Today, in incredibly frustrating false equivalencies:
Here’s an uninhibited insult that the professional “life” and “choice” agitators can listen to for free: If these groups cared as much about the issue as they claim, and didn’t have such strong financial incentives to avoid consensus and compromise, they’d cancel the carnivals and get to work on the one thing everybody agrees would be worthwhile — reducing unwanted pregnancies.
If the “life” marchers really wanted fewer abortions, they would stop throwing obstacles in the way of birth control and make sure it’s cheaply provided as part of preventive care and not blocked by “conscience clauses.” By resisting easy birth control, and by opposing comprehensive sex education, they’re essentially increasing abortion rates.
If the “choice” rally participants really wanted to preserve legal abortion, they’d be wise to drop the sky-is-falling warnings about Roe and to acknowledge that the other side, and most Americans, have legitimate concerns. Not every compromise means a slippery slope to the back alley.
So, both sides are to blame. On the ‘life’ side, you have people actively working against the reduction of unwanted pregnancies and increasing the number of abortions in the US. On the ‘choice’ side, you have people who do not always say nice things.
That is seriously the point being made in a major national newspaper.
Let’s cover this one more time. On one side you have people who are irrationally committed to an absolute agenda, with zero good-faith interest in actually taking steps to reduce the number of abortions. On the other side, we have people who ought to stop treating their opposition as if they were irrationally committed to an absolute agenda, with zero good-faith interest in actually taking steps to reduce the number of abortions.
Look, I get it, you like the muddy compromise in the middle. And it’s absolutely true that a plurality of Americans probably agree. Which is why the pro-choice position has already committed to that middle ground. Where are the reproductive rights activists taking to the streets in favor repealing the Hyde Amendment? Where are the people pushing Freedom of Choice Amendments? They are (unfortunately, in my opinion) on the periphery.
The ‘debate’ we’ve currently got is among extreme anti-abortion people, moderate anti-abortion people, and moderate pro-choice people. And standing amidst them is the pundit class who loves nothing more than to complain about all the yelling.
I’ve had the exact same reaction to every major policy discussion for the last two years.
I’m starting to suspect that the best thing we can do as the left writ large is actually behave like foaming at the mouth socialist revolutionaries, so that everyone else will remember what that looks like.