The Morals of Abortion

The religious right is about to shoot itself in the foot. The did this once before by providing rhetoric that played into the murderous logic of a couple of young men who decided to be judge and jury for doctors who performed abortions or those who worked at abortion clinics. We've seen less of these folks since then. Clinton was in office then. He was of course followed by W. Bush and the religious right felt they had their man. And to an extent they did. That is, if it all comes down to the Supreme Court and Roe, which it probably won't. The conservatives may never be able to get more than a 4/5 decision on Roe. Even were they to overturn Roe, it is not at all clear that this would mean the end of abortion. George W. certainly did his dead level best to stack the court in favor of defeating Roe. He probably did more for stacking the lower courts, but I haven't studied that yet. I'll have to come back to Bush and the appellate courts in a future post.

But most Americans are against stripping women of all rights to an abortion. I think there is a very clear reason for this. Few people are convinced that a fertilized embryo is a baby. But in the language of this culture war, the right doesn't seem to mind sounding like Lenin demonizing his enemies (real and perceived). By writing this I could earn the name of a supporter of murder. A killer by one remove. Maybe you could call me a bloodsucker. The only ethical thing is to treat such a person without mercy -- or at least that is the Leninist way of talking. To them the termination of a mass of cells that will one day be a viable fetus is the same as killing a child. Babies aren't safe with Obama in office, they say.

Let's suppose that Mr. McCain had it right that life begins at conception. If we are under moral obligations to an embryo, something we cannot even see with the unaided eye, then clearly we are under similar obligations to people at the other end of the extreme: the very old and those in vegetative states. As technology increases, this obligation will increase. If it is immoral to stop the development of an embryo, then it is wrong to let the elderly die when we are in a position to prolong life.

This would mean that the Terri Schiavo situation was not a dilemma for one family but the destiny of us all. This would mean that anyone who has turned off a respirator should be charged with murder. In the future we will have to rush anyone near death to the hospitals to be put on machines. This is the logic of opposing all abortions. This is the logic of demanding we see an embryo as a full human being.

Most people figure if something looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck, by golly. But the religious right has gotten us into a really weird area where we have to make moral choices about situations we never imagined or want to imagine, about objects we cannot see or experience. Experience, however, is the least of concerns when one is all but ready to go to war over a theory. It is a war of words. As the language and furor gets ratcheted up we can expect bullets to fly somewhere.

I hope it isn't in your town or mine.

If Obama does decide to expand abortion rights in his first year as president he will have a fight on his hands, for sure. But by fighting him the right will further sour the rest of us to them. They will look even more out of touch. Fighting Obama will only make them look as backward as they are. There is no way they can get out with racism rubbing off on their hands. It will appear those wormholes to the Fifties are really up and running. Gary Bauer will look even more a cretan as he fights the "Negro" president.

twL