"If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass--a idiot."
--Oliver Twist, by Dickens
WITH ALL THE wailing and gnashing of teeth about the retirement of a swing justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, you'd think that the pro-life people have won their battles lately. They haven't. Abortion on demand is still the law. At least man's law. Better said, it's not a crime. At least not on the books.
The loyal opposition to President's Trump's nominee to replace Anthony Kennedy on the high court didn't wait until President Trump found that nominee. One hasn't been announced yet. Or even leaked. But that didn't stop every top Democrat, and not just Democrats, from warning that another conservative on the bench will mean the end of abortion in this nation.
Opponents to abortion we will always have with us. Some of us have to sleep at night. But the courts have blocked pro-life efforts time and again. And have for years. Arkansas, for example, passed a responsible and practical bill that would have required abortionists to have deals with doctors who have admitting privileges at hospitals in case something goes wrong. And this week, once again, a federal judge has blocked that law.
Apparently even that requirement wasn't good enough to pass one federal court's muster. But there is something deeper here than just one judge deciding the law is a ass. The pro-abortion folks and the pro-life folks seem to be in different worlds, different universes. Just listen to one of the attorneys for Planned Parenthood. Her quote in the paper started with: "Let's be honest ...." (Yes, let's. Planned Parenthood is a misnomer.)
"Let's be honest. The attorney general [of Arkansas] wants to shut down abortion clinics. Let's not insult women and say this is about their health. She is using the subterfuge of saying this law is to help women's health." Instead, the attorney said, "they provide fabulous abortion care at both" abortion clinics in Arkansas.
Fabulous abortions?
Would even an abortion doctor think his work fabulous? Even if you think abortion isn't really the killing of an innocent--the very least among these--but only a minor medical procedure, just the removal of an unfortunate growth, surely you don't think the act can be fabulous.
And abortion care? Can abortions be any kind of care? It certainly isn't care for the baby involved. Excuse us, the embryo/fetus/unperson.
This is what happens when euphemism takes over the debate. The whole act under discussion becomes so antiseptic, clinical, detached, that lawyers start using phrases like "fabulous abortion care." And judges are quoted in the paper saying abortions are "remarkably safe." Well, maybe for one of the two people involved.
We remember when a U.S. senator named Ted Kennedy was polluting the language, as usual, in speeches about abortion. He called requirements in his bills to provide abortion coverage in insurance policies "Pregnancy Related Services." Which, at the time, some of us could hardly oppose. How oppose services for things relating to pregnancy? For all the word games, that could have meant running out for ice cream.
But of course it really meant ending pregnancies with pills or surgery. That is, abortion. But Senator Kennedy couldn't speak plain, for that would give away the game. Plain words can disturb the inner harmonies.
I N ANY DEBATE about abortion, we'd ask this question first: If we're only talking about a simple procedure that has no more consequence than any other doctor visit, then why the word games? Why pregnancy related services, and not pregnancy ending services? Why the apprehension and imprisonment of the word Choice? As if the child involved had any.
Somebody once said that language is the Little Round Top of any debate. Once you seize the high ground, you should win the day. Those who provide abortion on demand understand this. Which is why they must fuzz the language. And explain to the public that "Planned Parenthood" offers "remarkably safe" and even "fabulous abortion care."
That these words and phrases are meant to do anything but illuminate doesn't surprise a bit. There is much to hide here. Call it the American way of death.
Editorial on 07/05/2018