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Will Abortion Ever Be “Settled”?

mildred stanley and lawrence welk 240“History will sort out right and wrong,” Josh Noel assures us of this in his May 27 Chicago Tribune column.

Noel’s column features a photo (at right) of bandleader Lawrence Welk and singer Mildred Stanley displaying a sign urging the U.S. to keep out of World War II. Their sign says, “Keep US out of war. Be neutral.”

The photo was taken at Chicago’s Edgewater Beach Hotel on September 11, 1939, just ten days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Noel says the sign they are holding and their isolationism now look “…at best, hopelessly naive.”

Of course, we entered the war two years later and crushed Fascism, and that was the right thing to do, just as entering World War I a generation earlier had been the right thing. History says so. Noel points out that being right both times cost the U.S. half a million lives, then lists among other wrongs that were ultimately righted slavery, voting rights for women and Blacks, and inter-racial marriage.

But whatever you get out of Noel’s thesis that history will sort it all out, his most interesting comment is this: “While I suspect the matter of abortion will never be ‘settled,’ gay marriage and marijuana legalization seem likely candidates.”

But why won’t history be able to sort out abortion? Noel doesn’t elaborate. Didn’t the U.S. Supreme Court make a slam dunk on the issue in 1973? Wasn’t that history “sorting it out?”

settledNo, Noel is right: abortion isn’t settled, although he probably doesn’t know why.

It’s because the issue is about defenseless human life. It’s because an overlooked, underestimated, and belittled pro-life movement will not step aside and simply let history sort it out.

After 41 years, we won’t let history settle it until it gets settled in favor of life. And that may take some time.

But, thanks, Josh, for leaving us out of the sorted-out things, at least for the time being.

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