My Common Ground Fantasy

Maybe people are happy with what we have. Our current law isn't terribly different from the solution that most of Europe came up with.

Sure, there's a lot of noise, but it's from the edge and no one on the edges are trying very hard to build a coalition to change the law. The middle might be happy to have the noise go away. They would certainly be happy if the anti-abortion zealots didn't keep calling it murder for rhetorical effect. People who do want to see the number of abortions decrease would like to see the Catholic Church return to its commitment to a strong social safety net, but that doesn't look likely at the moment. Everyone who wants something is unwilling to make a trade to get it, so, apparently, they don't want it that much.

Safe Legal and Rare is what we all should be working for.

Steven,

As an individual who worked for a pro-choice organization it's painful to see the nit-picking of language, but unfortunately words do have meaning. On the one hand I don't want to see women who terminate their pregnancies stigmatized. On the other, the majority of us in the pro-choice community do wish to see the abortion rate drop (if, for no better reason, to bring down the heated rhetoric).

I would love to see the two sides agree to this statement:

"We, people of all faiths and viewpoints, believe that all families are unique; that situations are individual and laws cannot always resolve individual cases. While in a perfect world the answer to abortion would be simple and straightforward. Yet, we do not live in a perfect world. Thus, we agree that all options must be available to women and men who face decisions regarding an unintended or hardship pregnancy.

We agree that family planning education and resources should be made available from an early age. We agree that sexual education should include not only prevention education, but also resource education (to those who do have an unintended pregnancy, but do not wish to seek a termination). We agree that there will be cases that revolve around fetus' that have/will died in the womb or will perish upon birth. We resolve that non-judgmental counseling and all other available options should be made available in these cases and that we will work toward common ground on resolving these tough choices.

And, foremost, we resolve that the abortion debate is not cut and dry. That many women and men struggle with these choices every day. We resolve to tone down the rhetoric and work to help those in need - regardless of what decision is ahead of them."

Ok, so here a proposed common interest statement from the other (pro-life) side:

We agree that human life is to be respected, and hold to the fact that a human person and his/her characteristics are determined at conception.
Acknowledging that life is not perfect, we agree that abortion remain legal. Because of the objection of a large part of the populace we agree that taxpayer money not be provided for abortion or its encouragement. We acknowledge that private funds may be spent to assist those who cannot afford it.