Not everything has a legislative solution

Very few people know that the medical procedure of aborting an incomplete pregnancy was at least propagated as accepted practice by the Progressives and their Eugenics movement. Andrew Napolitano, in his dissection of the Progressive Movement titled "Theodore and Woodrow" tells us Progressive Era politicians wanted to "control the lesser races.." (p.93). Rooted in the desire for a completely pure race, Eugenicists used abortion and sterilization to limit the populations of races they deemed less worthy. It's pure Aryanism and as a people our lack of understanding of its roots are tragic.

That having been said, abortion procedures are sometimes necessary. Even the staunchest social conservative allows for "cases such as rape or incest or when the mother's life is in danger." So we all recognize the legitimacy of this medical procedure. Making it a political argument does much damage that can never be undone. The gravity of the decision to abort a pregnancy demands that it not be political, yet, all too often, it is.

Rooted in the fallacy that we can leverage legislative solutions for every one of our problems is the notion that there must be laws either legalizing or prohibiting the practice of abortion. Without deeper consideration it is easy to seek authoritative solutions either permitting or prohibiting the practice. Either life or liberty hangs in the balance, and the choice seems so black and white. That makes it an easy lever with which the corrupted bureaucrats can pit us against one-another as a means to advance their careers. And, on this debate, there could be no more success.

The battle cries are simple:

"We must PROTECT the unborn!!!!!"

"A WOMAN has the RIGHT to CHOOSE!!!!"

These are seductively simple black and white arguments that lend themselves to cable television shouting matches, accusations of all manner of personal deficiency, and ultimately, stalemate. We tend to focus on emotion, which leaves little room for reason. But seeking to prohibit outright an accepted medical procedure that is rarely yet sometimes a legitimate decision unwittingly abets progressives and enhances public sympathy for their cause.

Ultimately, there is no legislative solution to this problem. Making it a political football motivates people to pursue the practice whether it is needed or not. Given that Abortion is a medical procedure, beyond regulating for the cleanliness and safety of the medical facilities where this and other procedures take place, we need to excuse the government from this decision. With that will go the special interests that seek the government out for funding of this brutal, barbaric practice. (And also, please understand that brain surgery and setting broken bones is also brutal and barbaric, yet, sometimes necessary.) Getting both political sides out of this argument is unlikely in the current political climate because there is simply too much money to be made and political powers to be gained in publicizing the opposing points of view. For the socially conservative, they know not the damage their simplistic, authoritarian approach causes. They have indirectly enriched Planned Parenthood by making its continued funding a matter for vigorous public debate. They have allowed pro-abortion forces to distract women from what matters by focusing the discussion on rights rather than responsibilities. An insane pay structure increasing public funding based on the number of abortions performed has developed. In the reference, Marianne Anderson says in an interview with Natalie Hoefer about her experience working as a nurse at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Indianapolis, "It was a money-grubbing, evil, very sad, sad place to work." Anderson states that on the days abortions are performed, Tuesdays and Fridays, the clinic performed between 25 and 35 abortions. Using 30 as an average, that means 60 children a week are deprived of their lives by a medical procedure that should amount to the merest fraction of those numbers. And that's just one clinic in Indiana, a midwestern state with presumably midwestern values that would at least minimize, if not avoid abortion procedures as much as possible. The question must be asked, no matter how well-intentioned pro-life social conservatives are, how many lives has our predilection for authoritative solutions actually cost? No, clearly, not everything has a legislative solution.

So, what to do? We've become so accustomed to leveraging authority, we can not conceive of a world where the government is not the solution. But leveraging force actually made this problem worse. Stop seeking authority to make people do what you want. Minister to them. Beef up the alternative clinics that already exist. Get the word out in the community. There is a better way.

We must end this political debate. Abortion is legal and will never be made illegal, and continuing to battle for it only reinforces the opposite argument. Americans are libertarian in nature, are becoming ever more so as disillusionment with the existing political parties continues to grow. Clearly, the American community seeks a better way to conduct our affairs.

On this and many other socially conservative positions, the arguments have failed and we must pursue another path if we really care about those issues. Otherwise, this stalemate will continue to cost the lives of countless unborn children who's rights to their natural lives have been mercilessly terminated in the name of convenience, racism, political power, and yes, even money.