Everyone knows McCain is comfortable staying in Iraq for the next 100 years.  If you think that is the only area where he would have a lasting impact of equal duration, you are mistaken. Click on the image below to see what hangs in the balance:

Consider the legally protected (for now) reproductive rights of women.  Any women under the age of 40 can be forgiven for assuming "it was always like this" and will always be like this.  After all, many take it for granted that "choice" means deciding which type of birth control to use.  

The reality is quite different.  The reproductive rights women take for granted hang by a slender thread.  Unlike the legal rights of African Americans to citizenship or voting, the reproductive rights of women are not protected by any constitutional amendment or acts of congress specifically drafted for their benefit.  Reproductive rights are protected only by a handful of Supreme Court rulings.   Over the years there has been a constant campaign to undo these gains.  In recent years, these attacks have all been held back by narrow 5-4 decisions.  

From Our Word

There's a lot of talk these days about what might happen if Roe falls, and most opinion seems to be roughly divided into two camps.  A sizable contingent feels confident that the Republicans need Roe more than Democrats do, both because it's the most reliable way of energizing their base, and because they fear the voter backlash that would surely follow its loss.  Almost as many people seem to believe that Democrats should shut up about the issue of abortion and let it go, because all it's good for is losing elections.  Their reasoning goes that even if Roe was struck, abortion rights would revert to the states and because -- as some preciously naive poster commented a few days ago -- "Americans are liberal and pro-choice," women would still keep access to safe and legal abortion care.  

Both those opinions are wrong -- for some women, even today, literally dead wrong.  Should you still cling to either of those cherished illusions, PBS Frontline's The Last Abortion Clinic and numerous abortion providers will tell you that you're only whistling past the graveyard.