No Straw MenEnlightened discourse proscribes arguments that are weak or imaginary, like straw, set up only to be confuted summarily.

Credibility and Seriousness in the Abortion Debate

A version of this blog post appeared in the Hamilton College Spectator on February 4, 2005.

Since it goes to her credibility and seriousness, I want to put in writing my response, during the ensuing Q&A, to last week’s lecture against abortion by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese.

1. For all her passion and prominence, when questioned, Ms. Fox-Genovese couldn’t cite any competing studies to support her oft-repeated claim that abortion may lead to medical complications such as breast cancer—because, in her words, it was “late afternoon” and she was “tired from standing.”

(In her column in the January 24, 2005, issue of Newsweek, which I quoted, Anna Quindlen notes: “The National Cancer Institute reported last year that there is no scientific evidence to support that contention. The British medical journal the Lancet looked at dozens of studies and concluded there was no link.”)

2. Criticizing a few abortion clinics for being subpar (and, again, I’d like to know which specific ones) is simply hypocritical—coming from one who, by criminalizing abortion, would relegate both knowledge thereof and the practice to quack doctors and back alleys.

3. Ms. Fox-Genovese’s ad hominem against Mrs. Quindlen—before even hearing what Quindlen had to say (through me)—was equally dishonest and poisoned the well of civil discourse.

4. Only when pressed—“I support abortion rights but am not a feminist,” I said—did Ms. Fox-Genovese concede the feminist movement was not coextensive with the abortion rights movement. Then she patronized me: wait until you’re father, then you’ll come to your senses.

5. True, whether it’s criminalizing euthanasia or instating conscription, the U.S. government has never recognized an absolute or inalienable right to one’s body. But citing these examples—which are just as contentious as abortion—to prove said point constitutes thin logic. More, I asked Mrs. Fox-Genovese why it should be the case that one’s body, one’s life, does not belong to oneself.

Although it’s one of the most difficult subjects on which to persuade another to change his opinion, Mrs. Fox-Genovese didn’t even try. Without so much as a single reference to the basic question in the abortion debate—when human personhood begins—and by likening abor-tion to the Holocaust and slavery, she simply preached to the faithful.