Abortion

I hate this issue.

I agree that at some point, a fertilized egg is just a collection of cells with the potential to become a human being at some point in the future. I find it difficult to believe destroying it is murder.

I agree that at some point, a fetus is a human being...beyond mere potential...even though not yet viable outside the womb. I find it difficult to believe destroying it isn't murder.

The anti-abortion fanatics won't accept the first point.
The pro-abortion fanatics won't accept the second point.

The use of the "morning after" pill, which dispatches an egg within 12 hours of fertilization, and the IUD, which prevents a fertilized egg from attaching to the wall of the uterus...have been condemned by anti-abortion activists as "murder".

The recognition of humanity in a fetus that has a face, a beating heart, a brain, and self generated movement has been condemned by the pro-abortion activists as the slavery and oppression of women.

They call each other "extremists". Takes one to know one.

For a moment, let's be practical: Outlawing abortion doesn't prevent abortion. Women have been getting them almost as long as they've been getting pregnant.

Remember how we castigate Progressives for their Utopian policies that don't work? That have never worked? And that often have unintended consequences?

Let's not be blind to our own well-intentioned ones that lead to hellish results. We really can't pretend that desperate women have not died because of illegal "back-alley" abortions. We can't pretend that we don't empower evil exploiters when we make abortion unavailable legally.

Our "goodness" is a pretense if we refuse to acknowledge the evil consequences of our actions...if we are stiff-necked, unyielding, priggish moralists.

God is not impressed.

The pro-abortionists won't concede any ground because they know the ultimate goal of the anti-abortionists is to outlaw abortion outright. They don't trust any offer of "compromise" because they know the anti-abortionists have no intention or desire to compromise—except as a first step...their camel's nose under the tent.

The pro-abortionists' inhuman refusal to acknowledge the barbarism of partial-birth and late-term abortion is partly caused by their fears that if they "give them an inch, the anti-abortionists will take a mile".

And they'd be right.

You can't have any meaningful dialogue when neither side trusts the other...when both want to utterly destroy the other. Asking the pro-abortionists to compromise with the anti-abortionists is like asking Israel to compromise with Hamas terrorists who want to wipe Israel from the map.

The fact that we have partial-birth abortion is partly the anti-abortionists' fault. Their intractable position, which they continue to make perfectly clear, results in their opponents' intractability. The fear of a slippery slope of incremental restrictions—unto an outright ban on abortion—keeps the pro-abortionists from budging, no matter how they might actually feel about the barbarity of the practice.

And until somebody can speak to this issue without the passions and fanaticism of the current contenders, not a single serious step will be made toward a solution, or a resolution.

Both extremist sides violate fundamental principles of Conservatism.

The pro-abortionists have used the Federal Government to decide the question, but also to use all taxpayers' money to fund something that many taxpayers find morally repugnant.

The anti-abortionists want to outlaw a practice that offends their religious sensibilities...even though it does not offend those of many of their fellow-citizens.

The first violates the principle of "limited government" the second the "establishment clause".

Both violate the principle of "individual rights". The pro-abortionists of the fetus after a certain degree of development. The anti-abortionists of the mother, before that degree of development.

There is a point where the collection of cells becomes a human. Before that, abortion should be legal. After that, it should be illegal (life-of-the-mother exceptions, etc.)

Today*, I consider this a perfectly reasonable, and a moral compromise.

The Gunslinger

*New information, exculpatory evidence or reasoned refutation can change my mind.