This is a legal/civics 101 question, but I'm sure that if I'm confused about this some others might be as well. I hope you lawyer types out there can help me on this.
It seems that much of the heartburn that we're experiencing about abortion today stems from the fact that it is a right that is solely guaranteed by the Supreme Court's decision on Roe v. Wade. This is a very difficult position since it basically means that women's right to reproductive health rests solely on the decisions and whims of nine unelected officials making decisions on a body of law. Can't we insure that abortion remains legal regardless of the makeup of the Supreme Court by legislating it?
For example, segregation isn't just illegal b/c of Brown v. Board of Education and the Constitutional arguments underlying that decision. It's been legislatively rebuked in the Voting Rights Act and in antidiscrimination statutes.
Can't we at least pass laws in "blue" states that guarantee a woman's right to privacy, health, and choice? Those should be fairly easy to pass, especially with 68% of Americans believing some form of abortion should be legal. We can then launch an activist campaign to change the law at the federal level, especially if we can successfully argue that Roberts is a Scalia-style anti-Roe conservative. It seems that we could really get some very good political mileage out of passing a law to insure abortion rights remain available to all women, even if it hurts us among religious conservatives. This is the majority position we're talking about, after all.
I guess my basic, underlying question is this: if Bush gets an anti-abortion justice on the SCOTUS and Roe v. Wade bites the dust, what are our options to preserve this important right?