Ten Things That Caught My Eye Today (September 3, 2019)

1. Asia Bibi pleads for justice for victims of Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws as she plans to settle in Europe (Telegraph).

2. China’s Prisons Swell After Deluge of Arrests Engulfs Muslims (New York Times).

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4. Bill McGurn writes in the Wall Street Journal under the title “White Supremacy and Abortion, Are pro-lifers in bed with white supremacists?”:

That’s Marissa Brostoff’s contention in a Washington Post op-ed last week, wherein she alleged that “antiabortion politics” can provide “cover for white nationalist sentiments.” Her argument followed a Laurence Tribe tweet in which the Harvard law professor told his followers, “Never underestimate the way these issues and agendas are linked.”

The timing is likely not accidental. The hope may be that tarring pro-lifers with white nationalism will distract attention from the agenda the Democrats have rallied around as they head into 2020. That would include federally funded abortion on demand up to the moment of birth—and even after birth, if necessary, as Ralph Northam, the pediatric neurologist and Democratic governor of Virginia, awkwardly made clear earlier this year.

As with all single-issue movements, pro-lifers can be accused of many things, from political rigidity to moral absolutism. But single-issue movements also offer undeniable clarity. The pro-life proposition is simple: Human life begins at conception, and every human life is equal in dignity and worth.

Whatever else this may be, it is incompatible with white supremacism. Perhaps that’s why so many African-Americans, especially African-American women, have been leaders in the pro-life cause.

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Against these white nationalists stand the pro-lifers, and not just on behalf of African-American babies. They also speak for the unborn child with Down syndrome, for the child conceived in rape or incest, for the unplanned pregnancy that will undeniably crimp any career plans a mother might have if she carries the baby to term. These are all hard cases, and the clarity of the pro-life proposition— the insistence that each of these lives is no less precious than any other human life—can make for a difficult political sell.

But no pro-lifer ever said life is easy. We say life is beautiful.

5. Former Foster Kids Show What Philadelphia Loses By Defenestrating Catholics Over Gay Marriage (Federalist).

6. Pope Francis condemns euthanasia.

7. What if real life became more like Twitter?

8. Maria McFadden Maffucci: The Bond of Motherhood Lasts Even After Life Is Gone.

9. An opportunity for poets, judged by Dana Gioia.

10. Maddy Kearns’ beautiful interview with composer James Macmillan.