On the American abortion front



Abortion is back in the news with the banning of partial birth abortions, followed today by a bunch of judges putting a block on the enforcement of the ban.

Federal judges in three U.S. states blocked the government on Thursday from prosecuting almost all doctors for performing an abortion procedure banned under a law just signed by President Bush.

I'm of two minds on this situation. From a moral standpoint, as someone who supports limited instances of post-natal abortion, I obviously don't have much of a problem with partial birth abortions. However, from a practical standpoint, I think there are some benefits to a ban on partial birth abortions.

When anti-abortion nuts try to argue their position, they often use examples of partial birth abortions. For the unaligned individuals, the graphics and context of a partial birth abortion can be very disturbing. When abortion is presented in a black or white format (eg. "If you are not against abortion or you are in favour of PBA's") some people may drift towards the anti-abortion camp. This is unfortunate.

Sometimes, sacrifices must be made for the greater good. I don't think think that pro-choice activists should make much of a stand against PBA's, its a harder fight to win. Make the stand on more stable ground where there is more broad-based public support in favour of abortion. By outlawing PBA's, the antiabortionists are losing one of the most potent tools in their arsenal, and that can't be a bad thing.

One last thing needs to be clarified. Most pro-choice people are aware that PBA's represent only a small fraction of abortions performed each year, and in most cases PBA's are done for health as opposed to birth control reasons. However, the anti abortion activists don't ever bring up those points in their brochures, and they never will.

Are PBA's morally defensible? Definately. But in the current political climate, appropriate ground should be chosen to do battle. We are fighting on the turf chosen by our enemies, and we risk losing too much for a small gain.