The moderate's defense of abortion rights: A reply to Ross Douthat on Planned Parenthood

The extreme position of the pro-life movement is simply not a reasonable response to the complicated moral reality of abortion

A pro-choice protester outside the Supreme Court.
(Image credit: Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

These are deranging times for opponents of abortion. The seemingly endless stream of Planned Parenthood videos is so filled with talk of morally outrageous behavior — skulls crushed, organs extracted, parts sold — that even the most thoughtful of those who are convinced the procedure is an unalloyed evil are losing their cool. And their heads.

Take Ross Douthat of The New York Times. Perhaps the most intelligent and honest pro-life writer in the country — and the author of what might be the most powerful and moving column that's been written on the videos — Douthat has now penned an uncharacteristically harsh and angry blog post castigating several writers on what he dubs the "pro-choice-but-uneasy-about-it side of the abortion debate," including me. In my case, Douthat's ire was provoked by a column in which I called out pro-life activists for focusing too exclusively on banning the procedure and not enough on decreasing demand for abortions by supporting programs that both make contraception universally available and educate women about its use.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.