Its actual content — words, visual images, soundtrack, rhetorical tone, cultural cliches, and role-playing — packs a lot of truth about the pro-choice approach to the destruction of fellow human beings.

One could almost envision a university course devoted to unpacking it. Not in a religious course and not in a political science course, but in a media and pop culture course. That would trivialize the content but it is the sort of treatment that the pro-choice side is dishing out, now, in the blogosphere regarding this ad. So sophisticated.

Sometimes the best arguments against this or that immorality is the set of arguments that are presented in favor of that immorality. Here the words are matched by the presentation as persuasive against the pro-choice position.

Talking to the camera as if talking to a sexual object as if talking to a co-conspirator as if talking to THE court opinion. Romanticizing the abuse of judicial review adds street cred to the smarminess of the rest of the content. One can respond to this stuff with reason but the feeling of outrage is visceral.

“I no longer bother with politics (especially left/right simpleton versions– can’t you get beyond the French Revolution for your political analytical skills?)” …… preceded by “I am also a leftist.” Do you see a contradiction there?

Which gets me to Publius last point and my last word on the subject: there is no hope of political change solving abortion, which is why I no longer bother with politics (especially left/right simpleton versions– can’t you get beyond the French Revolution for your political analytical skills?). It will requiring the culture to change this, and it’s already happening. If you attended any of those marches you deride, you’d see the young faces of the emerging pro-life generation. Try reading First Things on the subject: http://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/01/abortion-in-the-tides-of-culture-23

The goal of turning the cultural tide by educating the young is also the reason for being of the group I support: “And some day, God willing, irresponsible sex and its handmaiden, abortion, will look the same to our descendants. It may only take time for that truth to shine through.”

The ones we turn outside the clinics are not baby-boomer women, they are often still teenagers. I am aware of the horrific numbers as anyone else– I’m telling you that when you’ve personally been able to save one by the power of persuasion it makes a big difference in what you can do from that point. I sincerely encourage you to join us sometime.

As a Catholic who makes his living teaching theology, I do have to chime in and admit there is truth to Publius’ observations about many/most Catholic “social justice” advocates being leftists.

I’ve been on (and chaired) a “Social Justice Committee”, run Pro-Life clubs, participated in 40 days for Life, and gone to anti-war peace rallies (and turned away from extremist pacifists in disgust because of behavior observed there).

The theology teacher at my school that runs the “Peace and Justice Club” has never shown up at any Pro-Life Club activities, or promoted them. He’s the only member of the department not to do anything in that regard. He’s an ardent Obama supporter.

Another pro-Obama Catholic friend religiously attended Peace rallies every Sunday after we went into Iraq, but I’ve never (in 8 years) seen her at a Pro-Life event/effort.

I speak of:

1) Ectopic pregnancies (cited by many as “less than 1% of pregnancies), in which the mother and child will currently die if the baby continues developing (in the fallopian tube, for instance) and,
2) Rape/Incest, which collectively account for “less than 3% of all pregnancies”.

I apparently differ with most pro-life politicians, in that I think since we don’t kill adult children if their parent rapes someone, it is immoral and logical to kill an innocent baby because his father was a rapist.

But again, in what other moral situation have we permitted the deaths of over a million people every year because of 3% of a group? Abortion is simply illogical, selfish, and evil.

You’re tactics have proven feckless in stopping the millions of abortions that have occurred in the last 40 years. The political arena, which you dismiss as beneath you, is where change will occur. And please stop conjecturing that you know what I do or do not do….

Of course I work on my pro-choice friends, and rather effectively since I once was like them before my heart turned. And my pro-life non-profit is entirely education-oriented, working with teenagers so they have the moral and ethical tools necessary to not default to abortion.

But I find particularly offensive your derisive comment about “holding signs in front of a clinic.” You obviously know nothing about sidewalk counseling (very different from clinic protesting), which results in a great many “saves” with women encouraged to turn away and seek other help (we’re there with Catholic Community Services information and contacts so they can do that). 40 Days For Life annually runs a tally on their website on the number of saves during Lent from such efforts.

So yeah, when I see these sweet Catholic parish Respect Life committee ladies literally saving babies through what they are doing (we men are there more for security and support, and to talk with the male partners of the women going to the clinics– sometimes they need a man-talk) and then read someone like you deriding their work, I am filled with scorn.

Go out and save a few babies (or help those actually doing that), and then maybe you can talk with me about it. Here’s your chance: 40 Days for Life’s next campaign starts February 13th. http://www.40daysforlife.com/

Your statements only convince me that you don’t really work with any Catholic activists– feel free to prove me wrong.

FYI, the inspiration for my change of heart was the founder of this institution in which we are communicating, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. You see, back when I was a pro-choice lefty I ran into his original anti-war group “Clergy and Laity Concerned,” which included the most pro-life anti-war Catholics I have ever known. Their influence is part of what got me to where I am today. I don’t care what you think about me, but they really deserve your respect instead of scorn.