I found on the internet a list of states that have lately enacted repressive anti-abortion legislation or are planning to do so. Of these twelve, seven are states of the Old Confederacy (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas) and two (Kentucky, Missouri) are former slave states. Is this a coincidence or a sign of a male chauvinism that is as strong in these states as residual racism?

This flurry of legislation is partly due to pressure by a coalition of Right-to-Life groups that call their carefully plotted lobbying campaign “The Blitz,” as in Blitzkrieg.But these new laws that flout Roe v. Wade arise from another cause as well. Of course, the vast majority of people in the Right-to-Life movement are sincere, But there are always operators and opportunists who cynically exploit the longings and efforts of sincere people for their own ends. I suspect that some legislators who don’t much care about abortion are supporting ever more severe anti-abortion laws merely to get some votes at home and to outdo other state legislatures in their affected zeal, as if to say: “My anti-abortion bill is longer than yours, my misogyny more potent than yours!” By politicians like the Right-to-Life movement has been corrupted and gravely discredited.