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The Ideological Civil War Over Abortion
Townhall.com ^ | October 4, 2021 | Michael Brown

Posted on 10/04/2021 3:01:39 AM PDT by Kaslin

Was there a time in living memory when America was more divided? I’m 66, and I certainly can’t remember any time like today. Can you?

It seems as if the right and the left are becoming more and more polarized, with less and less people in the center. From woke ideology to race issues to political divides to LGBTQ activism to religious conflicts to cancel culture to immigration, the divisions are deep and broad.

But the ultimate dividing line is abortion. On no other issue are the passions so intense. And no other issue has such massive court cases attached to it.

The clearest illustration of the intense divide took place in Washington, DC this past Saturday, when a pro-abortion women’s march came face to face with a pro-life prayer service on the steps of the Supreme Court. Talk about seeing this conflict in real time and in living color!

To give the background, a couple of months ago, my friend Rev. Patrick Mahoney, who has been involved in pro-life work for 44 years, felt prompted to set aside October 2 for a special prayer meeting in DC in front of the Court.

He picked this date because the Court would be resuming its session on Monday, October 4, and it is during this session that the justices will hear the Dobbs case from Mississippi, billed as “the case that could overturn Roe v. Wade” (see here and here for examples). Having worked with DC police for decades, Pat received the necessary permits to hold a peaceful, non-political, prayer and worship meeting from 2-4 PM on the 2nd.

Then, just weeks ago, after the Supreme Court let the Texas Heartbeat Bill stand, pro-abortion activists called for marches on this very same day in cities across America, including DC. And, as if it was all scripted, the “Rally for Abortion Justice” in DC was scheduled to end at the Court building the same time the prayer meeting was scheduled to begin. I kid you not.

As it turns out, the pro-life worshipers were already there by the time the marchers arrived, and the police were prepared for the moment. But it was the very presence of these worshipers that kept the marchers from advancing to the Court’s steps.

Could this be symbolic of things to come? Could this be a physical sign of a spiritual victory? Let us hope and pray that it is.

But it is not only in DC that unusual things are happening.

Within the last week, two sitting Supreme Court justices, one on the left and one on the right, both spoke out about the Texas bill.

This past Wednesday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said to an audience of law students, “You know, I can't change Texas's law. But you can, and everyone else who may or may not like it can go out there and be lobbying forces in changing laws that you don't like.”

Then, on Thursday, Justice Samuel Alito told students at University of Notre Dame that the media was unfairly reporting on the Court’s decisions and the processes involved in their decisions. He said, “The catchy and sinister term ‘shadow docket’ has been used to portray the court as having been captured by a dangerous cabal that resorts to sneaky and improper methods to get its ways. This portrayal feeds unprecedented efforts to intimidate the court or damage it as an independent institution.”

He added, “Journalists may think we can dash off an opinion the way they dash off articles.”

When can you remember something like this happening, when, in the very same week, two Supreme Court justices made public comments about very live issues before the court? And is it any surprise that both of them addressed one particular case, namely, the Texas Heartbeat Bill?

Added to all this are the results of a recent poll which, according to Newsweek, indicated that “Roughly 52 percent of people who voted for Republican former President Donald Trump either ‘somewhat agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ that it's time to split the country, favoring that either red or blue states secede from the union, the poll found.

“Comparatively, 41 percent of people who voted for Democratic resident Joe Biden agree with the idea.”

In perhaps the understatement of the year, Daniel Villareal, writing in Newsweek, said, “Splitting the country would likely cause massive conflict.” And abortion will certainly be front and center when it comes to this massive conflict.

For the pro-choice side, this is really a matter of life and death. A matter of “my body, my choice.” A matter of health and security and freedom. (For my open letter to these women who see abortion as a fundamental, Constitutional right, see here.)

For the pro-life side, this is also a matter of life and death. A matter of stopping the shedding of innocent blood. A matter of standing with “the least of these.” A matter of doing what is best for the mothers as well.

My counsel, then, in the midst of this conflict, which will only intensify should the Mississippi heartbeat law be upheld in the Dobbs case and which will absolutely explode if the Court overturns Roe v. Wade, is this.

First, be much in prayer for the Court to do what is right in God’s sight and for a culture of life to arise in our land. The fate of the nation could be at stake.

Second, walk in love and patience towards those who differ. Let us smash the negative (and false) caricatures that surround the pro-life movement with our kindness and our patience. Do your best to be Jesus to the pro-choice people you meet.

Third, take time to listen, and then to share the love of God if possible. Ask those on the other side why they feel the way they do, taking a genuine interest in their own wellbeing. And if the door is open, share the gospel with them.

Fourth, make the case for life, starting with the humanity of the baby in the womb. (Again, see my open letter for more on this.)

Fifth, make pro-life voting a priority in the years ahead. Let us elect those who will stand with the unborn.

Which way will America go? A lot of that has to do with you and with me.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: abortion; proabortion; prochoice; prolife; womensmarch

1 posted on 10/04/2021 3:01:39 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
You don't kill babies...just cuz you want to...Period.

Precedence?? Murder has always been wrong.

2 posted on 10/04/2021 3:48:32 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Kaslin

Two GIANT elephants in the room are thus

Indiscriminate copulation (leading to unwanted babies). Indiscriminate, not considering the ramifications of their actions
....people are getting rich by “serving” women who are pregnant. Ironically “service” is accomplished by killing future women developing in the womb.

It is not a blue state / red state thing. It is a blue county vs. red county. Most people living in cities are more dependant on government oversight and benefits. They want the feds to be their big daddy mayor. We should break the big cities off...see how well they do on their own.


3 posted on 10/04/2021 4:06:57 AM PDT by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and diamonds, and harder to find.)
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To: Getready

ONE elephant:



4 posted on 10/04/2021 4:18:29 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Getready
We should break the big cities off...see how well they do on their own.

But it appears that WE would get out voted.

Then what??

5 posted on 10/04/2021 4:19:44 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

Breaking up the country as it is now demographically would be pointless..the cancer of leftism has metastasized into every part of the country and wuill contiune to grow. You cant “cut it out” via a breakup. Only when the country returns to God will there be a correction. However we will have to go to very very dark bottom first.


6 posted on 10/04/2021 4:31:25 AM PDT by FreshPrince
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To: Kaslin

Once the murder called abortion was legalized, it was just a matter of time until other violence and theft were legalized too, as we see with BLM/Antifa looting and destruction.

Not sure that is ideologic. Just ordinary surrendering to basest animal instincts.


7 posted on 10/04/2021 5:05:42 AM PDT by jjotto (Blessed are You LORD, who crushes enemies and subdues the wicked.)
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To: Sacajaweau
Isaiah 3:12
KJV

As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.


This was originally posted towards Greta

8 posted on 10/04/2021 5:36:18 AM PDT by knarf (Isaiah 3:12<p>)
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To: Getready
Isaiah 3:12
KJV

As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.


This was originally posted towards Greta

9 posted on 10/04/2021 5:36:29 AM PDT by knarf (Isaiah 3:12<p>)
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To: Elsie
Isaiah 3:12
KJV

As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.


This was originally posted towards Greta

10 posted on 10/04/2021 5:36:44 AM PDT by knarf (Isaiah 3:12<p>)
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To: Elsie

Shush now. (Lukewarm) people love the “neither do I condemn thee”, message. But the “go and sin no more” one,....

...not so much.


11 posted on 10/04/2021 5:39:07 AM PDT by Zuriel (Acts 2:38,39....Do you believe it?)
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To: Kaslin

Abortion is the hallmark of a fundamentally decadent society. The unborn must be sacrificed for a libertine lifestyle. So marriage as an institution fails. Being a “single mother” becomes chic because it was a choice, but the children suffer for lack of male role model or authority figure. When the population declines, the elites decide to flood the country with illegal immigrants, many of whom Muslims don’t share traditional Western values. Things just keep getting stranger as our elites foment chaos.


12 posted on 10/04/2021 5:44:23 AM PDT by Dr. Franklin ("A republic, if you can keep it." )
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To: Kaslin

All the Soros DA’s can’t stop what is coming.

Overturning Roe vs. Wade would make the DNC’s 6 January mantra blow up their faces.

Now that the democrats are for Law and Order and preserving the Union, it will be their demise if keep the peace or if they (politicans) support riots.

Pass the powder, and get yer’ own darn popcorn!


13 posted on 10/04/2021 5:51:45 AM PDT by Jumper
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To: Kaslin
It's not just unborn babies.

They are OK with killing anyone who stands in their way, plus "collateral damage".

14 posted on 10/04/2021 6:58:51 AM PDT by Salman (It's not a "slippery slope" if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: Kaslin
Supposedly you have sole ownership and control over your body if you want to kill its babies (and hence future generations from them) but not if you don't want it to be injected with unapproved man-made genetic substabces,

Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? The logic of it, I mean.

(How sarcastic can one get?)

Population control?

15 posted on 10/04/2021 7:06:00 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: Dr. Franklin

It’s not about babies/ It’s about money. For the woman, married or not, frees her from accountability or known faithfulness to a husband, and a few occasional bucks to the baby-disposal unit. Easier than a dumpster solution.


16 posted on 10/04/2021 7:24:44 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: imardmd1
It’s not about babies/ It’s about money. For the woman, married or not, frees her from accountability or known faithfulness to a husband, and a few occasional bucks to the baby-disposal unit. Easier than a dumpster solution.

It's about a lot of things, including avoiding the financial responsibility of having a child. A woman can legally do that if abortion is her choice only, but a man cannot. Imagine a man who gets sued for non-support of his child telling the judge, "Well, your Honor, it was her choice to keep the child, not mine." It's not about equality then is it?

Roe v. Wade has always laid on a dubious constitutional foundation. Bastardy was a common law crime for having illegitimate children. There was no right of privacy for that. One of the precedents cited in Roe was an infamous case of forced sterilization of the mentally ill. Calling a right to abortion a right of privacy and choice is just a facade hiding great evil.
17 posted on 10/04/2021 7:52:26 AM PDT by Dr. Franklin ("A republic, if you can keep it." )
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To: Kaslin

Was there a time in living memory when America was more divided?


It is, in a way, worse than what happens in a Civil War. It is a society which has not learned to deal with the internet, in which you have multiple silos of information, where fact has come to not matter in the generation of that information. In this environment, even separating the sides won’t stop the balkanization, as each separated side will just subdivide.


18 posted on 10/04/2021 8:04:47 AM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: Kaslin

What war?

Broads want abortions, fine.
THEY PAY FOR IT! NOT MY TAXES!

Oh, they can’t? Should have considered the options.
It was a “product of a crime”? Then, possibly, with the crime committer being snipped, too.


19 posted on 10/04/2021 8:37:25 AM PDT by Terry L Smith
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To: Dr. Franklin
It's about a lot of things, . . .

You are quite right, Dr. F. I was hasty in not offering a more exhaustive explanation.

I am just bitter over the issue. My marriage took place under a cloud about the birth date of my first son, although I loved him and his mother with all of my heart, though I was then unsaved from Jesus' point of view. And even more so when I was able to dandle him on my knee as the true daddy of his loving home.

But later after receiving the gift of eternal absolute life, and teaching him of it, I loved him even more, though I had to bury his body 36 years ago on his 27th birthday. He is remembered still every day, with longing.

What do the so-called "Law-Makers" (for God's sake!) and Supreme (ha!) Justices think of that, who will have to answer for nearly 100 million pre-born baby womb-extraction-deaths when the Great White Throne Judgment convenes?

Eh?

And the . . . mothers? Eh, what? Hm?

How they goin' to 'splain that to The One who pre-emptively commanded, "Let the infants come unto Me, and forbid them not!" Doubtless this imperative is continually being carried out with no excuses being accepted.

There will be massive grieving on the day that these perpetrators fall into the Lake of Fire prepared for the Devil and his wicked money-loving "angels" for ever and ever.

Amen, and amen.

There was no fear of God in their eyes, when they who submitted themselves or performed the abortive executions and were remunerated for it, was there?

20 posted on 10/04/2021 10:12:51 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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