A Modest Proposal

If we really seek “common ground” on this contentious question, we might start by giving the unborn children a decent burial. Liberal writer Naomi Wolf has written movingly of the “baby furies” that she felt were pursuing her after her abortion. She noted that in Japan, there are touching ceremonies of little paper boats with candles floated down slow-moving rivers. These ceremonies are designed to help women cope with this most terrible of choices.

Part of the terrible contentiousness of this question is the unwillingness of most liberals even to concede that the unborn child is a child. In 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the pro-life ordinances enacted by the City of Akron. I had strongly supported those ordinances. But City of Akron was largely overruled by Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

We know this much about federal funding for abortion: when they they are free, there are a lot more abortions. President Obama has said he hopes to reduce abortions, but his plan to fully fund them will inevitably lead to more. Pro-choice groups estimate as many as 300,000 more abortions a year were done when they were federally funded.

By requiring these abortion centers—these modern-day tophets--around our country to bury, not burn, the bodies of their victims, we could literally lower the temperatures. Facing the truth about abortion is the first step to resolving this deeply divisive question.

And banking the fires of the crematoria would be a first step toward peace on earth.