Divided and conquered
The split within the pro-life movement has gone on for too long and caused too many setbacks for legislation that would save the lives of human beings in America. They cannot get their act together, mainly because of a few groups holding out for perfect law as opposed to better law than we have now.
In the recent elections, several new laws that represented great progress for the pro-life movement went down to defeat largely with the help of….a certain wing of the pro-life movement. I’ve talked about it here in the Forum, on radio shows, at public events, and in private meetings with pro-life leadership.
Speakinig of…..Jill Stanek raises the troubling issue here.
The fact is groups at both ends of the pro-life ideological spectrum are actively sabotaging pro-life efforts with which they disagree, bound by a common fault: perfectionism.
Purist hardliners believe any pro-life law with exceptions such as for rape and incest means, “and then you can kill certain babies.” They believe attempting to limit abortions through such laws as parental notification or women’s right-to-know are actually forms of permission. They believe pro-lifers should only support perfect pro-life bills and perfect pro-life political candidates. Their goal is to pass a constitutional human life amendment.
Yep, all true.
On the other side are incrementalists who believe abortion will be conquered one bite at a time by passing laws slowly regulating it to death.
Incrementalist hardliners opposed the South Dakota measure because they feared it wouldn’t survive a Supreme Court challenge. They feared Obama would win and add to the number of pro-Roe justices, already in the majority. They opposed the Colorado personhood amendment for that reason and also because they feared a huge loss would look bad for our side.
And those not on the fringes of pro-life work are enormously frustrated by continual, unnecessary setbacks because of this division. As Jill says, “it’s never wrong to do the right thing,” for crying out loud.
This debate isn’t even comparable to “Sophie’s Choice,” being forced to choose which children live or die. All children slated for abortion are going to die. But if given the opportunity, do we not rescue any of them? Purists say no, not unless we can rescue all of them.
Unbelievable, isn’t it?
Beyond the fact certain pro-life groups purposefully sentenced countless babies to death in the 2008 election is the fact they set back the entire movement. We could have won in South Dakota. Imagine how that victory would have snowballed around the country.
It was so close. Now, a distant goal.
And the rest of the pro-life movement is still working daily to save whatever unborn human lives, and the women carrying them, as they possibly can. Even if it takes one law – and heart and mind – at a time.
