Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has crossed his Rubicon into full-blown “pro-life” extremism. More circumspect GOP presidential candidates come close, but stop at the riverbank. Marching on to Rome, Rubio told CNN that he categorically opposes all abortion, even abortion to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest.
“Pro-life” extremists like Rubio assert that science proves a human life begins at conception. Wiser heads understand that the relevant consideration is not when life begins, but when personhood starts to emerge. All should realize this is a very big gray area.
{mosads}A new life forms in an instant. Personhood unfolds over time and throughout life. A newly fertilized egg is only a potential person, like an acorn is only a potential oak tree. Personhood and development of character are the supreme tasks of every human life. Human societies consist of persons. A DNA blueprint for a human life is not a person.
Science can seldom give hard and fast answers to ethical and philosophical questions. Logic is a more useful guide. So what guidance does logic offer? From the premise that human personhood begins at conception, it’s logical to conclude that abortion is murder, as does “pro-life” candidate Dr. Ben Carson (R).
Here Carson stumbles unawares into a political minefield. Murder requires a murderer. Who are the criminals who commit murder by abortion? First, women who get an abortion are at least accomplices to murder. Consenting fathers are also accomplices. What about the medical professionals who perform the abortions? They must be murderers for hire—logically speaking.
“Pro-life” extremists often quote this figure: 62 million abortions in U.S. since Rowe v Wade. Various sources claim that about one third of U.S. women have an abortion by age 45. Here’s the rub: if abortion is murder, one out of every three American women will become murderers by age 45.
With the “life begins at conception” premise, and its corollary abortion is murder, there can be no essential moral difference between a woman who aborts a fetus in the first trimester and one who smothers her three year old in his crib. Sound absurd? That should tell you Carson’s premises are suspect.
If radical “pro-life” candidates, like Mike Huckabee (R), were granted their wish to apply equal protection of law to all fetuses, the law would require those guilty of aborting fetuses be treated the same as other murderers. No way around this implacable logic, Gov. Huckabee.
The logic of “pro-life” extremism makes murderers of nearly one third of women, and many of their husbands, lovers, and doctors. It lays a heavy burden of guilt, shame and degradation upon the millions of women who had an abortion or contemplate having one. It revives medieval stigmas that degrade the “daughters of Eve” as weaker than men and more susceptible to sin. Dare we call “pro-life” extremism the New American Sharia?
So, candidates Rubio, Carson, and Huckabee, are you ready to accept the impolitic conclusions that follow from criminalizing abortion? Will you admit that up to one third of the women whose votes you seek are indeed murderers, and deserve to be prosecuted as murderers? If so, good luck on getting their votes!
An ominous fact of Republican politics is that radical “pro-life” rhetoric nurtures and gives credence to the liberals “War on Women” rhetoric.
The liberals are right to cry foul. Abortion as murder, rigorously enforced, would push women back into the Middle Ages. Indeed, it would destroy our free society. Imagine incarcerating for murder up to one third of all adult women.
Diehard pro-life candidates can espouse whatever moral radicalism they like. But voters should question the motives, honesty, and intelligence of candidates who push a morality that criminalizes a woman’s choice in all instances. The purpose of morality is to protect and nurture human society. Moral fanaticism that destroys the social contract by dividing the house of a society against itself is immoral and anarchist. It serves only fanatics, opportunists, and fools.
So far liberal Democrats have not tried to confront Republican “pro-lifers” about the staggering implications of “pro-life” extremism. Don’t count on this restraint continuing through the fall 2016 campaign.
When liberals launch their sequel to the Republican War on Women, just remember who built them their launching pad.
Driscoll is a pro-rationality Republican who favors limiting abortions to the first 20 weeks with exceptions for rape, incest and the mother’s life.