Grim Milestone

35 years ago, the Supreme Court affirmed the so-called "right to choose", thus producing a society wherein it's perfectly okay to terminate a healthy human life, so long it's done before the little brat gets too big. Meanwhile, the torture and murder of domestic animals is not just taboo, but illegal and, in certain cases, punishable as a felony. Ah, moral relativism, what a beautiful thing.

Every decent person was up in arms about Michael Vick's dog fighting, but a large plurality of Americans -- perhaps most -- don't find much wrong with the willful destruction of hundreds of thousands of unborn children each and every year. Isn't something seriously wrong with that equation, particularly when the vast majority of abortions are not done out of medical necessity, but merely because pregnancy is an "inconvenience." An inconvenience.

I want to write more about this, but I'm saving it for an article in the next issue of The Beacon. Suffice to say that, to me, January 22 isn't cause for celebration, but for mourning.

Reality Check

Barack Obama: very much a liberal. By NARAL's reckoning, he's a flawless abortion advocate. Pity.

Even so, he continues to make stellar impressions on the right.

Abortion and Pop Culture

When Knocked Up exhibited a genuine antipathy for abortion culture, I was somewhat surprised. Set in the heart of the "left coast", featuring a Jewish stoner and an E! anchorwoman (not exactly your typical pro-lifers), the film portrays termination not as something wrong, but as a fundamental non-choice. In a real way, that's much worse.

Then I saw Juno, which went a step further than Knocked Up: instead of giving abortion the "silent treatment", it presented a proactive critique. The "Clinic Scene" (which, I think, will receive extensive study in the future) is an exceptionally queasy look at pregnancy termination.

So, stepping back, what we see here is a culture with shifting perceptions of child-bearing. With death and destruction -- both abroad and at home -- characterizing the external world, it seems there's suddenly a social imperative to re-sanctify pregnancy, and thus reaffirm the value of life.

As I see it, this new (old) impulse, combined with an actual decline in U.S. abortion rates (especially among adolescents), is reason for cheer.