Encouraging signs

I would like to draw your attention to an article written by Debra Rosenberg appearing in the Oct. 8, 2007 issue of Newsweek concerning an about-to-be-released film on abortion. (www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21047655/site/newsweek/from/ET/)

Entitled 'A New Ambivalence', the article mentions several survey findings of interest to pro-lifers and pro-choicers alike.

1. In a national poll to be released this week by the influential Democratic think tank Third Way, nearly three quarters (i.e., of respondents, all registered voters) said they wish elected leaders would look for common ground on abortion.

2. The country (i.e., the U.S.A.) is pretty evenly divided on their standing view of the question: 40 percent of registered voters say they're pro-choice, 39 percent pro-life and 18 percent volunteered the response "neither."

3. In the Third Way poll, 72 percent said the decision to have an abortion should be "left up to a woman, her family and her doctor," while at the same time 69 percent acknowledged that abortion "is the taking of human life."

4. Though NARAL Pro-Choice America president Nancy Keenan says that being pro-choice is still a political asset, she also talks about the "common-sense goal of making abortion less necessary." [NARAL stands for the National Abortion Rights Action League.]

As for the movie, the article has this major criticism: Though it mentions South Dakota's recent attempt to ban nearly all abortions, the movie concentrates on the protests and clinic violence of the 1990s. It doesn't take into account any of the profound changes of the past decade: pro-lifers' move away from the picket lines into state legislatures and courtrooms, the battle over "partial-birth abortion" that forced Americans to focus on the specifics of the procedure, or even how more sophisticated technology is changing minds about just when life begins.

All of the above represents fodder for further posts. For now, I'll leave it to you to read the full article and see what thoughts and feelings it arouses in your minds and hearts.