Scoot Blog: The War on Abortion - 40 Years Later
by Scoot
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posted Jan 22 2013 8:55PM
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Today is the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling, Roe v. Wade, the ruling that declared abortion legal in America based on an individual’s right to privacy. The battle to end legal abortion has, so far, failed.
A new survey shows that a majority of Americans do not think Roe v. Wade should be overturned. Why has the pro-life movement failed? Is it because the idea of ‘right to privacy’ is so important in America that someone can agree with that basic right, but not always agree with the actions resulting from that right? Can a person be pro-choice and against abortion?
The passions on both sides of this issue are intense. The pro-life movement argues that even though Americans have a right to privacy, no one has a right to take another life. The challenge of the movement should be to convince America that the ‘life’ that begins at conception is protected by law.
According to the Supreme Court ruling, a fetus is not protected by the law until about the 7th month or when the fetus can live independent of the mother’s body. There is a growing effort to pass legislation that defines a fetus as a person and is therefore protected by law, but that effort has not been successful nationally. Not yet.
The pro-life movement experiences setbacks every time a politician says something ridiculous about abortion. In the election this past November, several ignorant comments were made about rape and abortion and that enhanced the image that the Republican Party does not care as much about women as Democrats. Obama won the female vote by 11% points over Romney and about 53% of the voters were women.
The debate over abortion may never end. I think the pro-life movement would gain credibility if it would focus as much attention protesting unprotected sex as it does legal abortion. If more were done to promote ‘no sex’ or ‘responsible sex’ then the abortion rate should decrease dramatically.
So why isn’t that the equal focus of the pro-life movement – because that strategy is not as dramatic and compelling to the media.
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