Abortion and Slavery: John Breen Responds

MOJ friend and alum, John Breen, responds to Eduardo’s post on abortion and slavery:

“When slavery was in full swing in this country, people were in fact talking precisely about the sorts of prudential judgments that Eduardo finds extreme today (e.g. whether slavery should or could be confined to the South or whether it could or should be extended to the territories, the Fugative Slave Act, etc).  And so the analogy isn't "intended to rule out as unreasonable any discussion of possibility that the legality of abortion might be tolerable on prudential grounds."  On the contrary, it invites such a conversation in the present day.

But recognize that the prudential conversation about the "peculiar institution" took place when slavery was in full swing, just like today is the hay day for the culture of death.  Today, no one would consider reasonable an argument that tolerated a little bit of slavery, just like some day, we can all hope and pray, no one will consider reasonable an argument that would tolerate a little abortion.  What is reasonable is obviously in part a function of where the culture is.  Just as the culture of today is a far cry from what it was in the antebellum South, so too we can pray that the culture in our country as a whole will one day reflect a culture of life.”