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When Texas Gov. George W. Bush spoke the political truth about abortion last month, he paid a predictable price -- criticism from good people who consider facing unpleasant facts a form of betrayal. The truth remains the truth just the same.
What Bush said can hardly be disputed. A constitutional amendment banning most abortions -- something he supports -- is not attainable now. Until such time as it is, it makes sense to work for achievable goals -- a ban on partial-birth abortions, parental notification laws -- capable of doing some limited good.
It may well be that, as Bush's critics complained, these comments were politically motivated. Since when have politicians said things that were not? This is like criticizing the late Vince Lombardi for having football on his mind.
Leaving motivation aside, the governor's reading of the situation was correct. "America is not ready to ban abortions," he remarked. Unfortunately, that's all too true. And will remain true, as he put it, "until America's hearts change."
To speak of "America's hearts" in reference to abortion cuts to the quick of the problem. Consider this.
In the 26 years since the Supreme Court legalized abortion, there have been 35 million abortions in the United States.
That appalling figure represents not only a huge number of women who have had abortions but a far larger body of people -- husbands, boyfriends, parents, siblings, doctors, chums, counselors of all sorts -- who made an emotional investment in the choice of abortion and feel compelled to rationalize it as a result.
What this means, among other things, is that the constituency for abortion in America is largely a constituency of guilty conscience. The defensiveness bred by the burden of guilt in "America's hearts" is a great part of its strength.
Here is a middle-class American male on the subject of abortion:
"Abortion is a moral issue. It has nothing to do with politics. You don't like it, don't get one. I am not a proponent of it. (But) I'm not about to tell you, 'Hey, you're a sinner because you're getting one." That's not me. I am not here to judge anyone."
The quote comes from Alan Wolfe's book One Nation, After All (published last year by Viking). Wolfe, a Boston University sociologist whose own views are on the liberal side, did in-depth interviews with 200 middle-class Americans in eight strategically selected communities around the country concerning their thinking about morality.
What he found, over and over again an on issue after issue, was that the middle-class is compulsively nonjudgmental. Passing judgment on anyone's behavior is more than these people can handle.
One result of this is smarmy pseudo-tolerance: why can't everybody just accept everybody else as they are? As a woman put it to Wolfe: "I would just like for people to learn to just really seriously sit down and learn to understand -- not fight, bicker, or argue, just listen and understand."
Where thinking like that holds sway, there is no possibility of doing anything about abortion or any other social evil. The only response available is to "just listen and understand."
Writing in the April 5 New Republic, Christopher Caldwell, a staffer with the conservative Weekly Standard, dismisses claims that Americans are "conflicted" about abortion, with many simultaneously torn between approving and disapproving. What he sees instead among large numbers is "rock-solid" support, "with American moral posturing plastered on top."
Cynical? Quite. Accurate? It could well be. Certainly America's hearts are not right on abortion. If anybody knows what to do about that -- speak up!
Shaw is a freelance columnist from Washington, D.C.
Copyright ©1999 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 24, No 15,
dated Apr. 15, 1999, on page 5.
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A note from the Web Master:
It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. Let us not forget that ordinary everyday run of the mill abortion is also murder. We must understand that aborting the life of a baby is murder no matter the method. Because one method of abortion seems to be horrible does not make the other methods less so. We should be horrified and sickened by any abortion regardless of the method. The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly:
"Thou shalt not kill."
A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul.
Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any abortion occurs. Please
contact both of your Senators and Representative, via letter or phone,
to let them know how horrified you are that abortions are legal and to
stop, once and for all, Partial-Birth abortions and all other abortions
as soon as possible.
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