Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Another thought on Saletan's advice
As Rob mentioned (below), Slate's Will Saletan wrote up some "advice" for those of us who are pro-life, prompted by his attendance at the recent Princeton conference (in which Lisa, Rob, and I participated . . . though, according to some, only in a lightweight, naive capacity).
Saletan's first piece of advice to the pro-life side was to "reduce abortion through voluntary means." It is not clear, though, whether Saletan means to suggest that there is something wrong with also trying to change the currently misshaped state of constitutional doctrine so that reasonable regulations of abortion are (as they should be, under a correct interpretation of the Constitution) permitted. After all, no one thinks that overturning Roe, Doe, and Casey end abortion, so it strikes me as long past the time to stop acting as though it is an insight to point out that it wouldn't. Even though it wouldn't, it would be a good thing for our political community, I think -- and for our Constitution -- if the anti-democratic judicial overreach that was Roe were corrected.
(Here, by the way, is Saletan's advice for the pro-choice side.)
UPDATE: Here is a long piece by Frances Kissling, one of the conference's organizers, on the event.
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2010/11/another-thought-on-saletans-advice.html
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One of the things I appreciated most about Saleton's first piece, as part of his point #5, was his defense of the pro-life participants at Princeton. I think Charles Camosy has every right to be proud of what he organized, and those from all sides who participated should be commended. It seemed to me missing the point of the conference to snipe over it or to speculate about who won or who lost.