It would be hard to say what issue is closest to the hearts of liberals — inequality, diversity, labor unions, or maximizing the size and reach of government. What seems to get them most exercised, however, is the issue of abortion. That attitude leaves conservatives in a state of bewildered disbelief. How can liberals, Democrats, the left, be such enthusiastic supporters of something that is, at best, a necessary evil? Why are they so protective of unlimited abortion and paranoid about placing any restrictions whatsoever on it? How do they manage to feel so positive about something that is so profoundly negative?
Although liberals give every indication that they believe abortion is a virtuous and morally neutral act, they also reveal that they are not comfortable with that position. You will rarely, if ever, hear liberals say that they are “pro-abortion.” They will almost always use various cowardly and misleading obfuscations such as “pro-choice” or “a woman’s reproductive rights.” Is this done just for appearance sake or are they themselves uncomfortable with what they advocate? If they have any conscience at all they have to, at the very least, be very conflicted. If you’ve ever tried to have a quiet discussion about abortion with a liberal you know that it turns ugly quickly.
The abortion enthusiasts have hijacked the word “choice.” That word is far too general and anodyne to substitute for the reality of abortion. They’re not “pro-choice,” they’re pro-abortion. Why can’t they just admit that? In the now famous Planned Parenthood video the abortionist/organ harvester refers to babies’ heads as “calvariums.” Language corruption is a deeply ingrained habit with the abortion community.
The very name “Planned Parenthood’ is itself a grotesque fraud. Planned Parenthood is an organization dedicated to the prevention of parenthood, either for the birth mother or for a couple eager for the chance to adopt.
Right-to-life advocates do not believe that the location of an unborn child is equivalent to ownership. An abortion is not morally equivalent to an appendectomy. There is no dispute about who owns your appendix. You have no control or responsibility for the existence of your appendix. An appendectomy or the removal of malignant tumor prolongs a life; an abortion ends a life.
A pregnancy is the result of a decision to have sex. Because you did you now have another human being developing inside your body. The fact that you irresponsibly had sex with someone you would not consider marrying does not give you the guilt-free option of ending the life you started. Roe v. Wade made abortion legal. It did not make abortion morally right.
Ronald Reagan said, “We cannot diminish the value of one category of life — the unborn — without diminishing the value of all human life.” Truer words were never spoken.
It is not just unborn children who pay the price for abortion, we all do. “Send not for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee” (John Donne). The number of abortions performed, as well as the ho-hum way that is viewed, does more than anything else to numb our sensitivities about the sanctity of life. The manifestations of that are all too apparent across our society and culture. There is probably nothing else that has led to the coarsening of our culture as much as the occurrence of millions of abortions.
A favorite debating point that liberals believe is a “gotcha moment” is when they point out that conservatives are against abortion but favor the death penalty. They believe it shows that conservatives are inconsistent and hypocritical. Their smugness, however, is unearned. It demonstrates their refusal to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent. A fetus is as innocent as it is possible to be, and an unborn child is not in any way equivalent to a convicted murderer.
For too long Planned Parenthood has been getting away with the lie that it is something other than what it is — primarily an abortion provider and promoter. Furthermore, it discourages adoption. You may as well ask Dr. Kevorkian for pregnancy counseling as to ask Planned Parenthood. Pro-life tax-payers are sickened by the reality of their tax dollars being used to support such a despicable organization.
We hear the chant, “black lives matter.” That’s true, of course, but it is usually in reference to blacks being killed by police officers. It would be good to keep in mind, however, that the number of black lives ended by abortion is thousands of times greater than the number of black lives ended by police officers.
People who are sickened by the fact that over a million abortions are performed each year in the U.S. can fight back in a number of ways. One way is to no longer let the abortion advocates get away with their rampant language cowardice and distortions. Vote for politicians who promise to stop public funding of Planned Parenthood.
It needs to be made absolutely clear that adoption is infinitely superior to abortion. Whether or not abortion should be illegal, society should at the very least make it clear that abortion is not just another form of birth control.
On some issues there is often little real difference between Republican and Democrat politicians’ attitudes and reactions. Not this time. Republicans are not mincing words about what the Planned Parenthood videos reveal. On this issue Republicans are showing some backbone. Democrats, on the other hand, “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” The abortion debate that is now front and center provides an unambiguous contrast between the two parties. Moral clarity can be a powerful force.
◼ Liberals, Conservatives, and Abortion July 24, 2015
Ron Ross Ph.D. is a former economics professor and author of The Unbeatable Market. Ron resides in Arcata, California and is a founder of Premier Financial Group, a wealth management firm located in Eureka, California. He is a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma and can be reached at rossecon@gmail.com.
