Finding the mainstream on abortion

South Dakota and Mississippi are states that appear to be on the verge of enacting laws that will ban abortion except to save the life of the mother. Since abortion rights has been the law of the land since Roe v. Wade, implementation of these proposed state laws are an obvious challenge to the 1973 ruling widely viewed as vulnerable due to the rightward shift of the U.S. Supreme Court. For many years, I have advocated more restrictive abortion laws. In general, my views lean far more in the pro-life direction than in support of the pro-choice position. Still, I am concerned that the rigid insistence of pro-life activists that no exceptions be granted in cases of rape and incest is likely put right-to-lifers in the same kind of unreasonable appearing stance as pro-choice activists who have vigorously defended late term abortion. Just as the pro-choicers have been caught looking ridiculous in advocating the infanticide of partial birth abortion, pro-lifers are likely to scare the daylights out of many women not to mention fathers and husbands who can imagine their wife or daughter experiencing the trauma of a sexual assault and then being compelled to carry a rapist's child to term.

The reality is that most Americans are still mildly pro-choice, but also happen to favor more restrictive laws on abortion. A significant block of individuals are probably equally turned off by pro-choice and pro-life extremism. A majority of Americans favor legal first trimester abortions while opposing government funding of the procedure, late term abortion and supporting parental notification. Perhaps in time, public opinion will shift further in the direction of favoring greater protection of the unborn but has yet to become a reality. Even a reversal of Roe v. Wade is unlikely to make abortion illegal in most states. Attempts to pass laws prohibiting abortion that would in effect require a woman to carry the child of a rapist simply will not pass the test of public support even in most red states. Believe me, there will be a backlash against efforts to pass such restrictive abortion laws that could overshadow much of the progress that has been made in moving public opinion in a more pro-life direction. Absolutism may work fine in the realm of moral theology but politics and law making sometimes requires compromise and common sense. A civilized society has the right to establish moral guidelines and to make reasonable exceptions to those rules as well. The pro-life movement might want to keep in mind that changing hearts and minds is more likely to acheive the desired result of discouraging abortion than just passing laws.

News Update: Baptist Press reports that the Mississippi House of Representatives has passed a bill banning abortion which includes rape and incest exceptions as well as saving the life of the mother. The original Mississippi House bill did not contain the rape and incest exceptions . Some pro-life leaders will continue to urge Mississippi State Senators to pass a different version of the bill excluding the rape and incest provisions. If that happens, the conflicting language would then have to be resolved in a House-Senate conference committee. See BP Press article at http://tinyurl.com/h6wqv

Democrats and Illegal Immigration

Creators Syndicate columnist Farah Harrop wrote an excellent column a few months ago calling for the revival of the Scoop Jackson wing of the Democratic Party - something that is certainly needed in an era of concern about national security and the threat of terrorism. Harrop has just given some more valuable advice to Democrats which needs to be heeded. Democrats are missing a golden opportunity to gain support from working families concerned about the impact of illegal immigration on national security, wages and public services. The politically correct left fails to distinguish between legal immigration and the invasion of illegal aliens - this is insanity and must not be accepted if we are survive as a nation. Democrats should oppose the cheap labor lobby which is driving down already low wages for unskilled workers.
See link to Harrop column at http://tinyurl.com/ofjg6

The Republican health care plan = Don't get sick !

The Democratic Leadership Council points out the deceitful and mean spirited attempts of the Bush Administration to destroy access to health care for America's workers. I am so sick and hearing Republican propaganda about how health savings accounts and high deductible insurance policies are the solution to America's health care crisis. If anything, health savings accounts will undermine the insurance concept of spreading around the risk and take young, healthy and upscale individuals out of the group insurance pool.
Bush and the Republican leadership could care less about the health and well-being of America's working families. See link to the DLC New Dem Dispatch article: http://tinyurl.com/js2vx.
The Progressive Policy Insitute also has some excellent ideas in the New Dem Dispatch concerning how to improve our health care system at http://tinyurl.com/g2thg.

Are Democrats becoming more religion friendly ?

World Magazine, an evangelical-oriented news publication, put their spin on Democrats and religious voters on the front cover this week. Democrats and evangelical Christians need to talk more often.Taking a hard-line secularist approach certainly has not worked well for Democrats. A generation ago, Democrats had both evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics solidly in our corner. The defection of religious voters was a significant factor in losing majority party status. And I think that the cause of Christianity is probably weakened in the long run by being so closely identified with only one political party or ideology. In too many evangelical churches today, one might get the idea that you must embrace Republicanism to become a Christian. Link to the World Magazine article http://tinyurl.com/n5ls3