Another Pyrrhic Victory for the (pseudo) Pro Life Movement
One more such victory and we are lost ! Pyrrhus
but Not to Worry--the fund raising letter is in the mail
The April 18th 2007 Gonzales versus Carhart Supreme Court decision upholding the ban on Partial Birth Abortion is not the long awaited first step in the direction of banning all abortions. It is the next to last step in setting abortion in legal cement.
The decision spells this out. The majority opinion not only affirms the Right to Abortion, it goes out of the way to affirm the RIGHT TO LATE TERM abortions by other methods or even by using this one in a modified way ! ! The eerie thing about the opinion is that it contains a kind of mini manual on how to perform a late term abortion safely--without any risk to the abortionist of conflict with this decision !
Roe versus Wade contained some ambiguous language which seemed to indicate that the Supreme Court might uphold restrictions on late term abortions. This decision goes beyond Roe versus Wade and clears up any legal ambiguity. It plainly states that late term abortions are legal.
This decision could accurately be billed as Hats off to Warren Hern ! because it explicitly validates the elegant methods of 2nd and 3rd trimester abortions pioneered by Boulder abortionist Warren Hern. He despises the crude butchery of partial birth abortion. The Supreme Court has now endorsed the Lethal Injection in place of the scissors in the back of the skull.
first and last steps
The assertion that the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, or the April 18th decision upholding it, is somehow a first step in the direction of reversing Roe versus Wade and then outlawing all abortions is a joke. Is a lie. Is a delusion. Is a pretence for fund-raising purposes by pseudo Pro Life organizations which have long since become corrupt.
The issue is honesty not incrementalism. The issue is not going along with the pretence that the King is wearing a wonderful new suit which is somehow invisible to a lot of people. You can justify leaving a fence up even though it has gaps in it. Putting up a fence which is more gaps than fence is a very doubtful project. But this is a matter of putting up a virtual fence, a let's pretend fence. Let's pretend we have put up a fence. Now send us money so that, some day--or some year--we can build a real fence. The April 18th decision will save no babies from abortion. It will only distract people from the Christian Witness and the Sidewalk Counselling which does save babies every day.
When you prohibit under age drinking, require taverns to close at certain hours and severely punish drunk driving, are you moving in the direction of a Prohibition Amendment that will ban alcohol in America ? Of course not. You are providing a permanent legal foundation for the consumption of alcohol. That is what Gonzales versus Carhart does in respect to abortion. It is the last or next to last step on the road to permanent legal abortion. It sets abortion in legal cement.
The worst thing about the April 18th Supreme Court decision is that it has temporarily revived the false hopes and the false faith of all those Secular Christians who have been brainwashed to believe that somehow, some day, the government will rise up and put a stop to abortion. It encourages the moral cowardice of those who must leave it up to God and the Government because they do not have the Courage to live the Christian life and fight the battle for a Christian society. And the pseudo pro life organizations cater to that cowardice: Send us a donation, we'll take care of it.
So people don't have to muster the courage to bear Christian Witness against abortion. They don't have to re-examine that American life style which sanctifies the love of money and mandates careers for women who must rely upon contraception backed by abortion until they are allowed to have that one baby at age 35.
Terry Sullivan