Don’t Sanitize Abortion, by John Waters

By John Waters, First Things, 2 . 27 . 20

John Waters is an Irish writer and commentator, the author of ten books, and a playwright.

I would like to suggest a seventh rule to add to Mary Eberstadt’s “Six Rules for Pro-Life Radicals.” This additional rule was implicit in several of the six she listed, so she may have been presuming it axiomatic—so fundamental as to not require restating. But I believe that this rule does require restating and that it should be explicit. Indeed, I think that when pro-lifers keep this rule implicit it produces problems in the larger abortion debate: One side in the argument thinks the truth about abortion too obvious to reiterate, while the other side, not wishing to hear the truth, encourages this lacuna.

Rule #7: Always state—and where possible, illustrate—the true nature of abortion.

The pro-abortionists in politics, media, and the professional agitation classes have succeeded in censoring depictions, even descriptions, of abortion, thus removing the gruesome reality of abortion from the discussion. They achieved this by constructing a culture of euphemism and evasiveness, policed by effete concepts of politeness and “good taste” that, deeper down, reveal that many of those promoting abortion know precisely what it is they are seeking to elide. Their greatest “accomplishment” has been presenting abortion as an all-but-routine procedure designed to save a woman’s life. Absent this achievement, no population of sensible humans could ever have delivered a majority for abortion.  ….

Read more here    https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/02/dont-sanitize-abortion