Cross Posted at More Monmouth Musings as “The Bullshit of the Abortion Debate” by Art Gallagher
Congressman Todd Akin’s asinine comments about ”legitimate rape,” pregnancy and abortion have knocked medicare and the economy off center stage in the political debate, at least temporarily.
Akin has apologized. Yet his comments are unforgivable because he is clueless to the hurt and damage he has caused and continues to cause. He is clueless to how hurtful his comments are to women, particularly rape survivors. His apology is empty because he doesn’t realize what he did.
Akin is clueless to the political damage he is causing as evidenced by the fact that he refused to resign his candidacy for U.S. Senate. He thinks he can win. He says his campaign is not about him, but about his message, as if he is a messiah with a unique message that no one else can deliver. Akin is a candidate for a straight jacket and the U.S. Senate.
Republicans are losing women over the Akin gaffe because 1) they failed to get him out of the Missouri U.S. Senate race and 2) their response is too male. Empathy is missing. The Republican response, which failed, is strategic and politically expedient. The strategy is sound, but empathy is missing and women feel that.
Much of the empathy coming from the left is false. It is strategic. But at least they are trying. Thus the gender gap will expand until Republican males get empathy for women, or at least fake it as well as Democratic males do.
The sin of it all is that on a political level the abortion debate is bullshit.
Regardless of who wins the presidential election and which party controls the next Congress, abortion is not going to become illegal in the United States in the next four years. Not in the next eight years either. Barring a transformational shift in the American culture, abortion will probably never be illegal throughout the United States.
Under our Constitution, there are only two ways for Roe v Wade to be overturned. One way would be through a constitutional amendment, as the Republican National Platform as called for since 1980 when Ronald Reagan was nominated and elected president. The other way Roe v Wade could be overturned is via a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Neither of those two things is likely to happen during the lifetimes on anyone reading this in 2012.
In order the the U.S. Constitution to be amended, the proposed legislation would have to pass in both the House of Representative and the U. S. Senate by a two-thirds majority. An amendment would need 290 of 435 votes in the House and 67 of 100 in the Senate. In the last 32 years since the Human Life Amendment was first included in the GOP platform, through three Republican presidential administrations including a brief period during Bush II’s presidency when the GOP controlled both houses of Congress, no such amendment has come close to passing.
Even if a Human Life Amendment passed Congress, it would still have to be ratified by 38 states before the Constitution was amended. Without the occurrence of a transformational shift in the American culture, that is not going to happen.
The same is true for the U. S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade. It is not likely to happen, no matter how much prayer is involved. Even if there were 6 devout Catholics sitting on the Court, which will never happen, Roe v Wade might not be overturned. Even if it was overturned, abortion would very likely become a state issue. There would be 50 sets of laws governing the procedure. Some states might ban it outright. Not all fifty states would. Abortion would still be legally available in the United States, somewhere.
Of course those responsible for crafting the Republican platform every four years know this. If they don’t, they either can’t count or they are as clueless as Akin.
So why does the Republican Party adopt a platform every four years that includes a Human Life Amendment? In order to appease clueless yahoos like Akin, to keep the votes of the cultural conservatives and to keep their campaign donations coming.
An argument could be made that the Republican platform that includes support of a Human Life Amendment is immoral. It is a politically expedient lie designed to give uninformed voters false hope and to manipulate them. But it is also politically inexpedient, stupid and immoral because to gives the Democrats cover for eroding personal and economic freedom in the name of “choice.” To ignore the political realities and go forward anyway knowing that taking a “moral” position will give your less moral opponent an opportunity to do severe damage is immoral.
Those people of good will who are committed to saving lives by ending abortion politically and legally are failing precisely because they are attempting to do so politically and legally. Until our culture shifts, there is no chance that they will succeed. Their political efforts are counter productive. They need to take a longer view and shift their focus to impacting the culture.
They need to convert hearts and minds and give up attempting to force their moral views on others.
Well said in all respects.
I would expand, IMHO, on the point about changing the culture, but not back to what it was pre-Roe v Wade. What we need is a culture in which sexuality is dealt with responsibly in an adult fashion by both women and men, rather than something that is hidden, whispered about, etc.
As part of this responsibility, dealing with the consequences (both real and possible) should fall equally on both genders, whether it comes to disease, pregnancy, emotional damage or whatever.
So, preventing pregnancy by using contraception (the Pill, rhythm method, or condoms) is not something to be afraid of or ashamed of but a prudent sign of respect for oneself, one's partner, and the larger society. As a Catholic, I know the Church has many issues with this point. But then, the Church is an institution that has its own failings, and besides which, is not infallible. And besides that, the USA does not have a state church, so the R.C. Church's teachings do not have the rule of law.
A lot of this attitude begins in the home – the family-the basic unit of society, which, BTW, has been in trouble for a long time. I'd like to think that the churches, synogogues, schools, etc. would be useful in reinforcing this way of life, but being human institutions, they have many failures of their own.
I could go on at length about this, but let's face it, if nothing else, abortion is something that will not go away 100%. What we can do is minimize its frequency by changing the culture to one of self-control (abstinence) as an ideal, and self-responsibility as one of the steps along the way.
I aqree that there is no chance that Akin's proposed amendment could ever be passed. And, even if Roe v. Wade were repealed, states could choose to legalize abortion. I think it should be taken out of the platform for the simple reason that it is impossible for such a constitutional amendment to be enacted.
We CANNOT abandon the pro-life plank!!!!
Republicans traditionally don't win the women's vote. Even pro-abortion Governor Christine Todd Whitman never won the women's vote. The pro-life Republican party platform sets forth a goal to right a terrible wrong and it's a worthy one, indeed. Did the abolitionists succeed in eradicating slavery overnight? No, but they perservered and eventually slavery was abolished in our land. Abortion is the human rights issue of our day. It is deeply disturbing that the Democrat party platform supports abortion on demand and states unequivocally that every American taxpayer should be forced to pay for it. This is truly the extreme position and one that is not supported by the majority of Americans. Every abortion is a tragedy and an act of violence that kills children and hurts women. That is why the pro-life movement offers financial and practical help to women in crisis pregnancies through pregnancy aid centers and maternity homes. We also offer help to the growing number of women who regret their abortion through many organizations and community outreach programs. To suggest that we should stop there is ill conceived and short sighted. Even legal scholars who support abortion admit the Supreme Court's findings in Roe v. Wade are fatally flawed. The basis for the decision was based on a lie. Will abortion be eradicated in our lifetime? Perhaps not, but for Americans who value life, we have every right to work through political and legal avenues (as did our predecessors in previous civil rights struggles) to try to prevent the violent slaughter of millions of unborn children and the wounding of their mothers. We applaud the GOP for setting forth this goal for our country and will continue to work toward the day when this worthy goal becomes a reality.
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