abortion
Is an Embryo More Important than a Woman?
by Rachel MacNair As I wade through the avalanche of post-Dobbs media coverage, I note the familiar pattern of being totally oblivious to what the objection to induced abortion is: that it kills a human being. While there exist arguments that what’s killed isn’t a human being, and other arguments that such killing is…
Abortion: A Restorative Justice Response
by Jim Hewes This is a response to the question of what states will now do after the Dobbs decision when women procure illegal abortions. There was a joint letter from more than 70 leading pro-life organizations stating that “criminalizing women who have abortions is not pro-life.” Many pro-life leaders and politicians have publicly stated…
Post-Roe Stats: the Natural Experiment
by Rachel MacNair In a post-Roe world, predictions (hypotheses) can be made to test claims of differing perspectives. What’s coming is a huge “natural experiment.” A natural experiment, unlike a lab experiment, wasn’t arranged in advance. An 1854 London cholera outbreak had differing patterns of water sources – cholera could be caused by contaminated water….
Post-Roe Life-Affirming Help
by Rachel MacNair Now that we can refer to the Roe era in the past tense, we have some different considerations for building a Culture of Life (and a Culture of Peace, which I see as the same thing). Abortions Going Down A commonly expressed fear in the media is that abortions can only be…
Major Obstacle Removed!
We’ve marched and educated and advocated, and finally it’s happened, as of June 24, 2022: months shy of 50 years, the United States courts will now allow citizens to influence abortion policy without judges telling them they can’t. The work ahead is huge, but at least it now has the chance to be more effective….
Must We Resign Ourselves to Violence?
by Julia Smucker Once while taking a graduate-level test in cultural anthropology, I had a revelation of sorts. In the class, we’d been discussing what’s revealed when different cultural values come into tension. The test essay question went something like, “What would the repeal of motorcycle helmet laws say about American cultural values, and how…
My Ideas for Post-Roe Legislation
by Rachel MacNair Now that Roe’s overturn looks like a real possibility, I want to suggest some ideas for legislation. When the Biden administration started, I wrote My Ideas for 2021 Legislation, detailing what I would advise if I were asked, knowing I wouldn’t be asked. I still hold to ratifying the United Nations…
Reflections on the Alito Draft Leak of May 2, 2022
The May 2 article in Politico has caused quite a stir: a leaked February 10 draft of a proposed opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson. The draft says that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” and explicitly overturns Roe v. Wade and Casey. Here we offer a variety of responses. The Work Ahead Excerpt from Statement…
Walk On: Responding To Recent Situations in the Pro-Life Movement
by Sonja Morin Content warning: physical assault, medical malpractice, and brutality against pre-born children are discussed in this article. Reader discretion is advised, especially for those who have experienced pregnancy loss. “What?”… “what?”… “what?” I did not realize how bad my hearing loss was until the four of us arrived in Boston’s North…
Behind and Beyond the Shout for Abortion
We need works of art that convey the radical horror of abortion by Richard Stith The US Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) stated in support of abortion that the “ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their…