Fred Thompson spoke on CNN this weekend. When asked if he would actively oppose Roe v. Wade, Thompson made it clear where he stood:
“I think Roe v. Wade was a bad decision. I think it was bad law and bad medicine,” Thompson said in response.
“You don’t just get up one day and overturn the entire history of the country with regard to nature and major social policy, without any action by Congress, without any action by the American people or constitutional amendment, and that’s what happened,” Thompson explained.
The former Tennessee senator continued, “It shouldn’t have happened. It ought to be reversed.”
What would that mean? If Roe v. Wade were overturned, would abortion be banned nation-wide? No. It would be left to the state, as it should be.
The goal is to end the act of abortion, right? Then let’s not do the same thing as before and expect different results. I hate abortion, but I am realistic about how to end it. Simple prohibition won’t work. If you really want to see a drop in abortion, simply banning abortion is not going to be effective.
Like I said before, banning an activity will not put a stop to the activity. It will just push it underground.
To end abortion, there needs to be a dramatic shift in values concerning the life of an unborn child. There needs to be a push to make adoption in America more appealing an option that terminating the life of a child. There has to be a push to make having the child less painful that killing the child. Currently, that is not the case for some. Prohibition won’t make that change. Families and churches can do more to foster an attitude that values life more than anything else. Let’s have the states put money into programs that push the value of life.
When you tax something, you get less of it. But when you subsidize something, you get more of it. Let’s not prohibit abortion, but subsidize values. If you really want to end abortions, as I do, you have to take the most effective method of ending them. Simple prohibition won’t work. It never has. Put value in life and family. Make adoption easier and let’s stop the practice of biological parents coming back to claim adopted children. There should be no biological parents and adopted parents. There should just be parents.
What I am trying to say is, I don’t have a problem with making abortion illegal, but if you do, you better have other programs in place to make having the baby more attractive. Otherwise, you’ll stop nothing. And the whole goal is to save the life of a child. I think that it is worth the time and effort of a comprehensive approach.
