President Obama delivered the commencement speech at the Catholic Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana, yesterday, and because of his pro-choice stand on abortion and his support for stem cell research, several people opposed to the idea of him at Notre Dame acted as if the Vatican had been destroyed.
Obama delfected the criticsm, addressing the abortion issue head-on and urging people on both sides of the debate to work together on reducing unwanted pregnancies and promoting adoption. Fat chance. Both pro-choicers and pro-lifers have every reason to dig in to their respective, reflexive positions. Pro-lifers - who want to outlaw the practice of abortion in most, if not all, circumstances - can now point to a Gallup poll showing that 51 percent of all adult Americans identify themselves as pro-life for the first time since Gallup started asking that question in 1995. Right-to-lifers are, in a word, feeling their oats.
Abortion rights activists have been quick to insist that the wording of the questions encouraged such results and misinterprets them as meaning that more Americans want to criminalize abortion than keep it legal, but they can't help but feel under siege these days. After all, social liberals haven't been doing to well in courting public opinion these days. Support for gun rights is growing, too.
The abortion debate has obscured far more important debates - debates over energy policy, the solvnecy of Social Security, health care - for so long, that it's an embarrassment to this nation. Someone from Japan was once on Jim Lehrer's PBS show and pointed out that Americans wasted too much time on debating abortion - and when he did so, he was laughing. Obama can't get Americans to settle the issue once and for all, and that's no laughing matter.
By the way, there's a name for people on this continent who have chosen to settle the abortion issue and move on.
Canadians.
Happy Victoria Day. :-D
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