The logo for the Daily Beast's Obsessed website. It reads: 'Obsessed: What to Watch, Binge, See, & Skip'
DAILY BEAST
CrosswordNewsletters
  • Cheat Sheet
  • Obsessed
  • Politics
  • Crime
  • Entertainment
  • Media
  • Innovation
  • Opinion
  • World
  • U.S. News
  • Scouted
CHEAT SHEET
    POLITICS
    • Biden World
    • Elections
    • Opinion
    • National Security
    • Congress
    • Pay Dirt
    • The New Abnormal
    • Trumpland
    MEDIA
    • Confider
    • Daytime Talk
    • Late-Night
    • Fox News
    U.S. NEWS
    • Identities
    • Crime
    • Race
    • LGBT
    • Extremism
    • Coronavirus
    WORLD
    • Russia
    • Europe
    • China
    • Middle East
    INNOVATION
    • Science
    TRAVEL
      ENTERTAINMENT
      • TV
      • Movies
      • Music
      • Comedy
      • Sports
      • Sex
      • TDB's Obsessed
      • Awards Shows
      • The Last Laugh
      CULTURE
      • Power Trip
      • Fashion
      • Books
      • Royalist
      TECH
      • Disinformation
      SCOUTED
      • Clothing
      • Technology
      • Beauty
      • Home
      • Pets
      • Kitchen
      • Fitness
      • I'm Looking For
      BEST PICKS
      • Best VPNs
      • Best Gaming PCs
      • Best Air Fryers
      COUPONS
      • Vistaprint Coupons
      • Ulta Coupons
      • Office Depot Coupons
      • Adidas Promo Codes
      • Walmart Promo Codes
      • H&M Coupons
      • Spanx Promo Codes
      • StubHub Promo Codes
      Products
      NewslettersPodcastsCrosswordsSubscription
      FOLLOW US
      GOT A TIP?

      SEARCH

      HOMEPAGE
      0

      How to End the Abortion Wars

      Pro-Life Movement

      David Frum

      Updated Jul. 13, 2017 10:57PM ET / Published Aug. 20, 2012 12:00PM ET 

      Win McNamee/Getty Images

      The same remorseless reasoning process that leads Todd Akin and other pro-lifers to oppose rape exceptions leads some exponents of abortion rights to equally bizarre outcomes.

      If a pregnancy does not become a person until the moment the child has fully emerged from the mother's womb, then a lot of hideous things become permissible too, including abortions of babies fully capable of life on their own and the sex-selection abortion that has led Nobelist Amartya Sen to calculate that 100 million girls are missing in India and China.

      Civilians in the abortion wars try to draw distinctions between cases where abortion becomes more wrong and where it becomes less wrong: yes up to 10 weeks, no thereafter; yes for serious birth defects, no for sex-selection; etc. They are groping for some modulation, some way to translate complicated moral intuitions into rules a society can live by. The belligerents in abortion wars disdain this search for compromise as mere equivocation, a flinching from deeper truths.

      Yet the complexity of the abortion issue is also a deeper truth, and so too is the need for people of differing views to find a way to get along with each other.

      I've suggested before that the history of the temperance movement might offer a precedent for the abortion debate: the attempt to ban alcohol was abandoned, even as drunkenness was radically reduced. Likewise, we see abortion rates in the U.S. declining, and pro-life sentiment rising—even as attempts to criminalize abortion provoke overwhelming backlash.

      This could be a way forward: less logical, but more reasonable; a politics less of first principles, and more of common sense.

      David Frum

      Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.

      READ THIS LIST

      DAILY BEAST
      • Cheat Sheet
      • Politics
      • Entertainment
      • Media
      • World
      • Innovation
      • U.S. News
      • Scouted
      • Travel
      • Subscription
      • Crossword
      • Newsletters
      • Podcasts
      • About
      • Contact
      • Tips
      • Jobs
      • Advertise
      • Help
      • Privacy
      • Code of Ethics & Standards
      • Diversity
      • Terms & Conditions
      • Copyright & Trademark
      • Sitemap
      • Best Picks
      • Coupons
      • Coupons:
      • Dick's Sporting Goods Coupons
      • HP Coupon Codes
      • Chewy Promo Codes
      • Nordstrom Rack Coupons
      • NordVPN Coupons
      • JCPenny Coupons
      • Nordstrom Coupons
      • Samsung Promo Coupons
      • Home Depot Coupons
      • Hotwire Promo Codes
      • eBay Coupons
      • Ashley Furniture Promo Codes
      © 2023 The Daily Beast Company LLC