Charles Krauthammer debunks Rand Paul’s excuse to keep abortion legal
Last week on The O’Reilly Factor Charles Krauthammer unintentionally debunked the frustrating statement made by pro-life Senator Rand Paul (pictured right) about abortion during his April 22 interview with David Axelrod. Paul said, quoting usnews.com:
On whether he’d sign a law restricting abortion rights:
“I think where the country is, is somewhere in the middle. We’re not changing any of the laws until the country is persuaded otherwise.”
It apparently doesn’t occur to people who think like Paul that unrestricted abortion was thrust upon this country in the first place when at least 2/3 of the states opposed it.
Krauthammer is pro-abortion, so I’m sure it never occurred to him that his thoughts about overturning segregation laws in the U.S. might also be applied to overturning abortion laws. Krauthammer said (beginning at 1:30 on the video):
But we decided as a society to step in and make it [segregation] illegal, not to wait for culture to reach a point of tolerance… to make it illegal. So that’s the country speaking to its own citizens and saying there’s a new norm, and, you’re going to have to act in a certain way. You may not want to serve somebody at your counter. You have to, or you’re going to be in trouble with the law.
And that over a generation or two is a teaching mechanism. And I think the country has done very well. The law influences the culture, and the culture influences the law. We have come an incredibly long way.
Pro-lifers do indeed have to work to shift culture, and we’ve come a long way in that regard.
But pro-life politicians who have the power to change law and don’t are simply cowards. They make do-nothing excuses such as Paul’s simply because they fear voter and media backlash.
Were pro-life politicians to take stronger steps to outlaw abortion, you can bet the public would amend its sexual behavior accordingly, as Krauthammer aptly pointed out with regard to segregation.
[Photo via usnews.com]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
I wonder how long segregation and denial of civil rights to black Americans would have persisted in this country if Dr. King had decided to wait “until the country is persuaded otherwise”?
Was it he who said you can’t change men’s hearts but you can change laws?
I hope he didn’t say that because it’s plainly obvious that you can change someone’s heart!
Great points, Mary. If the law hadn’t been changed, segregation would still persist, I believe.
Lead or get out of the way, Senator Paul.
This is why I do not give a whit for party labels or even ideological labels. The idea that one should comprimise or be silent about the intentional killing of millions of innocent babies in the furtherance of political and/or ideological loyalty is repugnant to me. Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Libertarian, Liberal-if you think abortion is acceptable, you are in deep trouble morally. As much as I like to think the United States is a great country, I cannot help but feel that history will judge our government’s efforts to spread tha practice of abortion throughout the world as far worse than the Holocaust.
Mary, May 5, 2014 at 10:37 am
“I wonder how long segregation and denial of civil rights to black Americans would have persisted in this country if Dr. King had decided to wait “until the country is persuaded otherwise”?”
* * *
It was the same with legalizing abortion – not all the states were really for it at the time.
Ready for it? No one should be ready to destroy children, ever, at any stage of development.
“not all the states were really for it at the time”
Jeffrey Dahmer wasn’t ready to stop killing people either.
Rand Paul did not get the memo that he needs to talk a good game, and sign a token law or two, and the pro-life crown will swoon.
I remember GW on the cover of a Focus on the Family magazine – most pro-life President ever. Because why? Hard to define.
Face it – the pro-life crowd is MUCH better off with Democrats in the white house, because the minority party then does better at the state level where laws concerning abortion are actually made. And by abortion, I mean 1-2% of abortions, but still.
No one has mentioned the most outrageous thing Rand Paul said in this interview: he believes that life begins at conception, but it is just his belief, not scientific fact. I’d say more, but I find that this complete lack of honesty leaves me speechless!