Although Kamala Harris and the Democrats marked their campaign with a national abortion convention and a “reproductive freedom tour,” abortion ultimately did not turn out to be the kind of priority they hoped it would be for voters.
As political polling expert Rich Baris (The People’s Pundit) correctly pointed out before the election, the economy and immigration were much more important to American voters.
It makes sense, because as Dan Bongino has pointed out, the “right to choose” – unlike those higher priority issues – is not a “finger-prick” issue that voters were likely to feel the pain of as they go about their daily lives.
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President Trump’s approach to abortion has for the most part taken the issue away from the Democrats, because he points out that now (thanks in large part to him) the U.S. Supreme Court has put the issue firmly in the hands of the people and their elected representatives, and different states go in different directions, as we saw in the fate of pro-abortion ballot amendments.
Yet there is a deeper dynamic we need to realize. We have been conducting a “pretend debate” on abortion for the last five decades.
I’ve spent over three of those decades dealing with this issue on the national level, and it has always been clear to me that the American people are talking past each other on this topic.
Democrat politicians and other abortion advocates have refused to describe what they defend. We all saw the campaign trail lead Kamala Harris to an abortion business, and but we didn’t see the aftermath of an abortion. We heard her talk about the “right to choose,” but we never heard her read a description of how an abortion is done.
That’s because the medical textbooks on abortion (like Abortion Practice by Dr. Warren Hern) use the words “dismember” and “decapitate” to describe the abortion procedure.
That’s hardly attractive to voters, even those who are Democrat and “pro-choice.”
And too many in the anti-abortion camp don’t want to expose the reality of abortion either.
Yet at least when the topic comes up, the anti-abortion people talk about abortion. The pro-abortion people don’t.
Instead, they talk about different topics — things we actually do not oppose: Women’s health, rights, equality, freedom, and reproductive choice.
This avoidance of the reality of abortion is reflected in popular culture. In the television series The West Wing, for example, Season 1, Episode 14 dealt with a death penalty case. The American president ultimately decides not to pardon a death row inmate.
The procedure, step by step, of the prisoner’s execution is described in vivid detail, and at the end, the president, a Catholic, is shown going to confession in the Oval Office because he didn’t do enough to save that life.
In the television series Grey’s Anatomy, Season 5, Episode 12 likewise deals with a death row inmate, and the execution of that man is shown in detail.
On the other hand, although that series shows numerous bloody surgeries in detail, whether on the heart, liver, brain or intestines, it never shows the bloody reality of abortion, or the hands, arms and legs that come out piece by piece from the mother’s womb.
Helen Prejean is a Catholic religious sister who for decades has been on a mission to abolish the death penalty. She has said in her book Dead Man Walking and in interviews that if people could only see these executions, they would reject them.
In similar fashion, I have proclaimed in my own work that America will not reject abortion until America sees abortion.
Our nation remains as heatedly divided on abortion as ever before, because we are trying to debate policy, even on the level of state constitutional amendments, without even agreeing on what we are talking about or facing the reality of what it is.
Abortion advocates and pro-lifers must engage in an honest debate on abortion and not just rely on a soundbite that actually hides more than it reveals.
I am grateful for all that President Trump has done for the unborn in this nation. It is more than any other President has been able to accomplish and I look forward to the next four years.
But now it’s our turn, as a people, to decide what to do next. This election brought victories to both sides of the abortion divide, but no matter who was elected or what ballot measures passed or failed, we will never resolve this issue in America unless and until we face it honestly.
Once and for all, let the debate begin.
LifeNews.com Note: Frank Pavone is the national director for Priests for Life.
