In America’s splintered, sometimes incoherent, dual-party political field, nothing offers more certainty in defining political affiliation than abortion. For both parties, abortion policy helps to define a broader set of social values: Social egalitarianism and feminism are bound to abortion on the left; family values and religion are bound to it on the right.
From these opposing poles, two incompatible rights-based discourses proliferate—female reproductive rights (for progressives) and the rights of the unborn (for conservatives). The self-adopted descriptions of “pro-life” and “pro-choice” cast an accusatory glance at the other side, underlining the distance between the two sides.
I am deeply conflicted on the abortion issue.
I am deeply conflicted on the abortion issue. I believe that abortion is morally fraught. I also believe that women are not currently provided adequate assistance during and after pregnancy, which makes banning it seem like an amorphously unfair imposition. With all my doubts, I can see something appealing in the understanding of abortion offered by what might be called the “pro-life left.”