Liberty and responsibility
After a recent appearance, Sen. Thomas Lincoln was asked about his prolife liberal perspective. In previous talks, he has focused on his liberal credentials as opposed to his prolife stand. This time, he was asked to look at it in reverse.
“I am prolife. I think every abortion is a tragedy. I look forward to the day when all abortions are not just illegal but nonexistent. But I have to go along with President Bush here. I don’t think the country is ready for a ban, so if we want to reduce abortion, we need to look for ways both to make carrying children to term more appealing and less stressful and to reduce unwanted pregnancies. We need to address the demand side of the equation because cutting off supply won’t work at this point in time.”
“But I want to respond to a criticism I’ve heard before of prolifers. That is that if they oppose abortion, why aren’t they out adopting children–or some similar critique. I believe that the right to life is fundamental. There’s no contingency here. It’s more basic than the right to a fair trial. And when it comes to fair trials, we don’t expect people who support them to be responsible for the guilty who go free.”
“The right to liberty is basic. We didn’t demand that the abolitionists take responsibility for freed slaves or come up with a system for caring for them or incorporating them into society. Slavery was an abomination, and the social costs of ending it were a small price to pay by comparison. Why are we treating the right to life so differently?”
“So, I don’t think prolifers should be responsible for children who would be born if abortion were eliminated. But I have to say that I think they should want to be. They should want to care for these children. It’s unrealistic, however, to put this responsibility wholly on individuals, however. It’s something that society as a whole needs to take responsibility for.”
“There’s where too many of my fellow prolifers have come up short, I believe. They stress the immorality of abortion but ignore the immorality of ignoring their brothers and sisters.”
“It’s not just a religious thing–though it’s that too. The Golden Rule comes to mind, as does much of Isaiah and the Gospels. This is simply about how to treat other living human beings. And even more mercenary, it’s about our survival as a society.”
“Unfortunately, we get into arguments about personal liberty and taxes and personal responsibility. You know, you have no right to terminate that life, but you have no claim on me or my resources to help you raise the child. You can’t tax me to provide healthcare or nutrition–that’s all your responsibility. Well, I’d like to suggest that you and I are personally responsible for each other. That’s the bottom line of my campaign.”