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{"id":1896,"date":"2008-02-10T18:51:33","date_gmt":"2008-02-10T18:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/02\/10\/an-inconvenient-truth\/"},"modified":"2008-02-10T18:51:33","modified_gmt":"2008-02-10T18:51:33","slug":"an-inconvenient-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2008\/02\/10\/an-inconvenient-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"“An Inconvenient Truth”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Professor Bill Stuntz has a characteristically thoughtful essay<\/a>, \u201cThe Inconvenient Truths of 2008,\u201d over at The Weekly Standard.\u00a0 <\/em>Professor Stuntz writes \u2014 and I agree \u2014 that conservatives need to understand the \u201cinconvenient truth\u201d that \u201c[m]ost\u00a0of today\u2019s illegal immigrant population is here to stay (along with their descendants) and will pay no significant price for getting here outside the legal channels.\u201d\u00a0 (I would note that not all conservatives\u00a0share the talk-radio obsession with \u201cthe illegals\u201d, and also that \u2014 although the press, conveniently, does not remark on the fact much \u2014 there is plenty of anti-immigrant sentiment among the Democrats\u2019 \u201cbase\u201d, too.)\u00a0 And, he seems right-on-target in reminding Democrats that for \u201cthe foreseeable future, domestic policymaking will have more to do with arranging incentives than with dispensing largesse[.]\u201d<\/p>\n

He also contends, though \u2014\u00a0echoing\u00a0the argument<\/a> he has made in other contexts \u2014 \u201cthat the political phase of the culture war is over\u201d, that \u201cthe\u00a0crusade to end abortion and reform the culture by means of electoral politics was lost several election cycles ago\u201d, and that \u201c[i]f pro-life evangelicals\u2013of whom I\u2019m one\u2013wish to persuade our fellow citizens to protect unborn life, we must persuade<\/i> them, not prosecute the ones who disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more on\u00a0Prof. Stuntz\u2019s thesis about the legalization of abortion, abortion rates, and legal moralism, go to \u201cMirror of Justice.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0(For example, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prof. Stuntz is right\u00a0to remind us that \u201ccultures are powerful and mysterious things; the idea that laws and politicians can direct their paths is, to say the least, lacking in empirical support.\u201d\u00a0 That said, a few\u00a0thoughts:\u00a0<\/p>\n

First,\u00a0no one has ever suggested that those who \u201cdisagree\u201d with the pro-life position should be \u201cprosecute[d].\u201d\u00a0 It is<\/em> sometimes suggested that the law should permit the prosecution of those who perform certain abortions, on the theory that\u00a0abortion involves an act that, usually, we think is eminently prosecution-worthy, i.e., the direct and intentional killing of a human being.\u00a0 Prof. Stuntz is entirely right that those who are pro-life should not focus entirely on politics, to the neglect of witness.\u00a0 (And, pro-lifers should conduct themselves in politics in a way that does not undermine efforts to be effective witnesses.)<\/p>\n

Second,\u00a0although I fear Prof. Stuntz is\u00a0right\u00a0that it is not now the case, and perhaps never will be (again), that the public\u00a0would support a full-scale criminalization of abortion.\u00a0 It does not follow from this, though, that the \u201cpolitical phase\u201d of the pro-life movement is over.\u00a0 It is still the case that a great many issues (federal funding, mandates to hospitals, development-aid, regulation of abortion facilities, ultrasound machines, partial-birth abortion, etc.) that pro-lifers do (or should) care about are very much \u201cpolitical\u201d, and very much \u201cin play.\u201d\u00a0 I know it is popular, in some circles, to say that\u00a0President Bush\u2019s anti-abortion views have not made a difference on the issue, but this mistaken\u00a0claim (which, to be clear, is not Prof. Stuntz\u2019s) gets no truer with repetition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, there are the judges.\u00a0 The \u201cpolitical phase\u201d of the \u201cculture war\u201d \u2014 I should say that I\u2019m not entirely comfortable with this way of thinking about the struggle to protect religious freedom and\u00a0the dignity of human life \u2014 is not<\/em> over, because it has not really <\/em>been permitted to begin.\u00a0 It is a live, and entirely political, question who will be (and who will pick) our federal judges, and it is a live question whether our federal judges will decide to let the political process decide whether, and to what extent, to regulate abortion.\u00a0 If Roe<\/em> is reversed, would abortion disappear?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 But, pro-lifers do and should care that they be permitted<\/em>\u00a0 to take a shot at the \u201cpolitical phase\u201d of the pro-life struggle.\u00a0 This is why judges matter, and this is why politics (still) matters.\u00a0 For some, it might be an \u201cinconvenient truth\u201d, but it is a truth nontheless \u2014 it matters, for\u00a0the pro-life cause, what happens in politics (as well as in conversation).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"