Mark Shea & the Republicans

My Patheos colleague Mark Shea, quoting a piece by Mark Steyn on New Hampshire Republican hypocrisy, declares: “Pro-lifers:  I hope somebody who loves you will do an intervention in your unhealthy abusive relationship with the GOP.  How many times does he have to beat you up and then promise you he really loves you before you develop some self-respect and leave the guy?”

A Canadian pro-lifer writes in:

As a Canadian pro-lifer, I would say; If we could have a tenth of the pro-life advances Republicans have put forward in favour of fetal rights, we’d be deliriously happy.

A partial-birth abortion ban? State legislation? The Hyde amendment? Please God, let the Conservative Party of Canada show us that kind of abuse! Chain us to the wall!

I don’t want to overstate the GOP’s commitment to fetal rights. Don’t blindly vote Republican.

But don’t be blindly anti-Republican and anti-Conservative, either. Abortion is a giant bohemoth that will be slayed one regulation at a time.

I understand Mark Shea’s feeling very well. But I think it’s bad politics. Less than what you want is still something and something is what you pursue in political life.

That the Republican party doesn’t do all that pro-life people want them to do does not mean that pro-life people should abandon the party. (And for what?) We wouldn’t have had the Hobby Lobby decision but for a Republican president nominating Supreme Court justices. The court hasn’t rolled back Roe v. Wade and is deciding by not deciding on homosexual “marriage,” but a Democrat-nominated court would be worse.