IF A majority of Justices on the US Supreme Court would enact a draft opinion, leaked to the press last week, that would overturn Roe vs Wade, the 1973 ruling enshrining the constitutional right for abortion across the country, the impact on American society and its politics would be earth-shattering, with the division between two battling cultural-ideological camps of Red America and Blue America becoming unbridgeable!

That at least is the impression one gets from the reactions in the media’s opinion pages, on television talk shows, not to mention in social media, to the prospect of Roe vs Wade being overturned, creating a sense that the nation was on the eve of another civil war. Not to mention the nightmare scenarios being drawn by those who warn that in a post-Roe-vs-Wade future, revoking the right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy would be seen as marking the onset of a dystopian America. In addition to outlawing birth control methods, including contraceptives, don’t be surprised if homosexuality and interracial marriages would be regarded as crimes as they were not so long ago.

These are all legitimate concerns and no one challenges the notions that America is politically polarised Big Time nor that since Roe vs Wade enshrined abortion rights for women nearly 50 years ago, there has been a serious debate in the US over abortion.