Mandatory childbirth: how the anti-abortion crusade masks cruelty to women in the "sacralizing of fetuses"

Writing in the New York Times, author John Irving describes the impulses that led him to write his novel "The Cider House Rules" in the early 1980s, a decade after Roe vs Wade; Irving reflects on the incredible cruelty inflicted upon children (a cruelty that only mounts) with the enthusiastic support of anti-abortion crusaders, and how impossible this is to reconcile with their purported concern for fetuses.

Understanding this contradiction is actually pretty easy, when you hear how anti-abortion crusaders talk about women, muttering vengeful condemnations: the point of opposing abortion is to punish women, not rescue children.

The Republican view of abortion is actually pretty easy to summarize. It's that personhood:

1. Begins at conception;

2. Ends at birth;

3. Can be renewed by forming an LLC in Delaware or Nevada.

The pro-life term was adopted by anti-abortion crusaders after the Roe v. Wade decision. The anti-abortion cause didnt promote itself as pro-life until the more punitive-sounding anti-abortion label failed. In 1976, with the passing of the Hyde Amendment, prohibiting the use of federal funds for most abortions, opposition to abortion gained support among Republicans. The Christian right was on the rise; their socially conservative policies are inseparable from todays Republican Party. In 1980, aided by the Baptist minister Jerry Falwells Moral Majority, the pro-life zealots took control of the Republican Partys platform committee. Four anti-abortion presidents followed Ronald Reagan, George H. W. and George W. Bush, and Donald Trump. Isnt it as clear now as it was in the Reagan years?