From this morning's Omaha World-HeraldMidlands Voices: Sanctity of life big reason why abortion debate endures
By Denny Hartford
The writer, of Omaha, is director of Vital Signs Ministries.
“Issue No. 1: Why, after so long a time, is abortion still such a desperate controversy here in the United States?”
The question was asked of me by an NRK news crew (Norway's public television network), who were in town recently doing a story on the subject. They admitted they were puzzled by the ongoing strength of the American pro-life movement so long after the Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Their experience in Europe gave them few clues. After all, abortion had come to most Western European countries, been rapidly accepted and was now off the political agenda altogether. So they were sincerely trying to figure out why nearly four decades had elapsed since abortion had begun to be legalized in the United States and yet abortion was still, as the interviewer described, “issue No. 1 for America's people.”
My answer included three primary reasons, the first of which was the deep religious faith of a large section of the American people. I explained that, for these citizens, defending the sanctity of life is a priority moral issue.
For Catholics, Orthodox, evangelicals and other “people of the Book,” opposing abortion is taken as a biblical command. Therefore, no matter what judges, politicians or the opinion polls may say, those religious believers have a motivation for pro-life activity that is transcendent. They seek a higher goal, accept the fact of a higher judgment and depend upon a higher power.
Thus, the pro-life movement in America remains vibrant and uncompromising because of its starkly religious nature. Legality doesn't change the moral obligations to protect the innocent, educate the public and minister to those facing problem or unexpected pregnancies.
Secondly, technology has proven to be a tremendous ally of the pro-life movement. Few people still hold the view that the unborn child is just a clump of cells or mass of undifferentiated tissue. Fetal photography, fetal surgery, techniques and equipment that are used to help earlier and earlier “premie” babies and, most of all, the development of ultrasound have given the pro-life movement, which always claimed to hold the higher moral ground (compassion for the innocent, justice, opposition to barbaric violence), a strong case now for the higher scientific ground as well.
And finally, I explained to the news crew that though Europeans might have a harder time identifying with this third reason, it was of immense importance to the question. Americans have always held as ideals the right of self-determination, liberty, equality and democracy. It is why most Americans still treasure the Declaration of Independence with its heralding of the God-given, unalienable right to life as well as the Constitution with its separation of political powers.
Thus, when a Supreme Court decision was forced upon Americans by a mere nine people who, in one fell swoop, removed every abortion restriction ever passed by any of the 50 states, it was bound to generate enormous and long-lasting antipathy. Especially so when that decision is believed by a large section of the populace to be unjust, immoral and without either scientific or constitutional foundation.
Because of these three things: the religious nature of the controversy, the ever-advancing revelations of technology (which many point to why polls show younger Americans to be more pro-life than their parents' generation) and the unpopular means by which abortion on demand was legalized throughout the nation, there is little doubt that the pro-life movement will become yet stronger in the years to come.
And that will ensure that abortion will long remain “issue No. 1 for America's people.”
(I really appreciate that there was only one editorial change made by OWH editors in my original piece. They changed my "7 people" to "9 people" in the third to last paragraph. However, they really should have kept the "7" because Roe v Wade only received affirmative votes from 7 Supreme Court Justices. Byron White and Chief Justice Warren Burger voted against Roe.)
Obviously, letters to the World-Herald's "Public Pulse" agreeing with this op/ed piece, adding to it, thanking them for it, etc. are very much in order.
