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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 July 2013
Some believe that there is no hope for moving beyond the culture wars in the United States—especially when they are connected to the persistently difficult abortion debate. This article argues, however, that the situation is more hopeful than most realize. The imagined “choice” and “life” camps do not map onto the complex reality of public opinion, especially among the Millennials. This article contends that “nonviolence” is an important common value for different kinds of people who imagine themselves to be on very different sides in the abortion debate. When applied consistently to rhetoric, individual persons and bodies, and social structures, a commitment to nonviolence not only provides an opening for productive and authentic discussion but also highlights broad areas of agreement and common ground.
1 http://www.people-press.org/2012/05/23/changing-views-of-gay-marriage-a-deeper-analysis/ and Putnam, Robert D. and Campbell, David E., American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010), 403–4Google Scholar.
2 When I refer to “the Church”, however, I will most often mean the Roman Catholic Church. Some readers might find this problematic, but I use this merely as a shorthand way of referring to a particular approach to Christian ethics and not as part of a larger argument that, for example, other Christian churches do not count as real churches or that other Christians do not count as real Christians. Indeed, as giant intellectual figures like John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas have shown, Protestant thinkers have been far ahead of most Catholics on the issue of nonviolence.
3 Paul Bedard, “Dem Convention Becomes Anti-Akin Affair,” Washington Examiner, August 22, 2012, http://washingtonexaminer.com/dem-convention-becomes-anti-akin-affair/article/2505601#.UDT2cqMySZR It is also worth noting that a new 2013 Pew poll (http://www.pewforum.org/Abortion/roe-v-wade-at-40.aspx) found that a significantly higher percentage of women oppose abortion than do men.
4 Jennifer Jacobs, “Romney Says Abortion Legislation Isn't Part of His Agenda,” The Des Moines Register, October 9, 2012, http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2012/10/09/romney-says-abortion-legislation-isnt-part-of-his-agenda.
6 Connor Simpson, “Republicans Move Away From Grover,” The Atlantic Wire, November 25, 2012, http://news.yahoo.com/mccain-wants-leave-abortion-alone-republicans-move-away-200053520.html.
7 Victoria Toensing, “Pro-Choice Republicans Go Public, Washington Post, November 29, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/pro-choice-republicans-have-a-place-in-the-party/2012/11/29/4ab72106-332e-11e2-bfd5-e202b6d7b501_story.html.
9 Lydia Saad, “Americans Still Split along “Pro-Choice,” “Pro-Life” Lines,” Gallup Politics, May 23, 2011, http://www.gallup.com/poll/147734/americans-split-along-pro-choice-pro-life-lines.aspx.
11 Clerk of the US House of Representatives, “Final Vote Results for Roll Call 884” (November 7, 2009), http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll884.xml. That such a large number of pro-life Democrats could vote for such a pro-life bill was the first sign that something was different this time around.
12 J. Peter Nixon, “A Pro-Life Victory?” DotCommonweal, March 22, 2010, http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=7442.
13 Jodi Jacobson, “Nelson Restrictions Most Likely Outcome of Reconciliation Process,” RH Reality Check, March 3, 2010, http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2010/03/03/health-reform-lumbers-forward-stupak-allies-ratchet-efforts-deny-basic-health-coverage-women; and Jacobson, “White House Crafting Deal with Stupak on Executive Order,” RH Reality Check, March 22, 2010, http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2010/03/21/update-correction-white-house-crafting-deal-stupak-executive-order.
14 Saad, “Americans Still Split.”
15 Lydia Saad, “Generational Differences on Abortion Narrow,” Gallup Politics, March 12, 2010, http://www.gallup.com/poll/126581/generational-differences-abortion-narrow.aspx.
16 Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html, nos. 488 and 496.
17 Ibid., no. 398, citing Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I–II, q. 93, a. 2, ad 2um.
18 Ibid., no. 296.
19 For those interested in a recent argument problematizing such criticisms, see Cavanaugh, William, The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
20 Robin Abcarian, “Scott Roeder Convicted of Murder in Shooting of Abortion Provider George Tiller,” Los Angeles Times, January 30, 2010, http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/30/nation/la-na-tiller-trial30-2010jan30.
21 Salon's Stephen Singular, for instance, tries to connect O'Reilly and other more mainstream pro-lifers to Tiller's murder: Singular, “Revisiting the Murder of George Tiller,” Salon, April 17, 2011, http://mobile.salon.com/politics/war_room/2011/04/17/the_murder_of_dr_george_tiller/index.html.
22 Amanda Marcotte, “Anti-Choice Post-Violence Tactics Go Mainstream,” RH Reality Check, January 17, 2011, http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2011/01/17/antichoice-postviolence-tactics-mainstream.
23 Patt Morrison, “Zealot's Tale: Pro-Choice Activist Faces Sentencing in Bomb Threats to Stir Sympathy for Cause,” Los Angeles Times, December 10, 1989, http://articles.latimes.com/1987-12-10/local/me-27935_1_bomb-threats.
24 Munson, Ziad W., The Making of Pro-Life Activists: How Social Movement Mobilization Works (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 88 and 90CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The statistics come from the National Abortion Federation.
25 American Life League, “Pro-Life Proclamation Against Violence,” January 1, 1999, http://www.all.org/article/index/id/MjYzNA.
26 William Saletan, “Is It Wrong to Murder an Abortionist?” Slate, June 1, 2009, http://www.slate.com/id/2219537/.
27 Neil A. Lewis, “At the Bar; A Law Review Article on Abortion Comes Face to Face with Real Life – and Death,” The New York Times, August 26, 1994, http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/26/us/bar-law-review-article-abortion-comes-face-face-with-real-life-death.html.
28 Several incidents are documented on the YouTube video available at http://www.prochoiceviolence.com/videos.
29 Deacon Keith Fournier, “Anti-abortion Activist Shot in Front of High School,” Catholic Online (blog), September 11, 2009, http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=34409.
30 From Tribune News Services, “Abortion Foe Uses The Protection Law,” Chicago Tribune, March 1, 1998, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-03-01/news/9803010335_1_abortion-clinics-anti-abortion-clinic-entrances-act.
31 Saad, “Americans Still Split.”
32 Lawerence B. Finer et al., “Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortion: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives” (September 2005), http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3711005.pdf.
33 Report of the Grand Jury, First District of Pennsylvania, January 2011, http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/PDFs/GrandJuryWomensMedical.pdf. This grand jury testimony is also quoted twice in the next paragraph.
34 Melinda Benneberger, “Hermit Gosnell's Pro-Choice Enablers,” February, 2011, http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/01/23/kermit-gosnells-pro-choice-enablers-how-clinics-become-death-t/.
35 Ibid.
36 Rachel MacNair, Achieving Peace in the Abortion War (January 2009, iUniverse), http://www.fnsa.org/apaw/index.html. Her data are taken from publications such as the Journal of Social Science and Medicine, the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and even the 1978 meeting of the Association of Planned Parenthood Physicians.
37 Though it must be admitted that the reasons for this probably go beyond the effect that doing abortions has on these physicians. The public stigma of doing abortions, along with the strong criticism that many of them get from protesters, also likely plays a role.
38 Jack Hitt, “Who Will Do Abortions Here?,” New York Times, January 18, 1998, http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/18/magazine/who-will-do-abortions-here.html.
39 Medical Students for Choice, “Fact Sheet: Lack of Abortion Training,” http://www.medicalstudentsforchoice.org/uploads/lack%20of%20training%20-%20fact%20sheet.pdf.
40 I have argued elsewhere that all human fetuses should have the moral status of persons in light of their active or natural potential (as opposed to their passive potential or the mere probability for certain traits). See Camosy, Charles, “Common Ground on Surgical Abortion?—Engaging Peter Singer on the Moral Status of Potential Persons,” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 33.6 (2009); 577–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Camosy, Peter Singer and Christian Ethics: Beyond Polarization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), chap. 1Google Scholar.
41 Zimmerman, Kari Shane Davis, “Hooking Up: Sex, Theology, and Today's ‘Unhooked' Dating Practices,” Horizons: The Journal of the College Theology Society 37.1 (2010): 72–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
42 Indeed, even as promotion of “safe sex” continues, the STD infection rate continues to rise at a rapid pace. One in four American teenage girls has an STD, and 40 percent of all American teenagers who admit to having sex have an STD. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/11/study-finds-1-in-4-us-tee_n_90977.html.
43 Perhaps there is an analogy to be drawn here with the lens of “just peacemaking,” which is designed to bring pacifists and just war proponents together to cooperate toward common goals.