The Real Lesson of the Komen Kerfuffle
As I argued in my last post, abortionists and their supporters have never faced the reality pro-lifers have lived for forty years: there has never been a serious attack on their legitimacy. What we learned today is that the dedicated supporters of legal abortion, while less numerous than the dedicated supporters of the right to life, are, in fact, just as passionate about their cause as we are. As pro-lifers have made incremental gains against Planned Parenthood over the past twenty years without serious public backlash, this had fallen into some doubt. The Komen debacle made it clear: when they're up against the wall, it isn't just Cecile Richards who'd sooner die than lose legal abortion; it's the people you're Facebook friends with, too -- and their hyperbole is as sincere as ours. They hate the pro-life cause, just as we hate abortion. They believe with all their heart and soul that we are "anti-choice", and that abortion, while unfortunate, is a necessary evil. They believe, above all, that they are under attack, that even the very modest political gains of pro-lifers to date gravely threaten the Constitution and the sovereignty of the Southern sta -- er, of women.
I had hoped that the pro-abortion rights crowd was, for the most part, basically indifferent, when you got right down to it. This was false. They were confident, not indifferent. Now we are encroaching on their most sacred principles, inch by blessed inch. They will not--and cannot--stand for this.
How do you imagine the abortion fight is ultimately going to end? Roe gets overturned, the 14th Amendment is clarified, and Cecile Richards shrugs, calls it a day, and agrees to respect the law while fighting to overturn it? While there are pregnant women out there who need abortions right now? Not likely. If I had a Civil War Doomsday Clock, it would be about five minutes closer to midnight right now. My note about fighting battles to win wars at the end of last post will prove, I fear, not entirely metaphorical.
EDIT: More.