The Winning Side
by Jim Bemis
A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court provided pro-lifers two huge legal victories. First, a racketeering conviction against anti-abortion champion Joe Scheidler and Operation Rescue was thrown out in an 8-1 decision. Second, the State of Indiana's abortion restrictions were upheld as constitutional.
Two more leaks were thus sprung in the "pro-choice" dam that for 30 years held back the rising tide against abortion in this country. After what seemed like decades in the wilderness, the pro-life movement is again gaining steam.
Many signs exist that we've witnessed the abortion culture's high water mark. For instance, a Wirthlin Worldwide poll taken last month found that almost 70 percent of Americans favor "restoring legal protection for unborn children.. Further, a CBS poll found that only 42% approve of abortion for "terminating an unwanted pregnancy," which probably covers well over 95% of all abortions performed.
These surprising results were bolstered by a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll that sent shivers up abortion rights activists' spines: 88% favor requiring doctors to inform mothers about abortion alternatives, 78% favor requiring a mother to wait 24 hours before aborting her baby, 73% approve of parental consent for women under 18, 72% approve requiring the husband of a married women to be notified prior to an abortion. Perhaps most surprisingly, 38% favor a constitutional amendment to ban all abortions, except when necessary to save the mother's life - not even the usual exceptions for rape or incest.
These numbers add up to an irrefutable fact: While the "freedom" to abort children has captured the minds of this country's elite, it has not won the hearts of the American people. And if it has not been accepted after 30 years of non-stop "pro-choice" propaganda, it never will be.
Already, a rollback of abortion rights has begun. States enacted 34 measures limiting abortion last year. A bill outlawing partial-birth abortion is on the brink of passage in Congress and, in his State of the Union speech, President Bush - the most pro-life President since Ronald Reagan - said he supported such a ban. Last year's Congressional elections swept in what is arguably the most pro-life legislature in 30 years. Bush is nominating many pro-life judges to the federal courts and with both the Senate and House in Republican hands, they stand a good chance of approval.
What sustained the pro-life movement during its time in the wilderness. In large part, it was efforts of individuals like Joe Scheidler, who turned his face against prevailing cultural winds, vowing never to stop fighting this murderous crime, come what may - and thus became a hero. The soft-spoken Scheidler suffered enormous injustice for his convictions, paying a terrible price - he's been beaten, abused, jailed and assessed massive fines for simply speaking the plain truth. But it's a truth this country's establishment doesn't want to hear.
Abortion is the greatest evil of our time - nothing else comes close. Each 24 hours, 4,000 youngsters - the equivalent of a September 11 every single day - are put to a torturous, screaming death while their comfortable countrymen sleep snugly in warm beds. That the killing of our future is sanctioned by government, defended by newspapers, and carried out by executioners wearing white coats and bearing medical degrees does not lessen the horror, but increases it.
Someday, though, we will rid ourselves of this plague, as sure as day follows the darkness of night. As Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, violence against humanity can only be sustained by lies. Once the lie - in this case, that an unborn child isn't human - is exposed, the entire bloody system supporting the falsehood comes crashing down, a la the Soviet Union.
Certainly, no one can claim the war's over and translating popular support into legislative victories means even tougher battles lie ahead. But some unmistakable signs exist that the tide is indeed slowly turning. For the first time in memory, one senses the great pendulum of American public opinion gradually, but unmistakably, swinging our way. Truth is funny like that - its realization is frequently delayed, but can't be forever denied.
James Bemis is an editorial board member, weekly columnist and film critic for California Political Review. He is also a columnist for the Internet website Catholic Exchange and served for years as a columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. He is a frequent contributor to The Wanderer, the oldest weekly national Catholic newspaper. Mr. Bemis' work has appeared in National Catholic Register, Catholic Faith & Family, Catholic Digest, Thomas Aquinas College Newsletter, The Wanderer Forum Focus, the Los Angeles Times, the Ventura County Star, and the Simi Valley Enterprise. His five-part series, "Through the Eyes of the Church," on the Vatican's list of the 45 Most Important Films in the Century of Cinema, was published in The Wanderer. Mr. Bemis is currently writing a book on Catholic art, literature and film.
