As Matt Yglesias at Think Progress noted today, it is becoming difficult to take the pro-life movement seriously about its position on abortion. When the Southern Baptist Convention (the largest U.S. religious organization by numbers and political influence) and the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops takes a strong stand not only on abortion, but also on contraception, it is abundantly clear that there is more to the pro-life position than mere concern for the welfare of a fetus. To quote Markos today:
A big chunk of the anti-abortion movement isn't motivated by fetuses, but by sex.
But Markos actually understates the case. It's not just a big chunk obsessed with sex rather than the fetus; it is the vast majority.
Abortion can be a tricky and complicated subject for many people, no doubt. Views of the humanity of the fetus and the separate nature or lack thereof from the mother at various points in the pregnancy vary significantly from American to American. Only the most extreme minority of Americans on either side are truly fully "pro-choice" or "pro-life" when taken to the absolute logical reductio ad absurdum extension of those beliefs. While strongly pro-choice, I personally fully admit to being in the vast "mushy middle" of Americans on the subject. While I believe that anything goes for first-trimester fetuses, I do also believe that a second-trimester fetus constitutes enough of a separate entity from its mother that certain regulations are required to make certain that its termination is not simple a matter of pure "choice", but for significant medical reasons likely to impact the quality of life of the mother or the prospective child. I believe Dr. Tiller was a hero, but that the State maintains a compelling interest in ensuring that such a crucial decision is made for a serious medical reason. This puts me at odds with some of the more strident abortion rights advocates in the progressive movement, and that's ok: the fetus is a tricky subject that needs healthy debate to be handled well.
But the right wing isn't concerned with the fetus. By huge margins, they're concerned with controlling sex, specifically the sexuality of women. And that fact actually makes what should be a complex argument over abortion in this country fairly easy.
The fact is that if you believe that life truly begins at conception, abortion should be illegal in all circumstances (barring perhaps exception made strictly for the life of the mother). If you can't kill a baby with a horrible birth defect, you shouldn't be able to abort it either. If you can't kill the baby born of an incestuous rape, you shouldn't be able to abort it either.
It's that simple. Those who claim to be pro-life but still grant exceptions in the case of horrible birth defects or rape and incest are not concerned with the fetus, but rather with sex. The notion of blame is critical to the Right, and derived from conservative religious mythology stemming from Genesis onward: girls who have sex should be forced to "pay the consequences". It's almost never about the fetus--which is why the "no fault" circumstances of birth defects and rape/incest don't bother the vast majority of those who claim to be "pro-life". They're not "pro-life"; they're "pro-consequences."
The proof is in polling on the subject, particularly polling on the subject of rape and incest. Almost all of the latest polling on the subject can be found easily summarized at Polling Report's abortion section.
The first immediate takeaway is this: Consistently across all polls, only somewhere between 10% and 22% of people believe that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances. How can this be, if so many of our fellow Americans have such deep concerns for the fetus? It's can't be, of course. What this means is that there are only somewhere between 10% and 22% of the public so committed to their religious principle of life at conception that they can truly be said to be concerned for the welfare of the fetus.
More specific polling is even clearer, especially this 2007 poll from Faux News--and keep in mind that Faux News polls consistently skew right:
FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll. Oct. 23-24, 2007. N=900 registered voters nationwide. MoE ± 3.
"Please tell me if you think abortion should be legal or illegal in each of the following situations . . . ."
Legal Illegal Unsure
% % %
"If the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest"
10/23-24/07
70 21 9
"If the pregnancy puts the mother's life at risk"
10/23-24/07
73 15 12
"If the pregnancy puts the mother's mental health at risk"
10/23-24/07
56 28 16
62 30 8
"If the baby has a fatal birth defect"
10/23-24/07
53 30 18
"If the pregnancy is unwanted"
10/23-24/07
39 50 11
What's going on here is very clear: many Americans are uncomfortable with a pregnancy being terminated purely on account of the mother's volition, but the vast majority are completely comfortable with terminating a pregnancy due to rape or incest. In fact, more Americans are OK with terminating a pregnancy due to rape or incest, than with terminating a pregnancy involving a fatal birth defect. Even though the product of the rape/incest would produce a probably healthy, viable baby, while the birth defect would not.
This is not concern with "life" or the "fetus". This is a sick obsession with sex, and with "blame" for sex. Those Americans who would support abortions on account of rape and incest, but not on account of the mother's volition--much less on account of fatal birth defects--don't care a whit for the fetus. They simply want to know whether the prospective mother's sexual activity met their standards for blame and responsibility. If they've determined that she's a slut, they're not OK with her having an abortion; if they've determined she was a poor victim of circumstance, they're just fine with it.
There is room for debate about the nature of the appropriate level of rights granted to the human fetus. But it's not coming from the American Right.
The movement that calls itself "pro-life" is by far the sickest, most intrusive movement of anti-sex petty religious moralizing. The fact is that a person truly (and, most would say, bizarrely) committed to fetal welfare would have the following political characteristics:
- Adamant support for contraception and family planning
- Adamant support for comprehensive sex education
- Adamant opposition to abortion in ALL cases, except potentially for the mother's life
The fact that the number of Americans committed to all of these principles can be counted in mere thimblefuls says all you need to know about the petty moralizers who dare call themselves "pro-life", wrapping their petty sexual morality in the fradulent banner of love for the fetus.
It's almost always about sex, and always has been.
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