy rights will also be undone. You get the sense that some of these opinion writers are singing from the same hymnal — er, press release.
The New York Times also published an op-ed not 24 hours after Kennedy’s announcement titled, “The End of Abortion.”
Then there’s the Huffington Post, which displayed a wire clotheshanger on its front page Thursday, a clear reference to idea that overturning Roe v. Wade will lead to self-administered abortions.
All this, and Trump hasn’t even announced his pick to replace Kennedy yet.
