Does the victory for the pro-life cause really hinge on the outcome of this election?
If so, I’d place a good part of the blame on pro-lifers for putting most of their hopes in politicians, which is a good way to get screwed. Thankfully, pro-lifers needn’t panic even if adamant abortion rights advocate Barack Obama becomes president. Make no mistake: Obama isn’t intent on preserving the status quo on legalized abortion; he’s very intent on strengthening its legality. It’s not for nothing that many pro-lifers now place their trust in a campaign that has shown itself deceitful and untrustworthy these past couple weeks. Nevertheless, Obama’s election doesn’t call for panic, and as panic leads to rash behavior, it wouldn’t do much good anyway.
I say we shouldn’t panic, not because the things are going well for the pro-life cause and could suddenly go very badly, but because, despite some victories, things a pretty bad. A key objective of the pro-life movement – the permanent outlawing of abortion – will not be reached in the near future, perhaps for generations, regardless of who wins or whether Roe is overturned.
As long as an effective pro-choice movement operates in our society, any and all pro-life victories will be fleeting and embolden those who insist on abortions legality. Any pro-life legislation is at death's door as long as an effective number of Americans think or feel that abortion should be legal. McCain and Palin may be able to help prop up laws outlawing abortion, but they cannot keep them from crashing down in the fury of the pro-choice movement's reaction to those laws, especially if the movement’s numbers swell. You think the advocate for abortion rights play hardball now, wait until they’re on the offensive fighting in a post Roe v. Wade society. Returning decision-making on abortion to the States doesn’t prevent it from quickly being returned to the federal level.
The hopes of pro-lifers depend on their success at dispelling the pro-choice movement. That’s a long-term goal and one that will require a loving and persuasive outreach to those who defend abortion as a right, and a willingness to listen and learn from them as well. It is also a prerequisite for any lasting legal success. If we’re serious about erecting legal protections of the unborn, we have to be serious about responding to the pro-choice movement. They won’t go away just because we outlaw abortion. They cannot be defeated politically. We cannot win through politics alone, but there are alternatives to fighting.
So maybe instead of picketing Planned Parenthood, which has the ill effect of erecting obstacles to outreach, we should open an ear to their concerns and initiate discussions in which the mutual aim is to understand and persuade. Maybe instead of calling abortion rights advocates monsters, baby-killers, and cannibals, we should make an effort to understand our opponents as they understand themselves. Maybe instead of working tirelessly to defeat the pro-choice movement in endless political battles, we should also focus our energies on personal conversion and formation.
Whatever we do, we cannot place most of our hopes in any one place, not in making abortion illegal, not in fashioning an economically just society, not in the sorts of outreach I advocate here. The occurrence of abortion results from a variety of causes and conditions, and each has to be addressed. None can be forgotten or ignored, especially those that we have to address as prerequisite to others.
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