The Abortion Battle Will Return . . . So Here's Some Tools for the Fight

In the wake of yesterday’s news about Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s impending retirement from the bench, I’ve seen a lot of pain and despair among friends on my Facebook news feed.

Along with assaults on environmental protections, undermining of workers’ rights, greater pressure for alternatives to public education, disrespect for racial, religious, and sexual minorities, and demonization and mistreatment of hopeful immigrants, we can surely expect greater assaults on abortion rights.

I’m not too surprised. Abortion was not a frontline issue for most of us in recent years -- not the way I remember it turning up on state ballots and in high-profile court fights in the Eighties and early Nineties.

But I’ve seen it rising in the last two years. Heartened by this administration’s bullying of the left, women, and minorities, “pro-lifers” are increasingly reaching for abortion as the trump card, so to speak, that overrules any other issue.

For instance, earlier this week I saw anti-immigration statements that reached for “the slaughter of millions for decades” as a more pressing matter than children separated from their parents who seek asylum. Conservative citizens appear ready to overlook any outrageous behavior and policy on the part of this president and his team, because they think the GOP will continue to erode access to abortions.

But I refuse to despair. I am not going to (figuratively) weep and wail, though I feel foreboding and can understand why some of my friends might experience desperation.

Despair or not, we’ll have to fight in any case. This war will require more attention, more street smarts and imagination, more money if you can spare it. We’ll not only have to work harder together, but we need to share information faster, more broadly, and act on it.

Especially information about tactics. Debates with “pro-life” citizens will be inevitable, and worth pursuing, if only to give heart to their friends and family who may be looking on, uncertain, and in need of a shot of courage and ideas for where this nation needs to go . . . and not go.

And it’s clear, after going up and down about this issue, that comparing women’s rights and considerations of one’s fitness to be a parent cut no ice with folks who are obsessed with “the rights of the unborn.” You have to hit them closer to where they live.

So here’s my latest response to people who pull the “slaughter of babies” tack. I say:

“Ah, so you’re in favor of more government and welfare programs.”

And leave it there. Walk away. Preserve the mystery, but keep propagating because they can’t help but wonder. Try not to get into it with them, because they and their anti- buddies will likely swarm you, especially if you cede the terms of discussion to them.

Or pretend to disappear, and watch what happens. See what you can learn from them.

If the other party (or perhaps a curious onlooker) asks me honestly what I’m talking about, and I have the time and psychic energy to push back for a moment (I think this is more likely to have an impact with someone you’ve known a while, whether in person or on the web, rather than a complete stranger), here’s what I say:

“Wealthy women and families will always be able to procure abortions; they did it before Roe v. Wade, and they’ll do it if you have your way. Poor women and families will not.

“So they’ll have more babies. There’ll be even more poor babies, more babies with fetal alcohol syndrome, more crack-addicted babies, more brown and yellow and red-skinned babies.

“Now, if you’re willing to take care of those human lives you say are so precious, then that’s great. I’m there with you. It’ll only take millions and millions more of our tax dollars for health, education, and welfare programs, and more government workers to administer them.

“If you’re not willing to take care of those extra human lives, then you’ll end up paying for them anyway, but in terms of rising crime, more home security systems, more walls and fences and car alarms and burglar alarms, and more police and prisons, if you’re willing to spring for them.

“These will be at least some of the predictable results of outlawing abortion. Is this what you want?”