Rhetoric Can Defuse Abortion Debate

If a public debate over the Republican Party’s pro-life plank is to be conducted in the media over the next few days, I suggest that the participants first read it before they comment on it.

Then, with a generous and open mind, they should try to grasp the elegance and inclusiveness of its vision.

The first thing that will stand out to the reader is that the plank does not call for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, even though that’s what most people think it says.

Rather, it calls for an amendment to protect all human persons regardless of venue or level of maturity.

The plank is about who and what we are; it is not primarily about what we can and cannot do. For the plank could have said without contradiction: “We affirm a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy if and only if it does not result in the death of her unborn child.”

The plank resides in a section that addresses race relations, bigotry, the civil rights of women and the rights of the handicapped, calling for our nation to extend its moral progress toward the elimination of unjust discrimination to those who are the most vulnerable in the human family, the unborn.

This insight, I believe, is the key to helping George W. Bush articulate his party’s pro-life position as well as to carefully craft his political rhetoric so that it employs the resources found in the better part of the liberal sensibilities of those who reject the pro-life plank.

Thus candidate Bush should articulate his party’s platform in a way that expresses its vision of human inclusiveness, a vision that has been at the heart of the GOP since the days of Lincoln.

May I suggest the following:

The Republican Party has believed, since the time of the Great Emancipator, that every human being, regardless of size, level of development, race, gender or place of residence, is a member of the moral community of persons.

None should be excluded. Thus, our view of humanity is inclusive, indeed wide open to all, especially those who are small, vulnerable, dependent and defenseless.

Although I know that some people disagree with this viewpoint, I am convinced that the clarity and moral power of this inclusive vision inevitably will prove irresistible.