About the Author
Opinion Archives
E-mail Scott
Scott's Links


The GOP establishment on abortion: They just don't get it.

By Scott Tibbs, November 4, 2011

The Republican establishment just doesn't get it on the issue of abortion. This editorial by David Frum (who served as a special assistant to President George W. Bush and a senior foreign policy adviser to Rudy Giuliani's failed campaign for President) puts that fact in boldface.

Frum compares abortion to the political wars on alcohol, which became shooting wars between organized crime syndicates when the Prohibitionists got their way and got it banned. But with this comparison, he demonstrates why he does not understand why the pro-life movement is not going anywhere and why we are motivated to end it.

In and of itself, alcohol is harmless. After all, Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine. (The context of John 2:10 makes it clear that this was alcoholic wine.) The problem that comes with alcohol is when people abuse it. The economic, personal, family and societal consequences of alcohol abuse are well documented.

But while alcohol itself is harmless, abortion is never harmless. Abortion is the willful, intentional killing of a human being. Over fifty million children have been legally killed in America's abortion clinics since 1973. We oppose abortion for the same reason we oppose killing babies after they are born.

The political battles over abortion simply are not going to go away, because those of us who recognize the reality of abortion are not going to stop making it an issue. Abortion is an affront to human dignity and a severe violation of human rights. Drinking alcohol is neither of those things.

A more accurate historical comparison is not to Prohibition, but to slavery. Like abortion, slavery divided the political parties and was the subject of intense and fierce political debates. The abolitionists did not stop fighting slavery until it was eliminated, because they recognized we cannot be a free nation while one man is allowed to own another as property. Similarly, we cannot truly be free when it is legal to kill people for convenience.