A Couple Great Articles...

I found a couple of really great British opinion pieces today, courtesy of Jay Nordlinger of National Review. Both articles are in response to an amendment brought before Parliament that would have required that women considering an abortion receive counseling from a group separate from the group performing the abortion. This seemingly reasonable requirement, which has been influential in reducing abortion rates in Germany, was met with vitriol from the powers that be in Britain -- the same vitriol that we have come to expect here in America in response to even the most basic, commonsense regulations or restrictions on abortion. The first piece is by Mary Wakefield of The Spectator, and is one of the best articles I have ever read on the topic of abortion. I highly recommend it. The second is from The Telegraph, and while not as comprehensive as the first it makes some very good points. Among them is this:

In fact abortion is one of those “Left-wing” things that should be a Right-wing thing. After all, you’re far more likely to be aborted if you’re black, poor, disabled or female – the demographics of aborted foetus would give diversity consultants goosepimples if their protected characteristics were visible. And for people obsessed with equality, you don’t get a bigger inequality than life and death.

The second article also addresses the claim that the pro-life movement is merely a fringe religious movement by noting that opposition to slavery also started out as a religious movement:

The pro-life movement does remain strongly religious, which is a weakness, but it does not necessarily mean it is irrational or “unscientific”. Moral campaigns are often dominated by religious groups; once only tiresome weirdo Quakers opposed the natural and universally accepted institution of slavery. We might all now assume slavery is wrong, but to 18th century people it was not obvious.