Extremist Attitudes
Fascinating read from The National Catholic Reporter:
EXTREMIST ATTITUDES ON ABORTION GET US NOWHERE
Democracy depends on compromise, but compromise is in short supply in our highly polarized country. From immigration policy to taxes to public spending, our politicians are locked in a zero-sum approach. The public has organized itself into various special interest groups, critical to funding campaigns, making compromise structurally elusive. Media reinforces the polarization with Americans turning only to outlets that confirm their prejudices.
With the resignation last year of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and the appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the prospect of the court overturning its prior decisions conferring a nationwide right to an abortion, and kicking the issue back to the states, has been met with hopeful anticipation by some and dread by others. However much Roe v. Wade failed as an exercise in moral reasoning, it also failed politically: The justices arrogated to themselves the right to decide the issue, hoping to settle the matter. They settled nothing, and they short-circuited the necessary political debate that might have forged a reasonable compromise. The polarization since that time prevents any return to a pre-Roe political discussion.
State legislatures have busied themselves enacting laws to either restrict abortion rights or expand them. New York passed a law that removes virtually all restrictions, even contemplating the possibility that a child born in the process of a botched abortion could be left to die without legal consequences. Alabama has now passed a law that does not even permit abortion in cases of rape or incest, and allows doctors convicted of performing an abortion to be sentenced to 99 years in prison. This is what happens when the extremists get to dictate policy.
There is a reasonable compromise. Most European countries permit abortion for any reason in the early stages of a pregnancy, until 12, 14 or 16 weeks, but restrict it except in cases of a mother's health after that time. European politics have not been taken hostage by extreme advocates on either side of the issue. Allowing abortions in the early stages of a pregnancy has not resulted in a domino effect of ever-increasing indifference to the dignity of human life. The compromise reflects an awareness that an unborn child develops in utero, from a zygote to a child, and that once fetal viability has been reached, no one can any longer argue that the child is simply a part of its mother's body. It also conforms to what most Americans think. Polls over the decades have consistently shown that those in the broad middle of the population think abortion should be legal, but more restricted than current federal law.
Read the rest:
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/editorial-extremist-attitudes-abortion-get-us-nowhere
The Pope has made some incredibly powerful statements on abortion over the last couple months; one article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/25/world/europe/pope-abortion-sick-fetus.html
Such a complicated subject. Does it really need to be ?
Will it ever be as simple as HEARTBEAT = LIFE ?
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt
p.s. another great read, this one from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association entitled THOU SHALT NOT KILL:
https://billygraham.org/decision-magazine/september-2013/thou-shalt-not-kill/
