They Changed Their Minds, Why Don’t We?

We are now living with the consequences of two significant societal changes that have occurred in my life time: no-fault divorce and abortion-on-demand.  Perhaps you were unaware that two people who fought hard for each of these changes have lived to see the consequences of each and were then honest enough to change their minds.  Our nation should understand why they changed and then join them.

No-Fault Divorce

Betty Friedan - ardent feminist and author of The Feminine Mystique - called marriage a “comfortable concentration camp” from which women should be freed, and worked hard for no-fault divorce laws, beginning with California in 1970.

Twenty-seven years later, even Friedan admitted, “I think we made a mistake with no fault divorce,” recognizing that no-fault divorce had led to “unintended consequences” that adversely affected women. That same year, the president of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women, founded by Friedan, made the case against no-fault divorce in the pages of the New York Times.  .  .  .  The reason for feminists’ about-face on no-fault divorce has largely to do with the reality that no-fault divorce, especially unilateral no-fault divorce, has a disproportionately negative economic impact on women.

In a blog post entitled The Feminist, Pro-Father, and Pro-Child Case Against No-Fault Divorce, Ashley McGuire lays out the research that has accumulated over the years to demonstrate that our experiment with no-fault divorce laws has hurt women, children and men.  That’s pretty much everybody in my estimation.  Click Herefor the entire post, it is well worth the read.

Abortion-On-Demand

Dr. Bernard Nathanson helped establish NARAL – the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws – and testified before the Supreme Court in favor of Roe v. Wade.  He also established the largest free-standing abortion clinic in the world in New York City, personally performing by his estimation some 75,000 abortion.

Then came ultra-sound technology.  For the first time, Dr Nathanson watched an abortion as it was being performed.  The new technology of ultra-sound allowed him to observe the "fetus" as it was being pursued in the womb and then suctioned limb by limb to it's death.

Eventually, Dr. Nathanson narrated a 27 minute film of the procedure, so that all could see what he had seen.  You can see it for yourself on YouTube - click here - but be warned, I find it heart-rending.  I recently saw a live ultra-sound session of a baby in the womb that was estimated to be 12-13 weeks old.  The mother had only felt the baby a few times herself, but we could now all see the mouth, arms, legs and heart beating.  It was amazing.

My pro-abortion friends are always quick to speak for the freedom of the mother, the health and future of both mother and child and the difficult circumstances like conception by rape.  I believe that the Gospel calls us to recognize those and pursue God’s justice and shalom with regard to them.  But, somehow we need to do a better job of considering those matters in light of what every person can see with an ultra-sound of a 12 week old unborn baby.  Don’t even get me started on Dr Kermit Gosnell’s practice of aborting babies of 30+ weeks development.  Click Here to read my prior post on this topic.

Betty Friedan and Dr. Barnard Nathanson worked hard to implement dramatic changes to our society that they lived to regret.  We should learn from their mistake, and work hard to undo the changes.