No Pasarais

There has been a lot of talk by people of a more Democratic leaning recently about the possibility of finding common ground on social issues and, in particular, abortion. The Democratic national committee amended their platform, writing that they supported abortion more thoroughly than before, but were willing to consider supporting the freedom of women to choose alternatives. Since then, most of their discussion of abortion--which has, since the 1980s, been a embarrassment for the Democratic Party, though it is unlikely that it will ever again be outlawed--has focused on reducing the number of abortions through the implementation of social programs. They think that pro-lifers should join with them in the "common" cause. Pro-lifers shouldn't.

The entire notion is a stunt by the Democratic Party to have a cake and eat it also. They talk about finding "common ground," but seem perfectly content to be the ones to define which grounds are common and which grounds are off-limits. What they are actually doing is inviting pro-lifers to accept their own terms and lend easy support to programs which have the stated purpose of "reducing the number of abortions". There is not even any concrete evidence that indicates that abortions are reduced by an increase in social programs such as day-care.

The most fundamental problem with their reasoning is that they may want to reduce abortions, but they want to reduce abortions when starting from the maximum number. The notion that abortions decreased because of Bill Clinton's social policies is a myth; it was actually the restrictions of governors--from Bob Casey to Kirk Fordice--during the 1990s that reduced the number of abortions. (Incidentally, the number continued to decrease, largely due to the efforts of a GOP administration during the last eight years.) In their ideal society, the Democrats want the maximum number of abortions to be a possibility, if not the status quo. But when the status quo is not desireable for those who consider themselves pro-life, why should they consider making common ground where it is defined by those who wish to increase the death-toll?