Anti Abortion and Prohibition are Twins

I like reading the history of Chicago. I lived there for a while and been there so many times. It's raw size and violent history right here in our backyard give us a look at the place of urban life in the U.S. I've had encounters, direct and indirect, with its Mayors over many years. Just now I'm reading City of Scoundrels, a history of the city around the time of WWI which was also the period of Prohibition.

One of the lessons of that period in Chicago and many other large cities was the immediate blossoming of ways to acquire alcoholic beverages in spite of a law making them illegal. To pass the legislation, certain exceptions had to be made. Alcohol could be acquired and served by churches. There were some medical exceptions. Pharmacists and doctors along with Catholic Bishops made considerable sums selling alcohol. Also, it was legal to make some kinds of beverages at home (bath tube gin). A large number of illegal bars opened in Chicago. They were supplied through mobster connections.

The most prominent group supporting prohibition was the Women's Christian Temperance Union (UCTU). Alcoholic beverage consumption was considered a moral issue. I suppose plenty of opponents to prohibition asked, "Whose moral issue? It's not mine." It is believed another moral issue, the rise of organized crime, was resulted from prohibition. There was also a class issue, poor and black people were arrested, wealthy white people mostly not. Many believe the amount of alcohol consumed was substantial during prohibition.

The history of prohibition reminds me or our present experience with anti abortion politics. Anti abortion, like prohibition, has its roots in religion. Like prohibition, it has a set of people who think it is a moral issue and another set who does not think it is a moral issue. Anti abortion enforcement seems almost certainly to be used against poor and black women than against middle and upper class white women. Current prosecutions are now race related.

It appears to me it would have been easier to control sales of alcohol than it will be to control abortions. Alcohol is a heavy and space consuming product--relatively easy to see and detect. Abortion is not a product, but a service. Medical abortions use tiny pills more easily distributed than alcohol.

The prohibition experience reminds us a majority of the public can latch onto absurd and unworkable ideas.