How Liberals are Changing Their Abortion Views

In the Washington Post yesterday, liberal columnist Richard Cohen wrote a very interesting article entitled Support Choice, Not Roe.  He admits what pro-lifers have been saying since the beginning - that abortion is not just a question of choice for the woman, but of life for the child.

I no longer see abortion as directly related to sexual freedom or feminism, and I no longer see it strictly as a matter of personal privacy, either. It entails questions about life -- maybe more so at the end of the process than at the beginning, but life nonetheless.

This is not a fashionable view in some circles, but it is one that usually gets grudging acceptance when I mention it. I know of no one who has flipped on the abortion issue, but I do know of plenty of people who no longer think of it as a minor procedure that only prudes and right-wingers oppose. The antiabortion movement has made headway.

He goes on to mention that most polls don't measure this shift, since they are only interested in if people are simply pro-life or pro-choice.

That shift in sentiment is not apparent in polls because they do not measure doubt, only position: for or against. But between one and the other, black or white, is a vast area of gray where up or down, yes or no, fades to questions about circumstance: Why, what month, etc.? Whatever the case, the very basis of the Roe v. Wade decision -- the one that grounds abortion rights in the Constitution -- strikes many people now as faintly ridiculous. Whatever abortion may be, it cannot simply be a matter of privacy.

Go read the article - his honest evaluation of the issue finally moves towards the middle, where we should be - balancing a woman's rights with the child's right.  Of course, all-or-nothing conservatives may need to now move from their pole as well, as I suggested in Citizens for Reasonable Abortion Limits.  But then again, I don't think we can move very far into pregnancy before we have a person with rights, so my suggested that we outlaw abortions after 4-6 weeks may seem like not much of a compromise at all to pro-choicers.

Comments

[Daniel]

This issue has been a hot bed of discussion between my wife and I. I was a member of Dallas Right To Life years ago and her view is that she believes all womwn should have the right to choose; she chooses life for her unborn but she would not get in the way of another women choosing abortion. My question has always been that there are at least 2 interested parties involved; often times three but let us exclude Daddy for a second as our laws here in Texas are apt to do... While Mom has offered her opinion to terminate, no one has asked the child if he or she would like to live or not. Take that argument as you will.

Further we believe that if God is the Author of life then we need to conclude that no child has a life without His permission, consent, or design. Abortion says just like the folks who say God made them homosexual that God made a mistake in planning and man made one that God did not....All the Father has to His credit and darn it...there went a Baby He did not plan.

My wife and I celebrated our daughter's 4 month birthday. My wife has Cerebal palsy and other neurological defects. The Doctors said she wouuld not get pregnant and should one be born, the child would be severely retarded. No one but wife and I asked God what He thought. Here came our beautiful, healthy daughter once again proving that God has the final word.

As to the changing opinions of liberals I would not say much beyond that we need to get back to the basics of ABMC's (Abstinence Before Marital Cohabitation)

It is a highly emotional and debated issue.

Just another opinion

[jpe]

As to the changing opinions of liberals I would not say much beyond that we need to get back to the basics of ABMC's (Abstinence Before Marital Cohabitation)

The brute mechanics of late capitalism make that a pipe dream. Because of the de facto necessity of a college degree and the difficulty of marriage during college, people will continue to wait until after graduation, at least, to get married. And there's never been a time in history when people waited until their mid-twenties to have sex.

This is just one of many reasons that the Christian Right's insistence on the goodness of capitalism baffles me.

[Daniel]

Simplified, seems to me you are saying that Seeking the Dollar has become more important than seeking the Almighty. huh?

I am a simple man of simple means. My wife does not have a job beyond the one the Father called her to (Motherhood). I do have a college degree but I drive a Dump truck for a County Authority. As man seeks so shall he find...

That means that to me the answer is also a simple two-fold; Matt 6:33 or quit complaining about the way things are.

Of course the constitution does guarantee the right to pursue happiness and if that means crying about the way things are instead of allowing the Father His place (which He will have with or without our permission) then I suppose I could say nothing against that...or did I?

[seeker]

Actually jpe, you bring up a very good point. Just this past week, I heard Albert Mohler, pres of Southern Baptist Theol. Seminary say that he thinks it is a bad idea that we wait so long to be married, thus upping the temptation and chances at sex outside of marriage.

However, there is some wisdom in waiting until you know yourself a bit better, like your mid-twenties, before marrying. Most people can finish college by age 22, so purity through that period is not unthinkable.

And if people get married earlier, they can use birth control if they are worried about finishing college before having kids. But kids are never convenient ;)

[Aaron]

Spare me the "it is impossible for someone to wait" argument. My wife and I waited until we both graduated college and got married.

Was it difficult? Yes! But was it worth it? Beyond Yes! Is it impossible? Not by a long shot!

Our waiting was due to our faith in God's plan and His working in our lives. But even after graduating and getting married, we still "weren't ready" when we found out we were pregnant with our first son.

I had just gotten laid off, my wife had just graduated and hadn't found a job yet. We had no way of thinking we could "pay for this child." Then the doctor found a "spot" on his ultrasound. By the world's standard, this was the perfect opportunity to abort and wait for better "family planning." But I could not imagine life without my first (or my second) son. He provides me with so much joy and laughter. I would have missed out on moments, like the one I wrote about at Wardrobe Door today, if he were not here.

By the way, the spot was nothing as is the case on lots of occassions. Another reason not to use prenatal testing as a reason to kill an unborn baby.

[jpe]

Was it difficult? Yes! But was it worth it? Beyond Yes! Is it impossible? Not by a long shot!

Fair, but ya gotta think odds here. Do we want more people or less people having sex before marriage? You can gripe all you want about how people should wait, but ya can't ignore brute reality. Unless it's made easier to get married earlier, people will have sex outside of marriage.

Not everyone has the Aaron super-willpower (I wish I did!), so we have to formulate our judgments, sadly, in a sub-Aaron world.

Al Mohler and I agree on something? Man, I gotta sit down. And have a drink.

[Aaron]

I never said I had "super-willpower" nor did I insinuate that I was somehow above or better than everyone else. The reason I gave my example was that I am just a normal person who, through Christ, was able to wait. As the old saying goes, "If I can do it, anyone can."

[seeker]

BTW, my wife and I just went for our first listen to our second baby's heartbeat - amazing to hear it at 10 weeks! Unthinkable that people consider this child something to be disposed of - even at this early stage, it has a wonderful heartbeat. Woosh, woosh, woosh. Very cool.

[Aaron]

Congrats! Our second was much easier (as a baby) than our first, but still changed a lot of things. It may have had a lot to do with the fact that we learned from our numerous mistakes on his older brother, who is still managing to turn out wonderful.

But I am sure you are excited. That is a magical moment hearing their heartbeat for the first time.

[seeker]

Yeah. Our first child has been a breeze - she started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks, and at 8 weeks starting sleeping 10-12 hours per night, which she continues to do. And she is not strong willed, very obedient (although, now age 2, she is starting to throw tantrums sometimes, but we are managing that no prob).

I'm told that if your first one is an angel (like ours is), the second one is a hellion. But we are hoping for another angel :D>