No single issue in the United States has been as polarizing as abortion. Judging from the rhetoric, the campaigns by partisan groups and the general yelling back and forth it would appear it is a debate that will only be solved by either one side or the other declaring final victory, something that is not likely to happen any time soon.
This past week a new radio ad campaign began in the United States to talk about a “third way.” It is being sponsored by a group called Faith in Public Life, which tries to find common ground for people of faith on a range of issues, including abortion, poverty and immigration.
The ads are intended to get Americans to start thinking about practical ways of reducing abortion, given that the partisan debate of the past 35 years, since Roe vs. Wade, has not changed a thing — and the likelihood of Roe being overturned in the near future is remote. Americans keep having abortions, about 1.2 million a year, and poor women are four times more likely to have an abortion than those more well off.
Katie Paris, a spokeswoman for the group, said they thought the final week of a heated political campaign would be the best time to get their message out. She said both pro-life and pro-choice groups are running ads urging Americans to consider the abortion issue when casting their vote — though they fall short of endorsing a specific candidate.
“It’s the same old debate, same old rhetoric,” she said. “They are all focussed on the legality of abortion and demonizing each other. We believe this new approach is what most people are really interested in. We wanted to put a message out there that would really resonate. It’s trying to get people to think about it differently. We wanted to say it doesn’t have to be like this.”
The ad, which can be heard on realabortionsolutions.com, begins by arguing it is “time to stop the political posturing and get serious about protecting life.” It implores those who are pro-life and those who are pro-choice to get past “bumper-sticker rhetoric” and find issues that both sides can agree on to reduce the number of abortions. The web site talks about current bills meant to reduce abortions and quotes Catholic and evangelical supporters of the campaign.
“Even if Roe vs. Wade was overturned today it would not mean that abortions would end,” said Ms. Paris. “The question is: Are there practical things we can do today to start reducing the number of abortions?”
The new ad points out there are still a “tragic 2,400 late-term abortions each year," but points out that far more babies born never make to their first birthday.
“Late-term abortions come up in the political debates and on talk shows,” said Ms. Paris. “But what nobody is talking about is that 10 times that number of babies die in their first year of life because of inadequate health care. Our infant mortality rate is embarrassing in the United States.”
She said a number of states have programs that have proven successful in reducing abortion and they hope the federal government would mimic the best of these programs and institute them nationally.
“It would also send a message that the government not only values choice but also life,” said Ms. Paris.
Their web site points to two current pieces of federal legislation meant to reduce abortions without calling for it to be illegal. They cover such things as providing for free pre- and post-natal care, making adoptions easier, creating more programs to prevent teen pregnancies and providing educational assistance for pregnant women who want to have their babies.
Ms. Paris said the ads are meant to draw out “pragmatic pro-lifers,” those who are interested in getting results.
“They are really tired of the haggling back and forth. They look at the fact that one in five pregnancies end in abortion in this country and that is too many.”
Two years ago the non-partisan Pew Research Center in Washington found that two out of three Americans support finding a middle ground on abortion. It found 62% of Republicans and 70% of Democrats favoured this approach. And more than six in 10 white evangelicals, often unfairly portrayed as the most strident anti-abortion activists, favoured a compromise.
Yet despite that, the extremes in the debate, which have the dominant voice, send a message of my way or the highway.
Last month, Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center in Washington, said in an interview that part of the reason the debate gets so strident is because of the number of people who have invested themselves deeply in the debate.
National Post
clewis@nationalpost.com
source: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/10/31/charles-lewis-u-s-group-seeks-third-way-on-abortion.aspx
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