Texas has new restrictions on abortions. After decades of less activism, abortion is an issue again. What’s most interesting to me is the sheer level of intolerance in the left’s reaction. By left, I include a large group of quiet folk that wouldn’t usually display public animus on those who believe that a fetus has a right to live. To all stripes of the left, abortion is an absolute political and personal prerogative. That expressed feeling, contextualized by their reaction to the Texas decision upheld by a Supreme Court procedural ruling, offers no line in the sand that would prevent any abortion, including the abomination of partial birth abortion wherein a baby bludgeoned and murdered in the birth canal. While in fact the Texas decision does not ban all abortions outright, and, in my opinion, offers a reasonable compromise to the ‘at conception’ protest, the people protesting the law now are fully unhinged and intolerant.
There’s a fundamental dynamic in power struggles wherein all compromise is seen as capitulation. This is what drives the sheer manic reactions of both the hard-core, baby-killing constituency and the casual abortion-lite believers. “If I don’t support an abortion at 20 weeks, someone will come after my ‘right’ for one at 15, or 10, or 6, or at 0 weeks.” And this is how baby killers are formed. If we applied this all-or-nothing approach to everything else, we’d be killing each other with stones.
Which brings me to this: hate. The level of spitting venom in those protesting the abortion ruling is eye opening. It suggests, “If we don’t get our way on this, we’re bringing the house down on everyone’s head.” Of all the things to accept no compromise on, it has to be about all baby killing? For this, they’re ready to ditch federalism and pack the Supreme Court, two very large pillars of America’s foundation. Take out those two pillars and a lot of things besides abortion are coming down on all of our heads — I don’t think they’d like what’s left, because what’s left won’t resemble anything close to the civil construct that they/we enjoy now.
And did I mention that babies have rights too?