In a classic and prophetic 1970 editorial, California Medicine declared that “the very considerable semantic gymnastics which are required to rationalize abortion as anything but taking a human life would be ludicrous if they were not often put forth under socially impeccable auspices.” Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer Paul Greenberg puts it more succinctly: “The trick is never, never to recognize those being killed, uh, terminated as human. ... Verbicide always precedes homicide.”
Greenberg, who writes for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is a gem of the right-to-life movement. Like reformed abortionist Bernard Nathanson or columnist Nat Hentoff, he breaks the usual stereotypes of a pro-lifer. Like the late Father Richard John Neuhaus, Greenberg advocates — often with an irony worthy of Jonathan Swift — the protection of the unborn as contemporary America’s real civil-rights movement. “In another age, when the Rev. Jonathan Swift made a modest proposal to combat famine in Ireland — why not consume the next generation? — his essay was called a masterful satire. Now [in the light of embryonic stem-cell research] it reads like today’s news.”
This book reprints 41 of Greenberg’s pro-life essays that have appeared over the past 18 years in the pro-life quarterly Human Life Review.
His take on a story is often unique. Consider “Taney’s Retirement Revisited,” where he considers how, in the light of how Roe v. Wade author Harry Blackmun was lionized on his retirement, America might have lauded a retiring Chief Justice Roger Taney if Dred Scott survived. “Perfect Babies Through Abortion,” written in 1996, presciently foretold the outcome that a Danish newspaper recently reported: The country has practically eliminated Down syndrome … by killing off babies with Down syndrome.
Abortion, eugenics, cloning, RU-486, partial-birth abortion, embryonic stem-cell experimentation, the flight of the Democratic Party from the civil rights of the unborn, semantic gymnastics, death panels — all of these are brilliantly covered in these short (two- to three-page) essays that Greenberg wrote over the past two decades.
Why read this book? Lots of Catholics know they are pro-life, but far fewer know just how far the culture of death has come. Second, our opponents are masters at torturing language. They will make killing palatable, while painting even the most reasonable and minimal opposition to that slaughter as prima facie evidence of rabid extremism. Consider the recent Senate debate over the defeated Blunt Amendment, which would have protected Americans against being forced to subsidize abortions through health insurance. Anti-life forces changed the public media debate from We are protecting the conscience rights of Americans to refuse to traffic in abortion to American women will be deprived of contraception if these ‘fanatics’ prevail.
If we are to prevail in the court of public opinion, pro-lifers need not only the truth, but also the sound bite. To that end, Greenberg is an excellent tutor.
John M. Grondelski writes from Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
ANOTHER LINE CROSSED
By Paul Greenberg
Human Life Foundation, 2012
96 pages, $7.95
To order: humanlifereview.com
(212) 685-5210
Edward Pentin: Images of Rome's 2013 March for Life
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We don’t need another book to teach that killing an unborn baby is wrong. My five year son knew that ending the life of a baby before birth was “wrong,” his word.
No, what we need is a Church that will consistently teach what sin is . Once upon a time (1958) the Catholic Church taught that it was a sin against the 5th Commandment to have “religious and racial prejudice,” because “To manifest prejudice in action hurts the feelings of our neighbor, and is therefore a sin against charity. To deny him his rights is a sin against justice as well as charity.” Then the teaching went even further and said, “This is particularly true in the case of JOINING an organization which promotes segregation OR ANY OTHER DENIAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS (my emphasis). Life In Christ - Instructions In The Catholic Church.
Hmmmm, “joining an organization” is a sin against the “Thou shall not murder” commandment, if that organization “promotes segregation OR ANY OTHER DENIAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS (ditto).
When one joins the Democrat Party, which is an “organization,” then according to the Life In Christ, they are in a state of sin as long as they remain in that organization because the Democrat Party is mainly if not solely responsible for abortion on demand remaining the law of the land.
In fact, the Democrat Party is responsible for the killing of more innocent human beings than the Nazi Party of Germany, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union - combined.
So, why have the bishops omitted that teaching? That is what we prolifers need to know, not another book.
Excellent article, Mr. Grondelski. God bless you.
Greenberg is a heady writer and is consistently walking the walk in Little Rock on Right To Life weekend.
Abortion isn’t murder, murder is abortion.
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