August 19-25, 2007 Issue |
Posted 8/14/07 at 10:56 AM
Anne Hendershott’s The Politics of Abortion offers hope and
encouragement to the pro-life movement. She starts by asking simply: How did
the party of the New Deal, of the underdog and the weak, become identified with
abortion on demand, more than any other single topic?
Part of that story is that pro-abortion activists
systematically schemed to neutralize Catholic opposition to abortion.
Hendershott, professor of sociology at the University of San
Diego, describes the Democratic Party’s transformation as the “political
equivalent of a sex-change operation.” Abortion advocates worked on persuading
the Kennedys, the most visible and influential Catholic family in America.
In the summer of 1964, leading Catholic theologians visited
the Kennedys in Hyannisport, she reports. They convinced the Kennedys that they
could “tolerate legislation that would permit abortion under certain
circumstances if political efforts to repress this moral error led to greater
perils to social peace and order.” The theologians included Father Robert
Drinan, Father Richard McCormick, Father Charles Curran and Father Giles
Milhaven, men now known as dissenting Catholics, but who at the time were
considered mainstream Catholic theologians.
These men’s views effectively neutralized Catholic
opposition to abortion for the crucial period in the late 1960s and 1970s. By
then, Roe v. Wade had changed both the law of the land and the political
landscape.
In spite of the counter-cultural roots of the pro-abortion
movement, in spite of the abortion lobby’s posturing as “progressives,”
Catholics today are fighting an uphill battle against a firmly entrenched,
well-funded foe that is for all practical purposes, The Establishment.
Hendershott’s book helpfully details the ongoing legal
harassment of Joseph Scheidler by the National Organization for Women.
In 1986, NOW tried to define Scheidler’s Chicago-based
Pro-life Action League as engaged in “subversive activities.” When the Justice
Department could not find evidence of violent or even illegal activities beyond
trespassing, NOW brought a lawsuit under the anti-trust statutes, claiming that
Scheidler’s work was a criminal conspiracy to close women’s health clinics.
Although the Scheidler family and their organization keeps
winning suits, NOW keeps coming back with additional appeals. NOW has been so
tenacious that one legal analyst described them as Captain Ahab, and Joe
Scheidler as Moby Dick.
Most importantly, Anne Hendershott’s book shows signs of
hope in the abortion wars.
Society shows signs of being sick of abortion. The
development of ultrasound technology has made converts out of many former
pro-abortion fundamentalists. One of the founders of the National Abortion
Rights Action League, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, confesses, “When ultrasound ...
confronted me with the sight of the embryo in a womb, I simply lost my faith in
abortion on demand.”
Likewise, Joan Appleton was head nurse at the Commonwealth
Women’s Clinic in Washington, D.C., and an active member of NOW. A particularly
troubling ultrasound began her journey from abortion-assisting nurse to
pro-life activist.
Pro-life groups are proliferating on college campuses.
Facing criticism from their peers and often persecution from
their college administrations, these students are the new counter-culture. A
coalition of pro-life student organizations coordinated the publication of the
same pro-life advertisement on Oct. 19, 2004. The headline read: “Human Rights
for All.”
Harvard Right to Life sponsored a debate with Harvard
Students for Choice in 2005. The questions from the audience made it clear that
they wanted to discuss the ethical issues surrounding abortion.
According to the Harvard Crimson, the pro-life students
confronted these issues, while the pro-abortion side “refused to do so, saying
they only wanted to discuss the legal aspects of abortion.” The audience was
not impressed.
I can report from my own travels on college campuses that
feminism feels like an old worn-out ideology that people repeat by rote. One
can hardly believe they mean what they are saying.
By contrast, the pro-life clubs and alternative women’s
organizations are on fire with enthusiasm.
Groups such as the Elizabeth Anscombe Sociey at Princeton
University, the Edith Stein Society at the University of Notre Dame and the
Network of Enlightened Women at the University of Virginia are holding
conferences and debates. Meanwhile the feminist establishment, fat, happy,
entrenched and well-funded, can hardly rouse itself to respond.
The trends Hendershott reports will one day come to
fruition.
The abortion wars will be over. Every child will be welcomed
in life and protected by law.
This book will give us hope and encouragement in the
meantime.
Jennifer Roback Morse Ph.D. is the author of Smart Sex: Finding
Life-Long Love in a Hook-up World.
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