Pro-choice/life litmus tests (Wallis)

August 31st, 2007  |  Published in Politics, Quotes, Sexuality  |  4 Comments

Instead of imposing pro-choice and pro-life political litmus tests, why not work together on teen pregnancy, adoption reform, and real alternatives for women backed into dangerous and lonely corners? Do we really want to dramatically reduce abortion and make it “rare,” as Bill Clinton once suggested, or have both sides just continue to treat this issue as a political football?

–Jim Wallis, God’s Politics (2005), p. 79

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  1. Eric Brown says:

    September 5th, 2007 at 12:25 pm (#)

    I’m all for offering women better alternatives, but whether or not that happens, things like murder and rape and armed robbery need to be prosecuted. Instead of prosecuting rapists, should we work together on better dating services?

  2. Josh Sowin says:

    September 5th, 2007 at 12:54 pm (#)

    Both groups think rapists and murders should be prosecuted, so they should work together on that, too.

  3. Eric Brown says:

    September 5th, 2007 at 1:16 pm (#)

    I think I’m missing your point.

    It seemed like the quote was suggesting that we shouldn’t worry so much about whether abortion is prosecuted, that we should let that go and focus on what we can agree on. That, of course, is fine, if you don’t think abortion should be criminal in the first place, but that’s begging the question, and is a useless point, i.e. of course we shouldn’t worry about prosecuting abortion if we don’t believe in prosecuting abortion. If we’re not going to beg the question, however, then not worrying about prosecuting abortion *because* we can supposedly better reduce the number of abortions by working together on XYZ, is as absurd as not prosecuting a rapist, because we can better reduce the number of rapes by working together on better dating services. The presence or quality of dating services should in no way detract from our determination to prosecute and punish rapists.

  4. Josh Sowin says:

    September 5th, 2007 at 5:21 pm (#)

    Ah, I see your point. Yes, the issue really does boil down to whether you think abortion should be considered criminal or not. But even so, I think both sides should work together to make it “rare.”

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