On CNN yesterday, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) repeated one of the cheapest shots against the Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs: “The leaked Alito opinion probably said it best when they quoted a Middle Age treatise. And, as someone said afterwards, why move forward if they nailed it back in 1223? Well, we know they didn’t nail it back there.”

Alito, of course, did not argue that restrictions on abortion are acceptable or justified because someone thought so 800 years ago. He was countering the argument, central to Roe v. Wade, that there was a tradition of permissive abortion laws stretching back hundreds of years. In its recounting of the history, Roe cited the exact same 13th-century source that Dobbs did. If Senator Klobuchar, who went to the University of Chicago Law School, does not know why Alito included this citation, she should.

Klobuchar also claimed that she was open to “allowing” restrictions on abortion after fetal viability so long as those restrictions include exceptions for “life or health.” She described this stance as a return to the Roe rule. Since the courts pre-Dobbs had interpreted the required “health” exception to include mental and emotional health, such restrictions were effectively unenforceable — a point that CNN’s write-up of the segment ignores.

For a response to the major criticisms of Dobbs, see this NR article from last year. For an argument that pro-lifers have had a much more successful year than most media accounts allow, see my Washington Post article from this weekend. (The Post has no paywall for the next few days.)