Pro-death by coathanger rammed up uterus movement shows what it really thinks.

The pro-illegal abortion movement (ironically calling themselves 'pro-life') have officially shown where they stand in the reproductive rights and health culture war.

From the Washington Post:

Frustrated by the failure to overturn Roe v. Wade, a growing number of antiabortion pastors, conservative academics and activists are setting aside efforts to outlaw abortion and instead are focusing on building social programs and developing other assistance for pregnant women to reduce the number of abortions.

Reread those final two lines. Then reread the whole paragraph. The religious right is now trying to support women though economic assistance as a last resort. These people haven't seen supporting women as a priority. All they've been trying to do is ban abortion, rather then actually helping women.

The new effort is causing a fissure in the antiabortion movement, with traditional groups viewing the activists as traitors to their cause.

Totally. What were those libruls thinking-actually supporting pregnant women? What ever happened to good ol' demonisation and ostracism?

"It's a sellout, as far as we are concerned," said Joe Scheidler, founder of the Pro-Life Action League. "We don't think it's really genuine. You don't have to have a lot of social programs to cut down on abortions."

So Scheidler opposes abortion. But he also opposes programs to support pregnant women and therefore cut down on abortion. Does anybody else see some doublethink at work?

"We are not compromising our values, but at the same time we are finding a way we can all accomplish our agenda, or at least a piece of our agenda, together," said Hunter, pastor of Northland in Longwood, Fla., one of the nation's largest churches, and a board member of the National Association of Evangelicals. "There's got to be a way we can take some of these hot-button issues and cooperate, rather than simply keep fighting and becoming gridlocked in this hostility of the culture wars."

Given that you guys oppose abortion but also oppose contraception and sex education, I can't see any cooperation occuring any time soon.

A study sponsored by Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good cited recent research that found that the abortion rate among women living below the poverty line is more than four times that of women above 300 percent of the poverty level. The authors of the study found that social and economic supports, such as benefits for pregnant women and mothers and economic assistance to low-income families, have contributed significantly to reducing abortions in the United States over the past two decades.

"Clearly, poverty impacts the abortion rate," said Alexia Kelley, the group's executive director.

Well, obviously. Poor women are unable to support any children. Therefore, they destroy the few cells in the womb before those few cells become a malnourished, poorly supported child. But naturally, supporting women rather then turning them into criminals really pisses off the true Jesus-freaks.

But established abortion opponents dispute that approach. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said last week during a meeting of the conference that social-service spending is no substitute for legal protections for the unborn. He also questioned research showing that improvements in areas such as employment and health care can reduce the likelihood that a woman will want to end her pregnancy. "It's still to be proven what the connection is between poverty and abortion," he said.

Asides from what's already been proven, of course.

Those bills are largely opposed by antiabortion groups. "You don't work to limit the murder of innocent victims," said Judie Brown, president of the American Life League. "You work to stop it."

You wanna tell me what that silver bullet to stop all abortions is? There is, obviously, no such thing. No matter what happens, no what civilisation we build, abortions will always occur. However, what our society can do is reduce them and improve their safety. The only way to make an abortion safe is to legalise it; otherwise...well, we all know how much of a roaring success prohibition was. But this time, we're not playing with alcohol. We're playing with women's lives here-lives that will be cut very short if they have a failed illegal abortion (given that the alternative is prison).
The ways to reduce the needs for abortions are, to your eternal horror, sex education and contraception. Which you would never allow.

If I were as ideologically as twisted as you were, I'd wish that you'd have to suffer an illegal abortion and nearly die before being imprisoned for the crime. Thankfully for you, I'm one of the peacemakers.

Cross-posted here and here.