Where's that religious fanatic we elected? Ann Coulter

Maybe he is an idiot. On the 32nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade this past Monday – I was going to say "birthday of Roe v. Wade," but that would be too grimly ironic even for me – President Bush told a pro-life rally in Washington that a "culture of life cannot be sustained solely by changing laws. We need, most of all, to change hearts."

Actually, what we need least of all is to "change hearts." Maybe it's my law background, but I think it's time we changed a few judges.

The "changing hearts" portion of the abortion debate is over. ATTENTION, PASSENGERS: We're now entering the "minds" portion of the "hearts and minds" journey on abortion. We've been talking about abortion for 32 years. All the hearts that can be changed have been changed. By some estimates, 35 million human hearts (and counting) have been "changed" by abortion.

Judging by her comments this week calling abortion a "sad, even tragic choice," we've even changed Hillary Clinton's heart. (And who would know better than the sad, even tragic choice offered to New York voters in 2000 herself?)

Hillary went so far as to say she had "respect" for those who believe that "there are no circumstances under which any abortion should ever be available."

I've never heard of anyone who thinks abortion should not be "available" to save the life of the mother. There was never a law in any state that prohibited abortion to save the life of the mother. If Hillary "respects" even this (nonexistent) lunatic fringe of the pro-life movement, she must adore the rest of us!

The only thing we need to do now is to start "changing laws." A culture of life cannot even begin – much less be sustained – until we change the law and repeal Roe v. Wade. Only then can we tally up how many hearts have been changed.

If, right now, pro-lifers had already succeeded in changing the hearts of every last person in America – including Hillary Clinton! – abortion would still be legal in every state of the union. It's a "constitutional right" – taking its place alongside all those other "sad," "tragic" rights guaranteed by the Constitution, such as religious expression, free speech, freedom of assembly and so on. Who was it who said, "Free speech should be safe, legal and rare"?

Only when at least five members of the Supreme Court stop pretending to see a secret, hidden clause in the Constitution, discernible only to members of the American Civil Liberties Union, and repeal Roe can Americans finally vote on abortion. This is a right we have been denied for 32 years. In effect, a 32-year gag rule has been imposed on those of us who respect every stage of life.

The National Abortion Rights League (NARAL) claims that if Roe were overturned, 19 states would immediately outlaw abortion, and 19 more would soon follow suit. This is the one issue on which NARAL and I agree: Pro-lifers already have changed the hearts of Americans about abortion!

Abortion was not terribly popular when Roe v. Wade was first concocted in 1973 – by seven male justices and their mostly male law clerks. Abortion – like other liberal priorities over the years including forced busing, gay marriage and removing "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance – is an issue liberals believe is best voted on by groups of nine or fewer.

We know it wasn't popular with actual Americans back then because 46 states had outlawed it in a once-common procedure known as "representative democracy." Reflect on the fact that among the things more popular than abortion even back in 1973 were white-guy afros, lime-green leisure suits and earth shoes.

In the intervening 32 years, abortion has only become less popular. People have seen sonograms of smiling fetuses, they've seen the mangled remains of aborted babies, they've heard the ghastly arguments from NARAL termagants, and they've seen untold women marking the birth dates of their terminated children with weeping and despair.

In a Los Angeles Times poll a few years ago, 57 percent of respondents said they believed abortion was "murder." Seventy-two percent of women and 58 percent of men said they thought abortion should be illegal after the first trimester. (Among men currently listed on NBA rosters, the figure was even lower.)

Note that men in the poll were more supportive of abortion than women, which is perfectly in keeping with the pro-abortion orthodoxy that men should have no say in this matter, unless they're saying "yes, dear." Once again, NARAL and I are in agreement! It's a "woman's issue"; could you men please just butt out?

Despite the fact that feminists cry and try to make people feel guilty about opposing a "woman's right" to abortion, men always support abortion more than women – no matter who takes the poll or how the questions are asked. Curiously, single men aged 18-34 are the cohort most dearly devoted to a woman's "right to choose."

Until Roe is overturned, telling pro-lifers they need to be "changing hearts" is like telling the New England Patriots they need to practice more ñ- while never, ever letting them play in the Super Bowl. We've been changing hearts for 32 years – I think we're ready for the big match now. I think Americans would support massive restrictions on abortion. And NARAL agrees with me! How about it, liberals? Prove me wrong! Let Americans vote.

Ann missed the point on that part of the need to change hearts.

Each and every major social problem we have in this country is caused by sin.

Each behavioral problem, that is.

Whether it is premarital sex, teenage sex, people cheating on each other, the rise of pornography, the language on television and movies, it all comes down to attitudes about what is right and what is wrong.

To change those moral ills, the presence of a good judge will mean nothing if the populace is immoral.

Abortion is not about killing babies, even though it is killing babies.

Abortion is about covering up the sin of those who sleep together outside of marriage.

If you stop the sleeping around before marriage of teen age girls/boys and the same for the 20's men/women, then you eliminate the abortion industry as any profitable entity.

Eliminating premarital sex eliminates sex ed, eliminates the worries of parents about their kids having sex and getting pregnant.

The changing of hearts and minds also applies to the gay marriage thing. In fact, we need to change hearts and minds to homosexuality, period!

Homosexuality is wrong, regardless of who it is about and what they say in private or public or whether they are Bush supporters or not.

What Ann missed here totally by focusing her article around the statement: "Actually, what we need least of all is to "change hearts. Maybe it's my law background, but I think it's time we changed a few judges." ; is this is a battle completely about right and wrong, not about placing 'good' people in power.

If there aren't "good people" to be governed, then "good Governors" are meaningless.

Now, I am not saying that we dont need good men in office. Noah Webster said it best:

When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, "just men who will rule in the fear of God." The preservation of government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be sqandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.

Noah Webster, History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), pp. 336-337, ¦49.

However, our founding Fathers had also said that the importance of the morality of the nation is not the responsibility of the Governors, but of the Governed::

Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them; and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men than men upon governments. Let men be good and the government cannot be bad. . . . But if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their turn. . . .[T]hough good laws do well, good men do better; for good laws may want [lack] good men and be abolished or invaded by ill men; but good men will never want good laws nor suffer [allow] ill ones.

William Penn quoted from: Thomas Clarkson, Memoirs of the Private and Public Life of William Penn (London: Richard Taylor and Co., 1813) Vol. I, p.303.

Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. . . . [I]f the next centennial does not find us a great nation . . . it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.

James Garfield, "A Century of Congress" published in Atlantic, July 1877.

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