This actually happened a couple elections ago. There was a vacancy for Oakland County Drain Commissioner, and a friend of mine had met one of the candidates. Afterwards, she called me.
“Do you know whether he is pro-choice?“ she asked me.
Pro-choice about Drano? I wondered. Septic tanks vs. sump pumps? Naturally, I knew what she really meant, and thought her question was nuts. I didn’t know, and didn’t care.
But later, I saw some of the candidate’s campaign materials. And indeed, the would-be drain czar had listed himself as being pro-life, which usually means, being anti-abortion.
Long ago, abortion ceased to become a normal issue. Now, it has evolved into the mother of all cultural markers. Yes, there are a few anti-abortion Democrats and a few pro-choice Republicans, but not many. Pollsters can ask you five questions, none of which have anything to do with abortion, and usually know how you feel about Roe v Wade.
Naturally, not everybody fits so easily into two camps. There are lots of people who are uneasy with any simplistic position. I know a famous man who is very pro-choice.
But he has a delightful son who he was able to adopt because the baby’s mother was too lazy to show up at the abortion clinic till she was too far along. And Ellen Goodman once wrote that she knew pro-life women who, when it came down to it, would make three exceptions: Rape, Incest, and Me.
Personally, I really don’t have a dog in this fight; I am not a woman, and have never been responsible for a pregnancy. I suppose I would be classified as pro-choice because I do not think I have the right to tell any one what they ought to do with their body.
But none of this is easy. Here’s what worries me. The last time we had an issue this divisive -- slavery -- the politicians tried unsuccessfully to find a compromise for forty years, and then we had a Civil War. We don’t need another one of those.
There is some hypocrisy on both sides. Whatever liberals say, The Supreme Court did indeed “legislate from the bench” when they decided Roe vs. Wade. Whatever conservatives say, they now want the Court to do the same thing and overturn a 33-year-precedent.
Instead, both sides should be going about this the right way and fighting for a constitutional amendment. And in the meantime, hard as it may be, we need to do our best to get along.
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