Reply #7: For the people pushing this, abortion and birth control are wrapped together... [View All]

[JHB]

It's why all attempts to compromise and find common ground with the "pro-life" people have failed: they can't get behind birth control (or sex education) either.

If you listen to what they say and how they say it, it becomes crystal-clear that their beef isn't directly with abortion; their crusade is against unauthorized sex. They use the word "illicit", but what they mean is unauthorized by duly-appointed arbiters of public morality (such as themselves). Everything is funneled through this lens, even for married women. "If you don't want a baby, keep your legs together." And the latent/blatant misogyny sugar-coated as "morality" is obvious. (even married women who want a baby but need an abortion for medical reasons are deemed acceptable casualties, since it's "God's will".

I'll allow that there are less extreme people within the movement -- that's just the nature of these things -- but the people pushing the direction of the movement act like that and they have no inclination to yield on any front of it.