If abortion and related life issues are in fact the great civil - rights issues
of our time» in that they
test whether the state may arbitrarily deny the protection
of the law to certain members
of the human community» then Griswold eventually led to a situation in which the Democratic and Republican positions on civil rights flipped, with members
of today's Democratic party playing the role that its Southern intransigents played during the
glory days of the American civil - rights movement.