In nearly a dozen years've never published two related blogposts the same day, but today's a day. With people remembering this as Roe v Wade Day, both this blogpost and the other one that pops up are about Abortion; not published in the same post because it would be too long. These are two press articles that do not seem to me to be partial, both just informative, both about how things are changing. Not meant to set off a firestorm, and if that develops I'll just take them down.
But someone said - - it keeps being falsely attributed to Bonhoeffer and even if he didn't say it it does reflect the total integrity of his life:
silence in the face of evil is evil itself
not to speak is to speak
not to act is to act
And I don't want to remain silent just because, as the Storekeeper says in "Inherit the Wind", "Don't have an opinion. It's bad for business".
Yesterday I read and watched "Inherit the Wind", a little three-act stage play script and film takeoff on the 1925 Scopes Trial. While "Inherit" is not unbiased in the message it conveys (and the truth about the Scopes Trial itself seems to have been that it was an entirely manipulated event to force the issue to appeals court), and I try to watch for biases, both authors' and my own, in what I read, see, hear, "Inherit" has valid messages anyway. Just as does "The Poisonwood Bible" novel that my mind won't let go of. Among valid messages, the evil of forcing one's religion, righteousness, morals, systems, and way of life on others with different world views; and the wickedly fearsome self-righteousness, mentioned here before, of one who rises from his knees and goes forth determined to execute the will of God.
From "Poisonwood" for example, Reverend Price's absurd self-righteous and self-certain moral outrage at the bare-breasted women in the remote African village where he went as Christian missionary. From "Inherit", state legislature outlawing schools teaching science that goes against particular religious certainties. Who is right? It depends - - on who is speaking, writing, raging, pontificating, moralizing, Bible proof-texting, reasoning - - to each of whom the whole thing seems crystal clear.
A June 2021 Gallup poll found 47% of Americans believed abortion to be morally acceptable, while 46% believed it not to be. 48% thought abortion should be legal “only under certain circumstances,” 32% “under any circumstances,” and 19% “illegal in all circumstances.”
"it's a free country" somewhat, still, and so far, with each of us having our own priorities, opinions, and points of view; and no two of us having exactly the same mix of views on all topics. As an elderly white male, abortion is not the single focus hot-button moral and personal rights issue for me that it is with many on both sides, but it is one of the most divisive issues in American politics.
Here's some interesting just-the-facts sort of information about then and now. For some the moral issue is abortion itself, but it does not end there. If abortion is to be denied women, then means of birth control should be readily available for all; and for poor families there should be full societal support to make every life worth living.
According to our analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights, the profile of women who receive abortions has changed in important ways since 1973.1 Some of those shifts reflect wider changes in the country’s population, but others cut against long-held stereotypes about abortion.
For instance, in the years after Roe v. Wade, the abortion rate spiked — but then it began to fall.
Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux is a senior writer for FiveThirtyEight. @ameliatd
Anna Wiederkehr is a senior visual journalist for FiveThirtyEight. @wiederkehra