Editorial: Abortion rights triumphed from coast to coast
Tuesday
Apr 27, 2013 at 3:08 PMApr 27, 2013 at 3:08 PM
Editor’s note: This is the fourth of a four-part series of editorial commentary on a series of major events in the first year of the Obama presidency. You can read the first, second and third articles here.
Editorial
In the last two decades, when abortion has been on the decline in our country, it has not been because of a pro-life movement; rather, it has been because of the rise of the religious right. At the beginning of Barack Obama’s presidency, abortion rights in the United States are in decline again. The Republican Party wants to ban all abortions after 20 weeks, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Democrats cannot accept that. By contrast, the Tea Party, whose platform is entirely pro-life, has gained support with the American electorate.
For the last two decades, the abortion debate has been a divisive one on social issues, particularly on abortion itself. But in recent years, the abortion question has become so divisive that the two major parties have reached a stalemate on the subject. The pro-life movement has been the only one able to get the GOP to even think about abortion. But for the GOP to consider abortion itself, the pro-life movement would have to move beyond social issues, and that has not been in the cards.
If the two sides want social issues to remain alive and well in this country, they need to come together, work as a unified movement that addresses social issues together, and not engage in endless debates based on social issues. This is where the pro-life movement has failed miserably. It is time for the pro-life movement to stop fighting over social issues and move on to the fight over abortion. The pro-life movement would not die were it not for social issues.
Pro-choice people have already had abortions. Those that chose to go against their will have done so precisely because of the social pressures and the media’s focus on the topic. The social pressures have forced them to be the pro-choice voices in society, and as a result, the pro-choice voice has become a virtual monolith. The pro-choice voice was in fact the voice of those
