THE NEW AMERICAN THEOCRACY

George W. Bush and his right wing supporters have been doing their best to subvert our democracy by injecting into our government and laws their religious views. They can rightly claim a major success in yesterday's Supreme Court decision subverting a woman's right to choose.

The NY Times has an excellent editorial decrying this decision, pointing out, among other things, that for the first time it allowed a law to ignore any effect on a woman's health justified a law on the basis of some moral view of repecting a life within a woman. In upholding this legislation outlawing a medical procedure, the Court ignored legal precedent and the evidence that the procedure is often the safest medical alternative.

So Congress can dictate medical procedures? Can it outlaw radiation instead of surgery to treat prostate cancer? Or vice-versa? A woman whose health is adversely affected by denial of intact dilation and extraction should be permitted to sue the government and the Justices who ignored danger to her health. And need a doctor choose between a medical ethic responsibility to the patient and compliance with this intrusive law?

But who is ultimately responsible for this retrograde action? The voters who re-elected George Bush in the face of overwhelming evidence of his misguided actions and incompetence. Contributing culprits are the candidates who failed to alert voters of the threat to our legal system and the Democrats who so poorly interrogated Roberts and Alito, perhaps believing their statements of respect for precedent, and let these two slip into supreme judicial robes.