Aborting the Pro-Choice Movement

Adam's Web ^ | 08/06/2004 | Adam Graham

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“But let me not be understood as admitting, even by implication, that the existing relations between the two races in the slaveholding States is an evil: — far otherwise; I hold it to be a good, as it has thus far proved itself to be to both, and will continue to prove so if not disturbed by the fell spirit of abolition.” –Senator John Calhoun (D-SC) in a speech on the floor of the Senate in February, 1837.

With these words, Calhoun poured gasoline on a fire he meant to put out. He was concerned with anti-slavery petitions being presented to the Senate. He and other pro-slavery Senators detested the anti-slavery petitions presented by abolitionist societies and believed the Senate should no longer receive them.

Calhoun went beyond that. For the first sixty years of America’s history, slavery was viewed as an evil that most everybody hoped someday would be abolished. Even sons of the South like George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson had problems with slavery and regretted their own part in the system. Indeed, until the 1830s, most of the anti-slavery societies in the US were in the South. Calhoun, however was tired of the view of the South as sinners and his message to America was, “We’re not ashamed of slavery, we’re glad for it!”

The Speech defined Southern politics for the next quarter century. Southern politicians became more strident in pushing slavery, requiring the North to return run away slaves. Then they began to insist upon their rights to carry their slaves up North and to create new slave states in the territories. Their vehemence led to more Northern opposition.

Strong abolitionists were always a minority. The Majority of Northerners took a “not in my back yard” approach to slavery, being perfectly comfortable allowing slavery to exist in the South. However, Southerners demanded expansion and approval for their “good lifestyle.” Believing that Southerners wanted to shove slavery down their throat, many Northerners joined the new Republican Party, which did not seek to stop slavery, only contain it. While Southern Democrats split the party because of the Democrats’ refusal to adopt a platform calling for a slave code that would allow slavery everywhere, Republicans united behind Abe Lincoln and made him President.

Now, what does this have to do with abortion? Everything. Most Americans like the Northerners of the 1830s who view abortion as murder but are not strong pro-lifers. They’re content to let abortion remain legal, and the opinion of the American people appeared to be fixed that way for several decades to come.

Well, two weeks ago, I believe a historic shift began and that July 18, 2004 will be as important as the date of Calhoun’s infamous speech. In that week, we saw not only the most callous statements on abortion ever to grace the pages of the Gray Lady but the birth of the Abortion pride movement.

Amy Richards decided to stop using birth control because it made her moody, she conceived and became pregnant with healthy triplets. Her immediate reaction was to ask her doctor if there was a way to get rid of one or two of them.

Despite the pleas of her boyfriend to keep the other two children (who were identical twins) and his thoughts on viewing the ultrasound, “Oh, my gosh, there are three heartbeats. I can't believe we're about to make two disappear,” she killed the two identical siblings.

Her story belies so much of the pro-choice argument. Whenever someone suggests that women ever get abortions for light and transient reasons, the pro-choice crowd explains that pro-lifers don’t respect women and understand how much thought they put into the abortion decision and no woman would ever have an abortion unless she’d really thought about it and there was a serious reason for it.

This is also shot to hell by Ms. Richards who writes, “I'm going to have to move to Staten Island. I'll never leave my house because I'll have to care for these children. I'll have to start shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise. Even in my moments of thinking about having three, I don't think that deep down I was ever considering it.”

So not only were Ms. Richard’s actions cold-blooded, she didn’t even consider any alternatives such as adoption. This thought process shows how false what abortion advocates have been telling us is. They have never paraded out people like Amy Richards before, instead they grabbed the mother of six who had a health-threatening pregnancy that needed an abortion. They grabbed the girl who’d been raped and kept the Amy Richards’ of the world hidden from view with good reason.

At the end, we are treated to this repulsive paragraph,

“But thinking about becoming pregnant again is terrifying. Am I going to have quintuplets? I would do the same thing if I had triplets again, but if I had twins, I would probably have twins. Then again, I don't know.”

This callous disregard for human life makes even many pro-choice people sick, but the fun wasn’t done. On July 23rd, Planned Parenthood released the “I Had An Abortion” t-shirt which was meant to express “abortion pride”.

The idea originated with the webmaster of the site, “imnotsorry.net” where women unrepentantly gush about how glad they are that they had their abortions. One woman, “Ada” wrote the following:

“Walking home from the store, I hear a baby wailing through an apartment window on my street. I chuckle to myself and think how happy I am that won't be my window later this year.

”To simply say ‘I'm not sorry’ or ‘I don't regret it’ is not strong enough. Having an abortion was the best decision I ever made. I'm glad I did it, and I'm 100% confident that I made the right choice for myself, my lover, and our situation.”

Now, this represents a paradigm shift in the pro-choice movement when politicians and pro-choice advocates traditionally speak of abortion, they speak of it as a tragedy. Bill Clinton famously declared that he wanted abortion safe, legal, and rare which in effect admitted that it was a bad thing. As Alan Keyes remarked a few years later, “The only thing that’s good when it’s rare is a steak.”

Like Southern slaveholders of the 1830s, these women are demanding not just that abortion be viewed as something that should be legal, but as a positive social good that women should take pride in.

However, this is vastly overplaying their hands. A recent poll showed 57% of Americans believe abortion is murder, but many will allow it because they are sympathetic to women in crisis situations and believe it’s not their place to intrude on such a sacred and private decision. Right into the middle of this moral ambivalence steps Amy Richards and the imnotsorry.net crowd and upsets the pro-choice apple cart, demanding not that people accept as abortion as a necessary evil, but that they view it as a positive good.

With 7 years of debate over partial birth abortion, there’s been a steady shift to self pro-life identification. While it doesn’t tell us much about what people think about abortion, it tells us a lot about what people think about the pro-choice movement and their general discomfort with the idea of identifying themselves with scissors through the back of an eight month old fetus’ head. Can you imagine the reaction people will have when the writings of these “abortion pride” authors begin to be read more widely?

For many, it’ll be a feeling of revulsion and shock and it will cost the pro-choice movement its emotional sympathy. Good people don’t want to identify with selfish beasts. I believe if this attitude spreads and is broadcast, it will open people up more to the idea of regulating abortion with multiple safeguards. I think in some form Roe v. Wade will be overturned, even if it’s by a congressional act and you’ll see widespread regulation of abortion throughout pregnancy. I think there will be serious effort to stop sex selection abortions, abortion for the purpose of birth control, and abortion for cosmetic reasons.

Without John Calhoun’s infamous speech, slavery may have continued in the US for two or three more generations. If Amy Richards’ and friends get their message out, they will end up unintentionally saving thousands of unborn children and hastening the demise of abortion in America.