“The Portal” is an art installation in a plaza next to the Flatiron Building in New York. It’s connected to another one in Dublin on O’Connell Street, the Irish capital’s main thoroughfare. Each one has a big round screen and a video camera so people in both cities can interact in real time. A giant Zoom call. It proved irresistible to troublemakers; a man dropped trou and mooned the other side. I guess you haven’t been really mooned until it’s transatlantic. A woman lifted her blouse and flashed her breasts. A man-on-the-street newspaper interview summed it up: This is why we can’t have nice things. The artist’s lofty hope of a Kumbaya moment found its inflection point—the place on a graph where a trend changes from upward to downward, or vice versa. Put another way, “Where the rubber meets the road,” that is, when an abstract concept is tested in real life.

The lofty hope of the pro-life community to win hearts and minds after its big legal win in Dobbs has met its own inflection point, its own “Where the rubber meets the road” moment. As I wrote in my November 14, 2023, blog “Scarecrow and Tin Man,” the thing about “hearts and minds” is somebody or rather something got there first, namely the entrenched pro-abortion mindset. But perhaps also because it’s too conceptual, both sides can use it, like the now ubiquitous “danger to democracy” figure of speech.

It’s amazing how, when confined to the intellectual realm, morality can smack of the plight of free-range chickens; I’m still going to eat you, but you’ll be happy until I do. For example, a recent contribution from the pundit Bill Maher: [Maher: Abortion Is “Kind Of” Murder, I’m Okay With That; Is That Not Your Position if You’re Pro-Choice? | Video | RealClearPolitics:]

That’s why I don’t understand the 15-week thing or Trump’s plan is to leave it to the states. You mean, so killing babies is okay in some states? I can respect the absolutist position, I really can. I scold the left when they say “Oh, you know what, they just hate women,” people who aren’t pro-choice. They don’t hate women. They just made that up. They think it’s murder. And it kind of is. I’m just okay with that. I am. I mean there’s 8 billion people in the world. I’m sorry, we won’t miss you. That’s my position on that. Is that not your position if you’re pro-choice? You said you’re pro-choice, that’s your position too.

So, Maher can appreciate the moral stance of womb-to-tomb prolifers for their intellectual rigor and still be “okay with murder” without missing a hitch in his step. His inflection point—met with a yawn.

The pro-choice and pro-life camps both have subsets, and both are resting on an inflection point that neither recognizes as signifying the downward trend, or, for my purposes here, negativity. The pro-choice subset has a fanaticism that reminds me of a hillbilly and his one last acre of the mountain. It’s his and he aims to keep it, even if that means sitting on his porch with a twelve gauge across his knees 24/7 and his eyelids propped open with toothpicks because he can’t afford to go to sleep. He has his one acre, but does he have a life? Do rabid pro-choicers see life at all, or only their “choice?”

The pro-life subset is trickier, I’m on a tightrope here. “It’s all about the babies” is the rallying cry; it’s about saving lives, there’s nothing else to see here! Bill Maher would approve. But others, especially women, sense an undercurrent, another motivation, instinctive, driven, which is to point their finger at us like Uncle Sam on that recruiting poster and demand: Women Should Do As They’re Told! The Sixth Commanment, Thou Shalt Not Kill, isn’t enough. There should be an eleventh one chiseled in separately that reads: Thou Shalt Not Commit Abortion. The woman’s commandment. And the proud purists will be the ones to carry the stone tablets in their arms off the mountain! Bumping into the hillbilly on the way down might present an awkward moment of recognition.

The rabid pro-choicers and the proud purists do have something in common. Both seem in competition for who will be seen as the more noble, missing the fact that their inflection point changed from (hopefully) upward and positive to (real life) downward and negative because of their dubious talent for alienating each other, and others along the way, by making simple conversation between them a no man’s land. It’s a “choice!”  It’s a “baby!” Or is it ego? An illustrious mooning contest in front of The Portal.

I hope and pray the day comes when a woman would never consider abortion unless it is needed to save her life, that the mindset of abortion being an indispensable tool for women to advance in society is recognized for what it is—taking a sometimes-necessary medical procedure and making it a weapon. I just don’t believe we’ll ever get there with law alone. Somehow, we have to start talking to each other. Overturning Roe was a crucial first step because it dramatically changed the tenor of the national conversation. It used to be “Since abortion is legal in all states it must be okay.” Now the query, You mean, so killing babies is okay in some states? ignites the conversation, flawed messenger not-with-standing. Who’d a thunk it?

Dear Friends and Readers,

This Saturday, June 29^th, there will be a Culture of Life in Arts and Entertainment Conference at the St. Vincent Ferrer Church Hall. It is located right next to the Church, at Lexington and 65^th Street. https://humanlifereview.com/breaking-through-the-culture-of-life-in-arts-and-entertainment-june-29-2024-in-new-york-city/  I’ll be giving a short speech. It’s about how the women’s movement as promised by Betty Friedan’s NOW organization was hijacked. And how we might get it back. There will be many wonderful speakers. You can pay at the door, no need to buy tickets beforehand. But please contact Christina at christina@humanlifereview.com so food can be organized.

All Best,

Diane.