What to do... I have to say, with the recent buzz surrounding the Supreme Court's decision regarding partial birth abortions, I've had the opportunity to view ignorance once again. This time around, I opted to post here rather than engage in the discussion and tell the people that (1) they were using incorrect terminology and (2) they understand neither the scope nor the effect that this ruling will have in the short term.
I won't get into my opinions related to the actual legislation that the court was examining here. Instead, I want to clear my head of the problem I see with how our education system has prepared (or not) these people for life as Americans.
The first problem is simply that these people are talking about the Supreme Court "passing" the law. The Supreme Court of the United States of America does NOT pass laws. That is a simple fact. It's the way our nation was structured. In case you're confused on that point, you may want to read a bit about how the separation of power applies here in The United States of America.
The next problem is simply that these people are all heralding this decision as one which will magically do something to stop abortions from happening. This, in fact, is NOT the case. This only prevents one type of abortion. Specifically, the law as passed by congress and upheld by the Supreme Court only bans a specific type of abortion called D&E.
While the decision does put us on the road to eliminating abortion by removing one more abortion method as an option, we are still far from eliminating abortion in the United States of America. Whether this is good or bad is not the point of the post.
My issue is simply the lack of knowledge that was had in these discussions. These people didn't even understand the basic structure of our country! What are we doing people? This simply needs to stop. I don't know how yet, but it needs to stop.