Jim Wallis on Criminalizing Abortion

Jim Wallis was interviewed last month by Ted Olsen of Christianity Today magazine. One may read the article online here.

From what I've read, Wallis' stance on abortion amounts to this: don't worry about the legality of abortion, trying to ban it or criminalize it, but let's focus on trying to reduce the abortion rate.

Now, I can certainly echo support for coming up with measures to decrease the abortion rate, however, Wallis' views about not seeking constitutional amendments baffles me. Yes, we need to persuade people to not think in terms of a "throwaway culture" exemplified by how we genetically decide who is worthy to live and who is not worth living. His mention of testing for Down's Syndrome babies truly angers me. But how can one call themselves pro-life, as Wallis does, yet think that all that what needs to be done is to make abortion more difficult for women to choose? Surely, he must know that right after abortion became legal in all the states in 1974, the abortion rate skyrocketed in the U.S. For better or worse, the law is a tutor to what people think is moral and immoral. Yes, the current legislative stalemate is frustrating, but that doesn't mean we abandon such an important battle front in the abortion debate. In our Republic, political solutions of moral questions must be accomplished through political processes and power. Thus, the allusion to William Wilberforce's abolition of slavery is appropriate.

At the moment, abortion law (Roe v. Wade, Casey v. Planned Parenthood, etc.) strangles many types of abortion restrictions that the states and the federal government have come up with. We are lucky that we have some of them in place. Yet, the right to abortion that our current legal system attributes as a fundamental right (it truly is a legal fiction) continues to support abortions on demand. Even the partial-birth abortion ban only outlaws one particular type of abortion (D/X abortions = using scissors jabbed to the back of the unborn's head and having the brain sucked out by a vacuum). Abortion law still allows myriad other methods for late-term abortions.

Thus, in this regard, Jim Wallis should follow the lead of William Wilberforce who had no problems criminalizing slavery. Sure, this led to some who traded slaves in secret (akin to woman seeking "back-alley" abortions), but we shouldn't shy away from making something illegal because bad circumstances may occur because of it. Do we make bank robbing legal because bank robbing is inherently dangerous and bank robbers inevitably get injured while robbing banks? Neither should the case be for abortions.