Oh, how pro-aborts must pine for the days before the modern sonogram. Back then, when they could prey upon scientific ignorance, they could get away with straight-faced claims that life didn’t begin at conception, or that abortion destroyed only some inhuman “clump of cells.” But advanced prenatal imaging and aggressive pro-life efforts to spread basic knowledge of embryology struck those lies a blow pro-aborts have never recovered from.
While many still insist on flat-earthing the subject, recent years have seen a distinct spike in pro-aborts admitting whom abortion kills but rationalizing it anyway – an approach that might impress in rabid feminazi circles and among left-wing college kids but is sure to horrify most everyone else.
Their “War on Women” act ultimately turned out to be more bark than bite – it wasn’t much of a factor in the Republicans’ 2012 defeat, Mitt Romney still won the home states of the WOW’s two main boogeymen, and pro-life candidates and causes still fared well at the state level – so it’s to be expected that pro-aborts would want to find a new approach.
Abortion Care Network chair Peg Johnston thinks she’s got it. Taking a page from the gay lobby, she suggests “coming out” as a post-abortive woman to “de-stigmatize” the act of having your child hacked up and thrown out:
Women who have had an abortion can usually hide it; it’s not generally part of their identity in the way sexuality is for many gay and lesbian individuals and in the way a chronic infection is for HIV-positive folks.
But the idea is a good one. If you feel people would think less of you (which is the definition of stigma) for having had an abortion, then you are not going to be eager to tell those people. But if you were able to tell some folks, it would lessen your sense of stigma, isolation, and shame. And, importantly, it would change the people who heard your story.
The Rob Portmans of the world need to hear from women close to them who have considered or chosen an abortion. If right-wing individuals hear from women and men who have been part of an abortion experience, will they be so quick to pass every ridiculous law that’s a barrier to abortion access? If Rob Portman’s son’s coming out is an indication, the answer is yes.
This might have some sway with people who let their emotions rule over reason, since plenty of people lack the fortitude to stand by any principle with implications that might hit too close to home or offend the sensibilities of those close to them. But a game-changer? Hardly. For one thing, if someone’s moral reasoning is that superficial and relativistic, then odds are he’s already pro-choice.
More importantly, one simple, key difference between being gay and having an abortion will forever kneecap the heartstring approach: the latter has a victim, somebody other than the individual whose well-being is being appealed to. However much empathy the pro-abortion movement can (rightly) gain for pregnant women, empathy for unborn babies will always be an innately powerful counterweight that has no parallel in gay issues.
This isn’t theoretical – commentators across the spectrum have observed how public opinion drifting leftward on homosexuality hasn’t coincided with a leftward shift on abortion views, even among the coveted youth vote. Daniel Allot at the American Spectator reports that in “the 1970s and ‘80s, most polls showed young Americans were the least pro-life of any age cohort,” but now:
The divergence among millennials on homosexuality and abortion is stark. A 2012 Gallup poll found that 53% of 18-to-34 year olds felt abortion is morally wrong. It was the age group most likely to feel that way. But at 70%, millennials were also the age group most likely to support same-sex marriage.
The impulse to live and let live will never offer a path to final victory on abortion, because abortion has a victim. It really isn’t any more complicated than that. Pro-aborts can lie about their victims, they can babble about convoluted philosophies that excuse killing them, but they can’t make anyone un-see them. They can’t un-invent the ultrasound or roll back embryology to the Dark Ages. However confused holdouts may be about the precise nature of the unborn, the simple knowledge that they’re there is irreversible…every bit as irreversible, ironically, as learning that a loved one is gay.
Try as they might, pro-aborts will never be able to re-bottle this genie. That’s why, eventually, we’re going to win.
