If one ever doubts the pettiness to which the political discourse in this country can be taken by the advocates of partisan hackery, look no further than the abortion debate for validation. The battle is now measured in inches and yards (or trimesters) in which neither side will realistically be able to claim triumph for the foreseeable future. Nowhere is this more poignant than here in Madison, where a slew of veritable holy rollers from the Alliance Defense Fund to Pro-Life Wisconsin have raised an uproar over the Madison Surgery Center’s decision to weigh the benefits of offering second-trimester abortions after the retirement of Dennis Christensen, who performed that service through Madison’s Planned Parenthood.
The opposition to MSC offering second-trimester abortions stems from several objections on legal grounds. Firstly, the Alliance Defense Fund sent a letter decrying the fact that “second-trimester dismemberment abortions are being imposed on a previously legitimate surgery clinic over the objection of employees.” Although the reasonable and readily obvious counterargument — that employees are legally allowed to opt out of abortion procedures if they find them objectionable — has worked in other cases, the Defense Fund, along with its indigenous counterparts here, found ample justification to pervert the issue. The same is true for its claim that aborted fetuses “may well serve as a fresh source of baby body parts for various UW research projects as has occurred in the past,” as though Christensen and his associates were a horde of ogres who just couldn’t wait to get their grubby claws on discarded fetuses for the questionable purpose of advancing medical science.
The Alliance Defense Fund then launched into an admittedly powerfully diatribe describing the functions a fetus in the second trimester is able perform, such as touching its face and yawning. However, it is difficult to see what the legal ramifications of the ADF’s efforts at pathos will do for its cause, especially when the path for MSC to offer second-trimester abortions is a perfectly legal one anyway.
The simple and ugly truth for Wisconsin’s assorted pro-life crusaders is abortion is legal in this country, and to quibble over the location or time period at which it is performed is a whimsical strategy that ignores the fundamental reasons for which they hold their convictions. If a fetus is a human life at the moment of conception, the abortion itself is equally egregious no matter when it occurs. Of course, the ADF would no doubt agree with that assumption. But then why does it insist on fighting insignificant battles over the time at which it occurs? Polling indicates Americans are pro-choice by margins similar to those by which they elected Barack Obama. Whether these organizations make the issue an emotional one or not, they are unlikely to accomplish a local overturn of the Roe v. Wade decision, particularly after the election of a president who is vocally sympathetic to the concerns of pro-choice constituencies.
The debate over abortion is a difficult one to relinquish because most pro-life organizations and the individuals that compose them feel they are allowing genocide to occur. It is natural to question the morality of a procedure that results in the large-scale annihilation of what can reasonably be construed as human life. And yet, it is difficult to see what the Alliance Defense Fund seeks to accomplish. Employees of the MSC will invariably object to performing the procedure, and their supervisors will invariably allow them to opt out of assisting in an abortion. Even to a writer who holds a degree of sympathy with the pro-life position, the fight to overturn Roe v. Wade was, even under George W. Bush, a losing battle — and one that faded into utter irrelevance when measured against the magnitude of the country’s economic woes. What remains to be seen is whether the Christian right will allow its most destructive electoral campaign to die gracefully.
Sam Clegg ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in economics and history.
