Questions We Shouldn't Be Afraid to Discuss

One of my favorite bloggers, Pastor Jeff, writes that riders on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in the San Francisco-Oakland area, offended by posters sponsored by a committee of the Oakland diocese of the Roman Catholic Church:

The posters feature pictures of women and ask the question: "Abortion: Have We Gone Too Far?" They point out that women can have an abortion for any reason at any time during pregnancy, regardless of fetal development or viability - which is the truth.

Apparently that makes them "misleading and manipulative," according to abortion rights groups in the area. And so, activists have the right to scrawl hateful religious epithets and destroy them.

Jeff goes on to ask:

How shallow are your arguments that they must be upheld by shouting down any opposition? It's hard to have a rational debate on abortion when simply stating the facts is unacceptable.

Good points!

My wife and I rode the BART a lot during our recent trip to San Francisco. Generally speaking, the BART was as clean as the subways in DC, also impressive for their pristineness. In addition, we found the people of SF to be Super Friendly.

But I did see one BART-borne ad defaced during our trip. It was one that asked riders to help them by reporting suspicious persons to a BART authority immediately. On that poster, someone had scrawled, "Bush is the terrorist!"

Here in the reddest part of a Red State, it's hard to imagine seeing something like that on a public transport vehicle.

But to me, the question of abortion is really not an ideological or partisan matter. Others seem to agree:

• Bob Casey, a Democrat, is challenging Rick Santorum, the Republican incumbent, for the US Senate from Pennsylvania this year. Both are pro-life.
• One of the most interesting bloggers and committed Christians around is Deborah White, a liberal Democrat (from California) who is also pro-life.
• Feminists for Life is a group whose beliefs are precisely what you would expect from their name, but not what those mired in ideological cliches would imagine. They are ardent advocates of equality for women, equal pay for equal work, and so forth. They're also opposed to abortion.
• The same is true for the group, Democrats for Life.
• And Hillary Clinton, who has a pro-choice record in the Senate, has said that there are too many abortions done in this country and that too many people are resorting to abortion, almost as a form of birth control.

So, there is good reason for those who are pro-life and those who are pro-choice, for liberals and conservatives, for Christians and those of other faiths, and all of us, to wonder, "Have we gone too far as a country in embracing abortion? Are there too many abortions? Have we become cavalier about its effect on our views of life, of humanity, of the gift of sexuality, and such?"

It's clear that people who defend those who have defaced or torn down the posters from the BART vehicles aren't interested in discussing those questions.

When Jeff touches on the subject of freedom and the free exchange of ideas, he hits the nail on the head. People need to feel free to express their views without being shouted down, erased, or scrawled upon. That of course, is part of what is supposed to make this country so special.