Ted Olsen of Christianity Today Online delivers some of the best news prolifers have heard in years: Around the world, even in the once abortion-enthusiastic China, nations are stepping back from unrestricted access to abortion. Here are three paragraphs in which Olsen finds reason for prolife cheer even in the United States -- and none are contingent on George Bush's reelection:
A January poll showed that 43 percent of Democrats believe abortion "destroys a human life and is manslaughter." Those numbers will keep growing due to what The Wall Street Journal calls The Roe Effect: Pro-lifers can pass their values on to their children; those who abort their children can't. Another good sign: Anti-abortion demonstrations are getting younger.
Little wonder, then, that Sen. John Kerry touted that he too believes that life (though not necessarily personhood) begins at conception and that abortion is an "incredibly important moral issue."
For Kerry, the basis for keeping abortion legal isn't based in science but in the "separation of church and state." The change of rationale could be great news. It's no Herculean task to explain why banning abortion doesn't establish a government religion.
Olsen also refers to The New York Times Magazine's article "When One Is Enough," in which Amy Richards blithely describes aborting two of her three triplets to avoid the horrors of buying "big jars of mayonnaise" at Costco:
Without the abortions, she exclaimed, "I'd have to give up my life!" That life is one where she's a Planned Parenthood leader, a consultant to Gloria Steinem, and founder of the Third Wave Foundation, which funds abortions. She's also one of the brains behind Planned Parenthood T-shirts that proudly proclaim, "I had an abortion."
Richards's article and those shirts have outraged even Planned Parenthood affiliates, but make no mistake: This is the direction that the movement is headed. Within days of the triplets article, the Times published another article on abortion. This time, Barbara Ehrenreich savaged women who regret their abortions or oppose those "socially motivated abortions" Benjamin was talking about. "Time to take your thumbs out of your mouths, ladies, and speak up for your rights," she said.
Not exactly the textbook method for winning hearts and minds. No wonder the tide is turning.