American Reformer; via Glenn Gaither
"Defending the rights of the unborn is not enough. A pro-life party worthy of its name would defend motherhood, maternal character, and parenthood, too.
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"Conservatives have long understood that abortion has fundamentally changed the sexual constitution of America, its system of honor and shame shaping relations between the sexes. But they have mostly underestimated the scope and nature of the abortion revolution.
"Abortion is usually seen only as part of the Left’s rights revolution. Pro-abortion activists see the “right to choose” as an expression of individual autonomy, providing “the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life,” as Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Advocates slip other “rights” into American life through this window, including access to contraception, obscenity, sodomy, same-sex marriage, and suicide.
“Pro-life” framing focuses on how the baby’s “right to life” limits female autonomy. Autonomy is thought to be a good, but only up to a point where it meets the baby’s personhood. A woman’s right to swing and punch is limited by the baby’s nose. Much ink has been spilled to prove that the baby is indeed a life—all to the good.
"Conservatives have also long emphasized how permissive abortion laws produce a culture of death. Life everywhere is cheapened when it can be ended in the womb. The old or ill, facing life’s inevitable end, will either be ushered out through physician-assisted suicide or shunted away. A culture of death is also callous to children generally, tolerating forms of child abuse and neglect.
The emphasis on life more easily gains purchase in today’s environment because it exists within our rights framework. But, as the pro-abortion votes in most state referenda after the Dobbs decision show, the movement has not won the hearts and minds of the American people. Part of what the pro-life movement has missed is how abortion also affects the ethos of family life and shapes female priorities and character away from motherhood. Abortion exists downstream from feminist career ambitions and associated lifestyles. Once women adopt such lifestyles, they become, mostly, either softer on abortion or positively pro-abortion. Defending abortion means defending a way of life that depends, in many cases, on access to abortion." . . . More...



