In today's edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, sandwiched between the letters and Trudy Rubin's usual warmongering is a startlingly unconvincing piece of anti-abortion propaganda by one Marybeth Hagan, entitled "Estimating the Impact of a March." The article focuses on last week's Right to Life March in Washington D.C. and tries to convince readers that Americans are overwhelmingly anti-abortion, based largely on the number of people who attended the March.
The author, Marybeth T. Hagan, is the author of Abortion: A Mother's Plea for Maternity and the Unborn. Her political stance appears to be a result of brainwashing by the Catholic Church, as she writes for the reactionary Philadelphia Catholic Standard and Times and highlights the role of the Catholic hierarchy in organizing the march.
My Gut Reaction, Part One: If these people hate abortion so much, they should just move to a country where it's banned.
My Gut Reaction, Part Two: One of the web results on a search of Mrs. Hagan reveals an essay she wrote about civility. Someone needs to point out to her that trying to control people's lives is a more serious insult than using the F-word-something that gets her britches in a knot.
Hagan's own essay undermines her claim that the number of attendees is some sign of broad public support for anti-abortion fanatics. As she describes, the protest was organized by the Catholic Church, which bussed in not only parishioners, but people at
Catholic schools:
Consider that there were 71 busloads from 59 parishes in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia alone. Many other people from this area, like me, drove to Washington to express our support for the fundamental[ist] right to life. These thousands joined many others that morning at a Mass for the Philly 'pilgrims,' said by Archbishop Charles Caput in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
The organizational role of the Catholic Church is of utmost importance here. Although anti-abortionists and pro-choicers both have the right of free speech, anti-abortionists have the benefit of a wealthy, tax free organization to facilitate their activism. For all the anti-aborts whining about Planned Parenthood, pro-choicers have no comparable organization to provide them with resources or transportation. The marchers had an organizational rather than demographic advantage. The turnout reflected a well organized and funded church, not a grassroots outpouring.
Her complaints about lack of media coverage border on the comical, with Hagan grousing that it was "insulting." The media didn't pay much attention because the anti-aborts have been doing these marches for forty-two years with no results. Even Hagan concedes that the House Republicans-probably the most sympathetic group they would find in Washington-couldn't agree on a bill banning abortion after twenty weeks.
People are entitled to their views on abortion; however, they are not entitled to press those views on others through government power. If Mrs. Hagan and her fellow marchers are so disgusted with living in a country that allows women control over their own bodies, they are perfectly free to move to a country where abortion is banned. Nowadays, the choices in first world countries are limited to Ireland. The other choices include Islamist theocracies like Iran and conservative South American countries like El Salvador-which just sentenced a woman to thirty years in prison for having a miscarriage.Let them vote with their feet, rather than forcing their faith on the rest of us.