CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Imagine a young, married woman. She and her husband have been trying, unsuccessfully, to start a family.
One morning she takes a home pregnancy test, and it’s positive. She cries for joy, and schedules her first appointment with her obstetrician. Seven weeks later she has her first ultrasound. She is ready to share her happy news with family and friends. She emails the picture to those closest to her.
“Congratulations on that mass of still-unviable cells that are growing inside of you” – said no one, ever.
The expectant mother, and everyone who sees her ultrasound, knows that a human life, a baby, is growing inside of her. Since this is a wanted pregnancy, saying anything else would be rude.
But if this were an unwanted pregnancy, people look at exactly the same ultrasound and say things entirely different. They’d say things like “are you sure you’re ready to be a mother?” or “What about your hopes and dreams?” “You know, there’s no stigma today to having an abortion.” Suddenly, what it clearly is – a baby – it is not.
My pro-life friends, until we win the moral argument, that it’s a baby not an inconvenient clump of cells, we’re going to keep losing political races like the state Supreme Court election. I know after last week’s results that seems like a steeper hill to climb. Convincing people that their position is immoral is challenging, but necessary.
I’m still an optimist, even on this issue. America is a nation with a mighty conscience. We tend to land on the side of what’s right.
The test case that argues that Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban is outdated will be argued in front of a liberal Dane County judge on May 5th. Her ruling will immediately to appealed to the state Supreme Court, which now has a liberal majority. The case will center on whether Wisconsin has passed conflicting laws, as there are many abortion regulations that are on our state’s books since Roe v Wade in 1971. The state Supreme Court will buy into that argument, that the intent of the legislature was to regulate abortion, not to ban it. It’s a weak argument. The oldness of a law doesn’t make it invalid. I wonder if the U.S. Supreme Court might have the final say. After all, Wisconsin’s abortion ban remains as state law. The U.S. Supreme Court is the corrector, the final backstop, when lower courts get things wrong.
Be hopeful.
Chris Conley
Comments