For more than three decades, abortion has been primarily a legal fight centered around the Supreme Court’s idiosyncratic interpretation of the Constitution.
Political action has been shaped by the prospect of judicial review.
South Dakota recently approved a blanket ban in response to the changed membership of the court.
The anti-abortion lobby has forthrightly argued that abortion is wrong and should be prohibited. The other side, however, often has obscured its views.
Some opponents of abortion regulation style themselves as pro-choice rather than pro-abortion.
For instance, President Bill Clinton opined that abortion was best kept legal but should be rare.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has followed her husband’s lead in expressing concern about the procedure while defending its legality.
Every so often the zealots show a very different reality.
Ms. magazine, a stalwart of the feminist movement, began pressing for legal abortion before Roe v. Wade. Next week, Ms. magazine is releasing its latest issue, in which 1,016 signers acknowledge — and seemingly celebrate — having had an abortion.
Explained the editors when they first requested signatures: “In its 1972 debut issue, Ms. magazine ran a bold petition in which 53 well-known U.S. women declared that they had undergone abortions — despite state laws rendering the procedure illegal.”
Absurd as it was then that abortion was illegal, declares Ms., “It is even more absurd in 2006 to learn that an abortion ban has passed into law in South Dakota.”
Thus, stated Ms., it is time: “to make politicians face their neighbors, influential movers and shakers, and yes, their family members. We cannot, must not — for U.S. women and the women of the world — lose the right to safe, legal and accessible abortion or access to birth control.”
Ms. provided a form on which you check the box “I have had an abortion,” and then decide whether you want your name in the magazine or on the Web site, or both. And, yes, there’s also a line for you to make a generous donation.
In short, celebrate your decision to eliminate the life growing within you. Don’t just celebrate it. Broadcast it to the world.
Ms. magazine offered no Clintonesque rhetoric about abortion being an unfortunate choice, a tragedy that should be minimized. How long will it be before Ms. announces contests for the youngest and oldest abortion recipients? The person with the most abortions within a set period? And, of course, the most prolific aborter?
Set aside the legal and political issue for a moment. Objectively, abortion is bad. Even the would-be mother pays a price, with psychological harm common. More important, abortion kills. We can quibble about when life begins. We can argue about the moralstatus of an embryo before implantation. We can discuss exceptions, such as life of the mother and rape. And we can respond compassionately to women caught in difficult circumstances who feel they have inadequate alternatives.
But once we’ve entered the continuum of life, there’s no obvious moral difference between a fetus at 1 month or 8 months, or a child at 1 year or 8 years. Surely an abortion is not something to celebrate. “I didn’t feel like having another child, so I killed my baby,” seems to be what the more than 5,000 online signers of the Ms. list are saying.
Although the magazine expresses outrage that government might ban abortion, the state’s most basic role is setting the rules for life and death. True, there are few more intimate decisions than to bear a child.
But there is no individual freedom if the right to life is not respected, and liberty requires accountability. You must be responsible for the results of the free choices that you make.
Pregnancy is never a surprise. Absent rape, pregnancy cannot result other than by the choice to have sex.
Nor is abortion the only option. One reason adoption, foster care and orphanages exist is because some people don’t want to become parents. Carrying an unwanted baby to term is a significant imposition, but still a modest burden compared to ending a life.
Forty-five million babies have been aborted since Roe v. Wade. That hideous number should fill all of us with sadness.
Again, forget for a moment the political question whether abortion should be prohibited. Certainly abortion should be lamented. And discouraged. Honest liberals could agree on that.
But not Ms. magazine. Although the legal fight remains important, the main battlefield for abortion today is moral suasion. Even if Roe v. Wade is overturned, many states would likely keep the procedure legal. Which means people will have to be persuaded not to exercise their legal right. People will have to be convinced of what Ms. magazine does not understand: Every abortion is a tragedy.
Doug Bandow is vice president of Citizen Outreach and a former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He is the author of “Leviathan Unchained: Washington’s Bipartisan Big Government Consensus” (forthcoming, Xulon Press).
