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Ross Douthat doesn't think you can find a compromise in the abortion debate based on advocating contraception as a way to reduce unwanted pregnancies ... because abortion isn't illegal.
Ultimately, I think Saletan's project founders on the difficulty of moralizing about something that you aren't willing to regulate in any significant way: Law and culture are intertwined, especially in a rights-conscious society, and if you want to teach people that they ought to use condoms because "unprotected sex can lead to the creation -- and the subsequent killing, through abortion -- of a developing human being," as Saletan's original piece put it, then you need a legal regime that treats the killing of said developing human being as something other than a constitutional right on par with freedom of speech, religion or assembly.This elides the point of the project. The people targeted by Saletan's argument are those who already believe that abortion should be illegal but go about counter-productively advocating abstinence-only sex education and anti-contraception policies. (Most everybody else is already on-board with the idea that contraception should be taught and widely available). Saletan would like those who condemn abortions to shift their stance on more secondary issues (realizing that that definition is fluid) to better their first principle. It's one thing to disagree with his premises -- most people aren't willing to ban abortions, people will have sex -- but it's another to say in the face of evidence to the contrary that this compromise won't work unless abortion is made illegal. That's the whole point, really: Abortion isn't likely to be made illegal, despite conservative efforts, so why not focus on common sense ways reduce unwanted pregnancies while improving public health? I'd guess it has something to do with the uncomfortable relationship social conservatives have with human, and especially female, sexuality.
-- Tim Fernholz
