I thought the interview with Anne Conlon was both impressive and instructive, and it stirred in me some thoughts about abortion in America, on this, the day of the annual March for Life in Washington.
As a Jew, I can appreciate the evolution of Conlon’s — and others’ — thought process on the issue of abortion. And I know first hand what it’s like to disagree with family and friends on this fundamental issue.
I attended public schools growing up, and while the Jewish faith is theologically and historically a pro-life faith, the strong strain of secularism within Judaism has taken many in the religion away from its pro-life roots.
As the son of liberal Democrats, I didn’t inherit my pro-life views or have them engrained in me by schooling or my institutions of faith.
I have listened to the stories of people explaining how viewing an ultrasound for the first time or the experience of becoming a father or a mother can solidify a belief in the sanctity of life. I have not experienced this either.
And yet I still arrived at the conclusion that every life is sacred from conception until natural death. That is because we cherish life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in this country, and those rights should extend to every life, born and unborn.
I arrived at these conclusions because, before I ever really thought of the abortion issue, I was a conservative. I came of age during the Reagan Revolution, steeped myself in conservatism, and registered as a Republican at age 18. Being pro-life isn’t just a moral issue for me; it’s a historical and constitutional one. Understanding the creation of Planned Parenthood and the pro-abortion movement helped shape my view. But I’m pro-life because I was conservative first. I wonder how many other people out there can say the same.
I have a much deeper faith today, and I find pride and comfort in Judaism’s historical defense of life. But I know that conservatism helped set me on the path.
That’s why I recoil whenever I hear people — even those within my own party — say we need to get away from social issues. Or that we’re “on the losing side” of the marriage debate, or the sanctity of life argument. The defense of life just doesn’t “move voters,” I’ve heard more than one consultant say.
I hope that never becomes the majority view in our movement. If it does, we will never earn the right to be the governing majority in America, nor will we deserve to. I will continue to speak clearly and consistently on the connection between our moral values and economic prosperity.
The anniversary of Roe v. Wade is a grim observance. It marks an uncorrected mistake in American history. If the conservative movement ever stops being the home of the pro-life movement, this grim observance — and its consequences — will mark many more anniversaries.
L’chaim. To life.
— Adam Hasner is a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Florida.
"And yet I still arrived at the conclusion that every life is sacred from conception until natural death. That is because we cherish life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in this country, and those rights should extend to every life, born and unborn."
This seems to beg the question. You are pro-life because you value life. Of course, much of the dispute between the pro-choice and pro-life positions centers on when life is defined in time.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIm all for reducing the number of abortions to the minimum level feasible - thats a good thing- but it's a pipe dream to believe that in the long run abortion will ever be banned in the western liberal democratic system- freedom is too entrenched in the peoples of the West.
Just my opinion.
NB: My captcha 'year dot' , now i dont consider that a life, but i know many would disagree.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThank you so much for your comments. As a Jew, too, I've depaired over our drifting away from our historical pro-life beliefs. I heard a drash recently that was a ringing defense of Roe v Wade, and it just made me cringe. I'm more ambivalent about the "values" wing of the Republican party: yes, it is an important element of our beliefs, but isn't how our core values are expressed key to electoral successes? Is there a way to hold on to our beliefs yet convey them in a way that expands understanding and support of them? Just a question...and, again, thank you for a thought-provoking column. I wish I lived in Florida!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe way to win the abortion debate is to simply respond that you believe in protecting the rights of all women to make choices, including the rights of unborn women to make future choices about their bodies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYour comment doesn't make it clear either how conservative politics led you to be "pro-life" or how learning more about the history of Planned Parenthood helped either. If anything, Planned Parenthood in the pre-Roe days was the cause of many conservative, Republican women because the tyranny of unplanned pregnancy and state laws prohibiting prescription of birth control devices and over the counter contraceptives to married women without their husband's expressed permission or to all unmarried women were infringements on liberty.
I am deeply religious and I am pro-choice. Not "pro-abortion". In fact use of this pejorative term in place of "pro-choice" is an overt act of hostility. A similar hostile act would be for me to refer to you as "anti-women" or "anti-choice" - an action I will not commit because I do not wish to offend you. Please remember most pro-choice people are uncomfortable with abortion - as we all should be. No one is ardently "pro abortion".
While your religious beliefs may lead you to feel that abortion is inappropriate, my religious beliefs support a woman's right to make this choice. Warring over whose religious beliefs should prevail also seems contrary to conservative politics. In order to imagine a world where religious and pro-choice beliefs come together you may have to imagine a world where your health, your life, the health and welfare of your existing children may be at risk because of an unplanned pregnancy. You may also have to imagine a world where you do not have control over your body to protect it from unplanned pregnancy. The wonder you imagine at the images of an ultra-sound --- wonder that I have experienced --- is not wonder to a woman whose health or the health of her children is threatened by another pregnancy.
Until an embryo is self-sustaining it is symbiotic with the mother, dependent in every way. As long as that is the case, then it seems to me that it is contrary to conservative principles to deny women access to legal, safe, medical abortions, should she feel that is in her best interest or the best interest of her children.
But having said all this, all women who find it necessary to consider having an abortion should (and I am sure most do) take the decision very, very seriously. It should never be a casual option but it should a legal and accessible option.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf you want a pro-liberty candidate to replace Senator Bill Nelson's seat check out:
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThanks, Adam. Florida has one conservative candidate for U. S. Senate! CM wouldn't know a family value if it hit him in the face.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat's this historical defense of life in Judaism? Orthodox Jews believe that God instructs them to have as many children as possible. But they do not hesitate to terminate a pregnancy due to a birth defect. In fact, I've seen rabbis personally send women to to doctors for procedures. If only everyone were this rational.
But at the heart of Hasner's post is a unique and rare confession - he joined the conservative movement and agreed to adopt whatever was on their platform. No free thinking required. No independent thought. He joined a cult and now he has to follow the herd.
Good to see the truth come out like this.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat's this historical defense of life in Judaism? Orthodox Jews believe that God instructs them to have as many children as possible. But they do not hesitate to terminate a pregnancy due to a birth defect. In fact, I've seen rabbis personally send women to to doctors for procedures. If only everyone were this rational.
But at the heart of Hasner's post is a unique and rare confession - he joined the conservative movement and agreed to adopt whatever was on their platform. No free thinking required. No independent thought. He joined a cult and now he has to follow the herd.
Good to see the truth come out like this.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSaying that a political viewpoint that is in part defined by opposition to legal & available abortion is the reason for that opposition looks a lot like circular reasoning to me. Also, other than a few fringe groups, there is no "pro-abortion" movement, either in America or elsewhere, & characterizing the pro-choice position with that loaded term is dubious at best.
As a Republican, I suspect that your belief that "every life is sacred from conception until natural death" doesn't preclude favoring the death penalty for murder. Nor is it apt to prevent making allowances for "collateral damage" in the course of military actions against other nations. In other words, you believe in your heart that all life is sacred - unless it isn't.
The real result of outlawing abortion in America is well-known from the years before Roe v. Wade when it was a crime, as well as the current imposition of such a ban in other countries. That result is many dead & maimed girls & women - & virtually zero reduction in the number of successful abortions. I find it more than a little curious that conservatives keep demanding cuts to the education funding that is one proven antidote to higher rates of abortion (better educated girls tend to grow up to have smaller families & use contraception more often, precluding the need for abortions). The same can be said for Sex Ed., or for fully subsidizing vasectomies & tubal ligations ... which makes me think that for the GOP, the whole "sanctity of life" meme is more of a political weapon than an actual ethical belief per se: as a hot-button topic, it continues to garner electoral support from Evangelicals year after year - & I'm still waiting to see the American Right float a serious Federal test-case to contest the legality of abortion.
The only logical argument that can justify outlawing abortion isn't that a fetus or embryo is a human life - it's that females are non-humans, thus making their potential mutilation or demise a moot point. Every other argument inevitably winds up colliding with the inconvenient truth of all those girls & women killed or crippled by back-alley & bathtub abortions.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOn the contrary, pro-life policies are derived from religion.
For what it's worth, I partly agree with you. I'm open to the ideas that abortion limits should be pushed down and that abortion damages a society that permits it too freely. But the fact is that a newly-conceived embryo is indistinguishable from a mouse embryo of the same age without using any but the best microscope (if that) and the most powerful tests (which would stand a good chance of killing it anyway). What it may become is irrelevant-at that stage it is not a human being as we understand it-and though this is a moral position, I think that screwing up a young woman's life, future hopes and probably education by forcing her to give birth to it is a mistake as well.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere are always rationalizations for doing what we want. Everyone does it to a greater or lesser extent. There are also those with a worldview that judges their fellows purely on the basis of utility. Therefore it is not the fact that 'freedom is too entrenched' in western liberal culture that will keep abortion legal (if that is the ultimate result). It is the lack of responsibility that is demonstrated by the willingness to sacrifice some one else for personal gain.
There are a core of men and women for whom a 'fetus' only becomes a 'baby' when the mother decides. Couple that with the fact that even women who acknowledge the fact that abortion is akin to if not murder but wish to keep it as an option should they or theirs 'need' it and you have the reason that abortion is so hard to stop.
By the way, arguing that in more recent times Republican women joined Planned Parenthood to fight for legal contraception and that this defines the organization is naive. Margaret Sanger's racist and eugenicist views are too readily ascertainable to not inform the origins of her signature organization. Couple that with the organizations proclivity to maximize it's presence in the minority communities and it is apparent that those views are still prevalent in the leaders of Planned Parenthood.
It doesn't surprise me to see 'conservative' women defend abortion. Throughout history women have been the primary practitioners of infanticide. And from what I see the arguments are the same - although that extra mouth was far more of a potential threat to a family/clan/tribes' survival in the past. Now it won't mean starvation for a group it will merely impact the families bottom line (or perhaps vacation plans).
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI was brought up in a conservative Republican household where abortion was considered ok because it killed children who might have been born to a woman without a husband. Since the baby was only a mass of cells, a microscopic piece of tissue... there was no problem. Planned parenthood was looked upon as a helper in cleaning out the refuse of the inner city. Eugenics was a viable alternative to inner cities teeming with baztards who will only fill up our prisons.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe war now is over whom we should believe? Jesus, Son of God who said, "let the little ones come to me" and then issued a strong warning to those who would harm a child. Or do we believe the proselytizers of darkness who warn of the human debris in southern Europe, Africa, and Mediterranean... and the need to put them out of their misery.