ASHTON ELLIS
Staff Writer
With the Supreme Court’s new session fast approaching, many pro-lifers are wondering whether new additions John Roberts and Sam Alito will attempt to overturn legalized abortion. But what if the long sought reversal of Roe was unnecessary? What if abortion became irrelevant? Not less important, not outlawed — irrelevant.
Imagine living in a country where the respect for human life was so great, the mere thought of terminating a pregnancy would be as repugnant as lynching a black person. It could happen if the pro-life movement learns from the experiences of Martin Luther King Jr.
Long after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery, African-Americans in the South lived with the reality that they were considered second-class citizens. The right to vote was routinely circumvented; the ability to work was limited, and the chance for higher education was nonexistent. In essence, their equality as humans was institutionally denied. Enter Martin Luther King Jr.
Realizing that people, not laws, discriminate, King focused his attention on changing hearts and minds. He worked to weaken the reach of racial discrimination by framing the argument for equality in images that captured the imagination. Some pictures shocked the senses as live television feeds broadcast to millions, images of police dogs gnashing at protesters and student sit-ins at segregated lunch counters. The most poignant of these displayed a protester holding a sign that read “I AM A MAN.” Surely God in Heaven knew this — how could men on earth not?
The lesson to learn from King’s experience is that a simple truth can cause a profound change. On Nov. 11, 2002, “Time” magazine ran a photograph on its cover of a developing human inside a mother’s womb. The picture caused a stir because, for the first time, millions of Americans saw that an embryo begins to look like a human within at 17 weeks of conception.
The picture also made a statement. There, on the page in full color rested a not-yet-developed, but fully formed human. For a culture jaded by spin doctors and appeals to base sensibility, this picture symbolically declared “I am a human too.”
Now is the time for pro-life supporters to expand the reach of their message. In order to achieve the kind of lasting success necessary to remove the abortion issue from national debate, it is important that the American public come to see the issue as something beyond the pale of politics. Simply put, it is more important than politics. It is more important because the political process is one predicated on the art of compromise. Recalling the issue of slavery, it is wince-inducing to acknowledge that each generation of American statesmen effectively kicked the can down the road, until the can turned into a powder keg and exploded in 1861. There are some things that cannot be compromised.
Hardly anyone today would argue that removing the prohibition on slavery should be left to political discretion.
Society recognizes that denying a person his or her status as a human due to the color of skin violates a law more authoritative than any law passed in a legislature or upheld in court. The same should apply to the weakest, and therefore the most discriminated against minority in American life — the unborn.
The complete abolition of abortion in the United States may never come to pass. Nevertheless, it may become irrelevant if the pro-life movement can help the American public understand that abortion, like slavery, dehumanizes its victims by denying them their inherent equality with other members of the human race.
09-14-2006