There are many valid arguments to be made against overturning Roe v. Wade. This article discusses neglected ones that rarely are used in political circles but may headline some progressive and left campaigns as we approach the mid-term elections.
There are two ways to look at what arguments should be used. First is, will it effectively galvanize those already committed to supporting reproductive rights? The second is of more relevance to those concerned with expanding electoral support for such rights. In the second case, more important than the wording itself is how those words will be understood by most of the masses and how the Republicans will counter them. Effective slogans may be critical to expanding support, and we will need all the help we can get to overcome the many biases and voting restrictions we are facing in the fall.
Slogans of the Right.
I’ll attempt to focus now on slogans and arguments aimed at those who may be less committed or concerned with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. A major weapon used by the religious right against abortion and reproductive rights for women is that they include “baby killing” and “murder.” Which can be reduced easily to a few words and can be found on the majority of signs carried by them. It’s not as easy to counter such slogans directly and in as few words as possible.
Reasoning out that abortion is not murder requires just that, reasoning and logic. Problem is, we also function based on emotion and often many of us do not take the time to reason things out. I would further venture to say than the majority of us also had some sort religious training that disapproved or condemned both abortion and birth control, and by extension sex outside of heterosexual marriage.
Fascism and Emotions
In times of fascism, large swaths of people are organized based not on logic, self-interest and concepts of democracy and class consciousness, but on raw emotions. One thing the far right teaches us is how little effort it takes to organize around emotions like fear, bias and anger. And how many people are conditioned to accept authoritarian leaders and not think independently or view themselves as being part of a larger class which defines their quality of life or the lack of it. And do not understand what ideologies and belief systems will help or hurt them in life.
In should therefore be understood that suspension of Roe v. Wade is a fanatical move enabled by the Republicans based on a purely subjective religious/irrational view of life. Which degrades our humanity and quality of life while raising the fetus to a status never guaranteed to the living. No one in the religious right demonstrates that being born into poverty is truly slow-motion murder, or that being born black is another, more reliable, form of slow-motion murder.
Best Arguments for not Reversing Roe v. Wade
Back to coming up with a slogan, how can you put the better arguments for keeping Roe v. Wade into short popular slogans that appeals to the most people? First, I will list the long versions of the argument before trying my hand at slogans.
- Overturning Roe v. Wade violates separation of church and state, which is a bedrock premise of our Constitution, and substitutes and selects one particular religious interpretation out of many possible ones as to when human life begins rather than a scientific and rational one based on civil law.
- The Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade is based one particular Christian interpretation of when human life begins with a “soul”. And is not much different than passing a religious law applying only to women and demanding that they, and not their male husbands, be stoned to death for perceived marital infidelity.
- Even if you concede for the sake of discussion that each person has a spiritual soul attached to them, something that certainly can never be proved or verified, opinions vary even in existing religious communities as to when that occurred. Roe v. Wade gave us a legal and rational criteria.
- The original decision on Roe v. Wade was courageous in that it advanced a civil, logical and Constitutional rational concerning abortion rights. The current repeal of it was cowardly, backward, and based on religious totalitarianism.
-
Galileo: Punished for his scientific findings
Substituting religious belief for facts leads to tyrannical governments that must enforce such beliefs through threats, force and violence. A good example is the Catholic Inquisitions aimed at anyone that appeared to contradict Church dogma, no matter how irrational the dogma was, and was enforced under pain of torture and horrible deaths by burning victims at the stake. Example. Even Galileo, who designed the first telescope and was a friend of the Pope’s and published his findings that the Earth and the planets revolved around the sun was victimized by the Church and persecuted. Those scientific and objective findings contradicted the Church’s “religious” ignorant position that the sun revolved around the Earth. He was threatened and shown the instruments of torture and died under house arrest. The Church had decided the idea that the sun moved around the Earth was an absolute fact of scripture that could not be disputed, despite the fact that scientists had known for centuries that the Earth was not the center of the universe.
- Substituting religious belief for material reality (aka theocracy) in a modern technology dependent society will lead to disaster. Examples: Some religions teach that prayer and only prayer and not medical care should be sought out when someone is ill. Or religious dogma that the moment of conception assigns a human soul to a two celled fetus making it murder punished by imprisonment if a woman terminates the pregnancy even at this early stage.
Separation of Church and State, as stated by our Constitution, actually protects freedom of religion and personal freedom by keeping civil society from being governed by beliefs which are accepted without physical validation or confirmation. And gives us the unfettered freedom to believe/practice in any religion we want to without forcing anyone else to be bound by the same religious rules and dogmas.
Slogans
That was the easy part. Synthesizing these arguments into slogans is much harder as I’ve just found out. But I will try.
- Theocracy = Dictatorship
- Christians for Choice
- Catholics for Choice
- Jews for Choice
- Muslims for Choice
- Buddhists for Choice
- Banning Abortion = Religious Persecution
- Banning Abortion = Religious/State Violence against Women
- Pro-Life is Neither
- The Pro-Life Movement is Neither
- Overturning Roe v. Wade violates separation of Church and State
- Overturning Roe v. Wade is Unconstitutional
- DANGER: Mixing Politics and Religion is Combustible
- Keep Religion Personal, not Political
- Keep Religion out of Government
- Keep Religion out of Politics
- “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.“ Genesis 2: 7
- Religion belongs in Church, not Government
- Keep Religious Doctrine out of the Supreme Court
- Separation of Church and State protects religion from the state and the state from Religion
- Separation of Church and State protects religion from the state
- Separation of Church and State protects women's rights
- Separation of Church and State protects Democracy
- Separation of Church and State: Democracy not Dogma
- Separation of Church and State: The Fundamental Basis of our Democracy
- Democracy not Dogma
- Freedom means Separation of Church and State.
- Freedom requires Separation of Church and State.
- Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof… U.S. Constitutional language
- State-sponsored Forced Birth is Tyranny
- Forced Birth is Tyranny
- Banning Abortion brings back coat hanger procedures
- Banning Abortion = The Murder of Women
- Banning Abortion = Violence Against Woman
- Banning Reproductive Rights = Violence Against Woman
- Keep Religion out of Government
- Keep My Religion out of Government
- Keep Religious Dogma out of the Supreme Court
- No Rulings based on Religious Dogma
- Religious Dogma = Religious Dictatorship
- Technology depends on Facts, not Faith
- Facts not Dogma
- Banning Abortion = Religious Inquisition
- An Undeveloped Fetus is not a Person
- Life Begins at Birth and not at Conception
- Life Begins at Birth
- Ban Religious Inquisitions not a Woman’s Freedom of Choice
- Stop the Unholy Six
- Stop the Supreme Court Six
- The Supreme Court Six = Misogyny
- Reproductive Rights are a Democratic Right
- Reproductive Rights = Democratic Rights
I think I’ve just learned first-hand the difficulty in coming up with short/simple slogans that can educate people on the fence. It may indeed be more of a turn out and numbers game, as it was in the past going into the Mid-Terms. Winning anyone over to this position may not lend itself to catchy slogans. As arguments some of the ones above are a starting point. Having had 12 years of Catholic indoctrination, it was easy for me to see the religious overtones in the Court rulings and is perhaps why most of the slogans I came up with tended to advise against mixing politics with religion.
Dangers of Religious Encroachment on Government
Politicians that are pro-choice have rarely mentioned religious based dogma as a major factor in the anti-abortion movement or tried to educate people as to why religious criteria should be kept out of politics and civil law? In fact, many of the above slogans might be rejected as being counterproductive and/or too antagonistic. Likely it’s part of the reason such education was rarely attempted. While the other side has worked for years in the opposite direction. Even though we have a growing majority when it comes to overall public opinion, the margin might have been improved with more long-term educational work. It’s the same with other issues that now consume Republican voters. Generally, politicians are not known for wanting the electorate to be too educated as to how the system works in the real world and rarely argue why religious beliefs should not be the basis of civil law. So, at a time when this becomes more of a priority, it’s hard to reach people without having a consistent prior history.
By rarely confronting these issues head on, we have left many with doubts on the issue, and an unawareness of how much we are descending into a theocracy aimed at keeping Republicans in power. And how much that will serve to destroy our freedoms. It’s the Republicans that are exploiting Christian religion for their own purposes of power and control. How often is this publicly mentioned? While addressing this issue admittedly attached significant risks (the major reason it is usually avoided), if language is carefully considered and vetted, it can be highly effective because it speaks to why such language — Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof — is an essential part of our Constitution.