With respect to the slavery analogy, I think that EV’s position is comparable to that of William Lloyd Garrison, who chose to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk for decades in support of total abolition, but when confronted with the question of whether or not to do anything concrete to help the slaves, chose to continue talking.
For the life of me, I don’t see how working at saving lives now AND working to change the current law is a violation of principle.