Last year on September 9, 2021, and again on May 9, 2022, I podcasted and wrote about The Politics of Abortion. Even after all the recycled diatribes of the post-Dobbs decision, a damn good one, I need to re-assert some obvious points.
Two days ago, three states enshrined abortion as a state constitutional right. Unrestricted, without legal or moral consequence: Michigan, Vermont, and (of course!) California. Add a Kentucky pro-life amendment (similar to Kansas a few months ago) that was defeated, and we have 10% of all the states pushing hard to keep abortion an unrestricted right that just isn’t right.
This is a bigger story than Donnie Trump or DeSantis or the missing red wave for Republicans. This is political clarity of a dispute some scream about (pro-aborts), and some pray about (pro-life). They put iron fences around the Supreme Court and allow abortion protestors to picket the homes of judges but try to find one vandal (of the more than seventy-five instances of arson, graffiti, and battery) arrested for desecrating a pregnancy aid center.
Abortion is a moral issue, first and foremost, but is never addressed as such. The real coming tsunami will be the number of increased abortions as the practice is celebrated and normalized. These could be avoided instead of encouraged.
I am no expert on women, but I believe:
Women do not want to be told what they can and cannot do.
Women do not want to be yelled at.
Women want to love and be loved.
Women want their love manifested as commitment and support, not abandonment, when the action of two creates life. Children are never accidents.
Women do not go gleefully to an abortion.
Women do not make the decision lightly but choose abortion too often from desperation.
Women do not get abortions because of a long-held desire to kill a child.
Women do not get pregnant in a vacuum.
Women want men to act like men, chivalrous ones.
Women want support of the defenseless: rape and incest are hard exceptions but politically (not morally) reasonable.
Women want their love, their most precious gift, respected.
Pro-lifers support women and agree on most of this. Pro-lifers always say, “Love them both.”
I also believe:
Any man who gets a woman pregnant and instead of saying, “I love you and support you because I went into this act of love with my eyes open and in agreement with our own commitment,” this man actually says, “I support your choice…” That man is a coward for abandonment, for falsely toying with a woman’s love. Those cowards who say “Your choice” are praying that the woman gets the evil and irrevocable deed done and that will let him off the hook.
Corporations can be cowards, too. The woke companies that brag about spending cash for abortion travel and lodging and bills are making a calculated financial decision: no extra mouth for a family plan, no three months-plus of maternal/paternal leave, the employee back at her desk unencumbered by the distraction of picking kids up at daycare or school and the inconvenience of raising a child and not sleeping for 18 years.
Yes, corporations are legal persons, and like persons they can be monstrous cowards.
The Republicans must see compromise with sincere love of “both” as a path forward without the acrimony that comes with lying about dystopian regimes. Republicans should not back away from saying loudly and strongly that abortion is bad for women, bad for minorities, and bad for our nation.
Women should be exalted and not treated as commodities. There are almost 4,000 abortions a day in the United States alone which is far from rare. Although there are not infinite reasons to limit abortion (or have one) there are many elements to find common ground on.
Here is a simple exception most people would agree need to be part of the discussion: abortion as a means of sex selection.
Another: abortion on a minor without a parent’s consent.
Another: abortion for a pregnancy the result of an unreported crime.
One of the lies on abortion is that state laws have no exception for the health of the mother, which is part of every abortion law on the books, everywhere. But the abortion lobby will not admit it since it does not fit the narrative.
Yes, there should be other reasonable restrictions, especially on gestations periods.
There exists a weak argument that less than 2% of abortions are after 24 weeks (six months), all due to deformities of the child or grave illness with no hope for recovery or cure. Children who “test” for Down’s Syndrome (a maybe proposition referred to by the inimitable George Will as “search and destroy missions”) come under this category.
There are gut wrenching decisions on real child deformities of expectant and now crushed parents, but it begs the question – if those 2% abortions are “okay” then the other 98% are presumed viable and, well, could be called murder, not healthcare.
Labeling abortion as healthcare is like calling the American penal system (otherwise known as hell-on-earth) a free relocation program.
It is about the science, right?
At the end of the day, abortion is about convenience of bodily autonomy. Parenthood is a responsible by-product of reproduction and although there are tons of books on the subject, we are all fumbling our way through it. Yes, it is very inconvenient, mostly for the moms who bear the child and do the lion’s share of the nurturing and teaching and loving.
Most laws are inconvenient. It’s inconvenient to wear clothes in public, but I am pretty sure that is a requirement. Obeying a traffic light, shooting guns in the air, not paying for goods I want, drinking beer in church… all inconvenient. All have laws restricting the behavior.
But none has the direct consequence of ending the life of the most vulnerable who is unique and innocent in all respects.
If abortion isn’t wrong, nothing is wrong.
Next submission is about Hershel Walker and what he should say to the public about his alleged past inexcusable indiscretions.
By Kevin Horgan
Kevin Horgan is a regular contributor to The Blue State Conservative. He is an author, retired attorney, and Marine. His work can be found on his blog Our Culture Inchoate, and his books, including his most recent novel A Face on the Flag, are available at Amazon.
This story syndicated with permission from The Blue State Conservative