From conservative columnist Ross Douthat at The Atlantic:
Telling people who are against abortion that they're "pro-herpes" because they don't support channeling three hundred million public dollars a year to America's largest abortion provider is the equivalent of me accusing a fierce and moralizing anti-theist like Sam Harris of being "anti-education" because he doesn't want his tax dollars being used to, say, fund the Catholic school system. The phenomenon of an institution that does good with one hand and evil with another is a familiar one in human history – even Hezbollah does a lot of impressive humanitarian work, I believe - and it does not by any means follow that those who oppose the evil are morally obligated to support the institution anyway just because it does other, less morally problematic things besides.
This is one problem (of many) I have with the pro-life movement. Douthat calls me and every one of us who supports a woman's right to choose evil - or at least, the belief that we share as evil. Demonizing us like that is a convenient method of firing up the pro-life mob, but it's unfortunately a terrible way to promote rational debate.
As a pro-Obama, pro-choice, liberal Democrat, or however I should be labeled, I don't think there isn't a single rational person, liberal or conservative, who likes the idea of abortion. Nobody celebrates when a woman makes what is one of the most terrible, painful decisions she can ever make. However, what's often lost in the debate is what happens to a woman before an abortion occurs: Unplanned pregnancy. According to a recent report from the Guttmacher Institute, about half of all unintended pregnancies end in abortion. Teen pregnancy, rape, and sexual violence disproportionately affect racial minorities and women living in poverty. Abortion rates (as well as HIV/AIDS rates) are higher among Latino and African-American women than they are for white women, who typically have more resources and have lower rates of unplanned pregnancy. In many cases, these women also lack access to health care, condoms, contraceptives, birth control, STD testing, and family planning services.
Of course, Douthat simply calls these services "less morally problematic things" than abortion. It matters not that preventing unintended pregnancy also prevents the need for women to seek abortion services in the first place. To Douthat, all that's important is where these activities fall on the abortion spectrum; Planned Parenthood is merely the reproductive equivalent of Hezbollah, and those of us who support choice are harboring terrorists.
The time to change the rhetoric of this debate is now. In a country where health care costs are skyrocketing and more and more people are losing their health care coverage, it is imperative that government spending focus more on preventive care and providing access to health care services that could prevent unplanned pregnancies (particularly in low-income communities), so that perhaps one day, abortions might no longer be necessary. In fact, I heard former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders - she who was kicked out of the Clinton Administration because of her blunt views in support of condom distribution and reproductive rights - say it best last October at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting:
"Ain't no woman that ever got an abortion who wasn't already pregnant."
Those of us who are pro-choice need to take a cue from Dr. Elders and fight back against the smears from the pro-life movement. We are not terrible, evil sinners who will burn in Hades. We are not terrorists who bomb adoption centers and force pregnant women to abort their unborn children at the risk of torture. We don't support murder any more than pro-lifers support letting rapists and pedophiles choose parenthood for unwilling female victims.
We are, however, law-abiding citizens of the United States. We just believe that a woman should not be forced to carry a child that she never intended to have. We acknowledge that no matter which side we take in the abortion debate, we all have the same ultimate goal: To reduce the number of abortions and ultimately eliminate them. Most importantly, we recognize that we can and we must find common ground with Americans of all stripes in the mission to prevent unintended pregnancy.
But according to Douthat's philosophy that's just not possible. What do I know? I'm just evil scum to him.