It's time to have a national debate about abortion. We never had that debate in 1973 because the Supreme Court simply declared that women had a limited constitutional right to an abortion. For almost 40 years that constitutional right was considered settled law.
However, it's obvious Republicans will try to totally eliminate abortion, should they win big in November. Sure, they talk the talk of jobs and the economy but they walk the walk of anti-abortion. The party platform, its statement of fundamental values, contains a plank opposing abortion under all circumstances, and they are not kidding.
So, let's talk abortion, not with the shrill mantra of the fundamentalist crusader, but rationally, calmly and without using the words evil and Satan. The foundation of the argument is the best interest of the nation, not the quicksand of morality. After all, this nation has never let morality interfere with the invasion of Third World countries and the killing of their innocent citizens, acts unopposed by the pro-life camp, which raise the inference that its moral concern with the sanctity of life terminates once life has departed the womb.
An obvious pro-abortion argument is unwanted children are unloved children. They become children abandoned to the state or worse, become victims of infanticide. One million more abandoned, abused or neglected children a year will severely strain already over-strained state budgets. Republicans never talk about paying the bill.
Not only do unwanted children increase demands upon state welfare systems, they're also more likely to become individuals who commit violent crime. This is the not-so-surprising conclusion of economist Steven D. Leavitt, in his book "Freakonomics," (which is also supported by independent research in other countries) which includes a statistical analysis of the dramatic national decline in violent crime beginning in the early 1990s. He found that the millions of unwanted children not born after 1973 as a result of abortion accounted for 40 percent of the reason for the falling rate of violent crime.
What rational arguments exist against abortion? Remember, don't use "evil" or "Satan."
Patrick Radcliff
Vienna
