Looking the Other Way on Abortion
Jay Nordlinger’s article “No More Baby” (September 26) concludes that we are a “deeply hypocritical society” because we won’t admit that killing a newborn baby is not much different from killing a pre-born baby by abortion. I agree with this conclusion, but I believe the hypocrisy goes much deeper. Nordlinger asks whether Emile Weaver, who was given a life sentence for killing her newborn baby, is “worse — all that much worse — than her counterparts who dispose of their babies earlier and more neatly.” But by focusing on this question, we avoid other questions that are even more difficult to face: Are these women “all that much worse” than people who support politicians who take pro-abortion positions only because they calculate it will further their career? As their supporters include friends, relatives, members of religious communities, and possibly someone sitting next to us at dinner, isn’t it more convenient for us to place the blame elsewhere? And is what these supporters do “all that much worse” than our choice of easy targets in our determination of where blame is placed?
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