An Illusory Quest

By way of a quick preliminary, please allow me offer two quick reminders. The April issue of National Right to Life News is being printed over the weekend. If you are not a subscriber, why aren't you receiving the "pro-life newspaper of record"? Call us today at 202-626-8828.

Also, I'd like to thank those who wrote me about yesterday's edition of TN&V. You have no idea how encouraging your remarks can be, especially during the final ultra-hectic days as I put together NRL News under deadline pressure.

As is their wont pro-lifers are aggressively promoting and passing legislation. Feeling the ground shift beneath their feet, pro-abortionists alternate between pooh-poohing the results (telling us either the legislation will be overturned or will have no effect) and proposing "common ground"--aka proposing everything but actually stopping abortions.

For example, someone by the name of Jim Sollisch wrote a piece last week for the Christian Science Monitor.  After a few derisive opening paragraphs, Sollisch allows as how most pro-lifers and most pro-choicers are not "extremists." What follows from that, you ask? The quest for "common ground."

"Requiring doctors to show women their fetal ultrasounds" and "mandat[ing] counseling for women who opt for abortions," are two examples of requirements Sollisch says "pro-choice groups should endorse." He goes a step further.

"Pro-choice organizations should make it clear that every abortion ends a life, albeit a potential one," he writes. "They should stop euphemizing and start making it clear that they really understand how emotionally wrenching an abortion can be."

Hmm, sounds pretty good. And there's more. Sollisch writes about the "gravity of the act" (abortion) and about how abortion clinic counselors ("for the most part") "aren't afraid to speak the language of loss. They acknowledge the pain." And so forth.

So what's the catch? Just make sure that "Roe v. Wade becomes truly settled law." In other words, once Roe is unassailable forever and a day, everyone of goodwill will gravitate toward the middle.

Thanks, but no thanks. Roe's foundations are crumbling, under siege by medical technology, an enlightened younger generation, and the vigor of an energetic and eclectic pro-life Movement.

We welcome all those of good will who have come to grasp that there ought to be "limits" on abortion. What we have found is that as individuals begin to understand that abortion is currently essentially unlimited and almost completely unregulated, they not only want to pass some legislation, they also grow more open to further protective measures.

And when people really do ponder how abortion takes the life of an innocent human being, they not only take the annihilation of unborn babies much more seriously, they often begin to ask the foundational question--why are we taking their lives in the first place?

I understand the pro-abortionists' motives. The tides of history are flowing against them. What I don't understand is why they think any pro-lifer would be foolish enough to throw away the clear advantage we enjoy.

Another reminder: please call 202-626-8828 if you are not a subscriber. And PLEASE pass along TN&V to every pro-lifer you know. Once they read them, more often than not, they will sign themselves up to automatically receive these daily updates.

Please send your comments to Dave Andrusko at dandrusko@nrlc.org.