Abortion.

I was watching CNN just a few minutes ago and they were broadcasting an anti-abortion rally at the National Mall at which Bush was speaking via telephone. Afterwords, a CNN reporter began interviewing a woman who had been in attendence during 31 of the last 32 anti-abortion rallies held each year since Roe v. Wade. The reporter asked her a number of questions and the question and answer that really stood out to me went as follows:

Reporter: Now we have a second term pro-life president and what do you think he will do regarding abortion?

Woman: Well, he will appoint judges to the Supreme Court who will overturn abortion so that we can finally stop it.

The key word here is 'it.' What is 'it'? It is abortion. This woman falsely believes that by having outlawed abortion 'it' will stop. Madness! Abortion will simply move underground and become more dangerous. If you want a culture of life, how about services to help people who need it? Under Clinton, a pro-choice president, abortion rates went down. Thats really all you can ask for. And for all you lovable chirstians out there, I offer a small reminder: St. Thomas Aquinas considered abortion within God's plan as long as it occurred in the first trimester (before 'ensoulment'). And the Catholic Church was largely mute and otherwise wishy-washy on the issue of abortion until the 1930's when the then Pope more or less arbitrarily decided to position the Church against abortion. And since we're here, both abortion and condoms were common (relatively) during Jesus' time though he makes no mention of it. Maybe he considered it a privacy issue?

Another thing. It seems to me that if the Democrats want to get a hold of this issue they have to reframe the debate back to what it originally was (and actually is). Abortion is a privacy issue. So are gay rights. How about talking about all things sexuality as something between a person and their loved ones? It's not pro-choice, its pro-privacy.