I love how all these types keep calling the more open minded among us "radical". Their sense of irony and self awareness is staggering.

Patronising? I think so [pats Denis Burke on the head. There, there, Denis, you go lie down and rest. It must be tiring treating women like young children.]

Next thing you know, Thomas will want to make a ruling that a woman who was raped has to raise the baby...... 

Go back just over 30 years, you have the same Koch brothers introducing the notion into popular politics that big government intrudes on our lives and is bad and the free market is freedom and nirvana. Government oversight of environmental protections, of education, of commerce all being rolled back to pre-enlightened times... All Koch ideas.

The New Right is a kind of late 70s thing.... As I say, with the Kochs as major funders, who were not all that interested in abortion, but were very interested in making a political force to push back on the government being nasty and stopping them from destroying the environment as a kind of collateral damage in their crusade to make as much money as humanly possible. That was a kind of tough political message to sell, so to gain more political weight, they folded in the religious right. Even the religious right weren't that interested in abortion in the 70s, but it became the easiest and most powerful political message for them all to rally around.

Given the above, there are very real reasons to believe it is the thin edge of the wedge.

Agree.

Looking from the outside, when Obama was elected I was ecstatic but also fearful they would attempt on his life or something.

But they went real quiet (the Right I mean)... those years it seemed like the Right was a thing of the past. Also kinda the same feeling in the rest of the western world, that tends to follow the US political cycles in my opinion.

But something horrible was germinating there, and we didn't see it until it was too late. And now we're dealing with it, and losing.

Also worth noting that Obama had the majorities to codify Roe v. Wade and didn't because he had "other priorities". With the benefit of hindsight, his presidency is looking less and less rosy.

And that also shows a certain smugness (a common shared trait in us progressives)... the Right was a thing of the past, we thought collectively. This wouldn't come back to bite us.

And boy it sure did and will continue to do so. I wish I could say "lesson learned" but unfortunately I think we're not even remotely there.

As others have noted, this was not a "quick" win.  It started the moment Roe v Wade was announced 50 years ago.  It's been a constant drumbeat for as long as I can remember.  It may seem quick to those outside the US, but it's been simmering for decades for anyone who lives here.  

We can debate Obama's legacy all day long, but let's be real: he had a majority for just two years: 2008-2010.  He didn't have it for a full term much less two terms.  Republicans won the House in the 2010 midterm elections and helped stall much of his agenda after they gained control. A huge plank of his agenda was the Affordable Care Act which was passed in the Spring of 2010 when he had a super majority, less than two years into his presidency.  We can, again, debate whether he should have focused on codifying abortion rights or worked to pass what is now considered landmark healthcare legislation in America until the cows come home.  Could he have done both?  Maybe.  But I think not.  It was a massive hill to climb to get the Affordable Care Act passed, even when his party controlled both houses, and diverting attention from that to also focus on Roe may have caved in both.  He made a choice.  To put other priorities in quotes as if they weren't as important considering the woeful state of health care in America is incredibly disingenuous.