You sometimes see me post an example of something ludicrous and alarming and say "this is what we're up against." These posts, while highlighting specific examples of whatever the issue at hand is, tend to have an abstract angle to them; a pro-choice politician may be saying what he personally believes, but being a politician his actions will tend to affect people more conceptually than personally.
I mentioned my un-PC coworker a few days ago. In the conversation he was having with some of his other coworkers who are pretty liberal (I'm currently residing in a very blue state, so we're all soaking in it), the talk somehow turned to abortion. My coworker said that, while he is perfectly happy with prevention, he won't countenance abortion especially when used solely as birth control.
I think he used the word "pro-abortion" at this point, because one of the others denied being pro-abortion, but rather was pro-choice...and that if she had a twelve year old daughter who was molested by some guy and ended up pregnant, the first thing she would do would be to drive her to an abortion clinic.
"So she doesn't get a choice."
"No! At that age she's not mature enough to understand the consequences."
"What if she doesn't want the abortion? Would you at least discuss it with her?"
"No. She's not capable yet of making an informed decision."
Okay, she's a minor and the parent gets the last word on medical decisions; even the law agrees with this, except when the situation is reversed. But the hypothetical daughter is 12, not an idiot; she's going to have an opinion, despite having been raised by an "I'll choose who has abortions in this household" mother, it might not be the same, and she's at least going to want to feel like her feelings and preferences are being considered before they're overruled.
This; this is really what we're up against. People who have listened to the rhetoric and already made up their minds, who don't believe in Choice as a virtue and civic right to be protected so much as they believe abortion is just a means to some other end, who are going to vote for politicians and laws that will let them pursue those other ends without inconvenience.
This is the battle we have to fight: not just beating with rhetoric the sin-darkened intellects of talking heads who themselves may only be using the abortion issue to achieve some other end, but breathing on the embers of conscience in the people who both who are on the fence or see abortion as a necessary evil, and those who have inclined themselves to using the last resort of abortion so cavalierly that it is the first resort.
We have to win hearts. You can get a little traction by winning arguments, at least trying to plant seeds, but it's such a charged topic, like evangelization itself, that if you come after them with logical guns a-blazing, they'll retreat into emotional counterarguments that you can't touch. The woman who said she would choose abortion for her underage daughter no matter what walked out of the room before I could add anything to the suggestion that her daughter's feelings should be considered whether or not her own choice would be. The topic might come up again and I might have another chance to play the "kindler, gentler conservative" next to my other coworker, but it might not.
But I'm still curious: if someone says "I'm not pro-abortion, I'm pro-choice," what does he think someone admitting to being pro-abortion would say differently? That he just wanted to kill babies for the sake of killing?
I mentioned my un-PC coworker a few days ago. In the conversation he was having with some of his other coworkers who are pretty liberal (I'm currently residing in a very blue state, so we're all soaking in it), the talk somehow turned to abortion. My coworker said that, while he is perfectly happy with prevention, he won't countenance abortion especially when used solely as birth control.
I think he used the word "pro-abortion" at this point, because one of the others denied being pro-abortion, but rather was pro-choice...and that if she had a twelve year old daughter who was molested by some guy and ended up pregnant, the first thing she would do would be to drive her to an abortion clinic.
"So she doesn't get a choice."
"No! At that age she's not mature enough to understand the consequences."
"What if she doesn't want the abortion? Would you at least discuss it with her?"
"No. She's not capable yet of making an informed decision."
Okay, she's a minor and the parent gets the last word on medical decisions; even the law agrees with this, except when the situation is reversed. But the hypothetical daughter is 12, not an idiot; she's going to have an opinion, despite having been raised by an "I'll choose who has abortions in this household" mother, it might not be the same, and she's at least going to want to feel like her feelings and preferences are being considered before they're overruled.
This; this is really what we're up against. People who have listened to the rhetoric and already made up their minds, who don't believe in Choice as a virtue and civic right to be protected so much as they believe abortion is just a means to some other end, who are going to vote for politicians and laws that will let them pursue those other ends without inconvenience.
This is the battle we have to fight: not just beating with rhetoric the sin-darkened intellects of talking heads who themselves may only be using the abortion issue to achieve some other end, but breathing on the embers of conscience in the people who both who are on the fence or see abortion as a necessary evil, and those who have inclined themselves to using the last resort of abortion so cavalierly that it is the first resort.
We have to win hearts. You can get a little traction by winning arguments, at least trying to plant seeds, but it's such a charged topic, like evangelization itself, that if you come after them with logical guns a-blazing, they'll retreat into emotional counterarguments that you can't touch. The woman who said she would choose abortion for her underage daughter no matter what walked out of the room before I could add anything to the suggestion that her daughter's feelings should be considered whether or not her own choice would be. The topic might come up again and I might have another chance to play the "kindler, gentler conservative" next to my other coworker, but it might not.
But I'm still curious: if someone says "I'm not pro-abortion, I'm pro-choice," what does he think someone admitting to being pro-abortion would say differently? That he just wanted to kill babies for the sake of killing?
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