Stanek weekend question: With which leg of pro-life’s “3-legged stool” do you identify?
(Be sure to take the poll at the bottom of this post!)
Abortion proponent Steph Herold has identified the “3-legged stool” of abortion:
But my investigation also solidified my belief that culture change efforts are imperative to the policy and health-care access work that our movement is doing.
Ignoring culture change to focus on policy and health care may garner some short-term wins, but leaves you without a long-term aspirational vision for change.
In other words, a movement that is built only on two legs - policy and health-care access - cannot stand. We need that third leg: culture change….
It’s difficult to imagine long-term policy gains without doing the hard work to change norms, beliefs, and behavior. We’ve seen first-hand that without culture change, no policy change will be long lasting. We have Roe v. Wade, yet that certainly hasn’t guaranteed the right to accessing an abortion in the United States.
Pro-life 3-legged stool to stop abortion
Pro-life advocates have the same 3-legged stool, 180 degrees opposite: overturn pro-abortion policy, drying up access to abortion clinics, and convert the culture of death to the culture of life.
I think viewing our fight to stop abortion in those terms helps one appreciate the complexity of the pro-life movement, how all of our efforts are interrelated, and how all of our efforts are equally important.
When the overall battle is compartmentalized this way, which side do you think is winning?
Which leg of pro-life’s 3-legged stool do you most closely identify with, in terms of your passion and the type of pro-life work you do?
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 think that a combination of overturning policy and changing the culture is the best approach. I believe that drying up access to clinics strengthens the pro choice movement while they rally to fight back. How to go about achieving these goals is the big question.
Why isn’t providing for women that would consider abortion one of the categories? That’s surely an key part of the pro-life movement.
It is, Navi, for sure. And it is where I personally am most active. I think it could fall under the umbrella of “changing the culture,” by showing women there are better options than abortion and helping them succeed.
Agree with Len on that… :)
Well I believe in all of them and think they are all necessary.
I am active in lobbying, training, speaking,writing,offices in pro life organizations, campaigning for pro life candidates. I do sidewalk counseling and volunteer in a prc.
We absolutely must not neglect the policy part by electing pro life legislators and enacting pro life policy that seeks to slow down or decrease access. This saves lives of the babies and the mothers.
We change the culture through education as in prc,and training and sidewalk counseling.
So there needs to be a choice that says all of the above which we absolutely need.
As a pro-lifer, my first concern is the culture. Without cultural change, any other changes will only be perceived as oppressive, rendering them meaningless.
As someone interested in equal protection of the law, equal application of the law, and public health, it is extremely important to me that sex ed be factual and promote healthy practices. I want clinics to be held to the same standards as outpatient surgical centers. I want abortion-minded women to be provided with factual and complete information about the consequences of their desire and a 24-hour waiting period to make sure they think it through and are not unduly pressured by the clinic. I want everyone to be educated in the health risks of promiscuity and hormonal birth control. Finally, I want public policy that promotes and supports adoption and functional marriages, both of which contribute to public health and prosperity. All of those things ultimately promote a pro-life position, but that’s just icing onthe cake for me.
Thought Pro-Life was about more than just abortion. More about natural beginnings of conceiving, birth and natural death in it’s own time. No abortion or euthanasia. Right to Life and Respect Life.
“When the overall battle is compartmentalized this way, which side do you think is winning?”
Hard to say,it seems to me that the abortion fight in the United States is currently at somewhat of a stalemate.
“Which leg of pro-life’s 3-legged stool do you most closely identify with, in terms of your passion and the type of pro-life work you do?”
All three equally.
Patty, those would fall under the categories of changing the culture and policy change.
I would like to see abortion illegal again.
“I would like to see abortion illegal again.”
So, that would be overturning pro-abortion policy?
I rather enjoy these theoretical discussions of abortion politics. I suppose they are productive, because they help some people to think more clearly about the big picture.
Just remember that “access to clinics” is not really different from “policy.” We want to shut down the abortion industry — and we do that by legislative policy (by defunding Planned Parenthood and requiring clinics to maintain reasonable safety standards) or by establishing a culture of life (such as praying and counseling on the sidewalks and operating the Pregnancy Centers that offer women a better choice).
Ultimately, America will not be a pro-life nation until Americans re-embrace a culture of life. We have to keep the conversation and education going, until abortion is as unthinkable as it was before Roe v. Wade.
I dont see abortion becoming illegal in my life time. We are too far gone. Too many people have been born to believe it is the law of the land and a right. Nothing has gotten any better with abortion. As we go on about our day today another approx. 5000 children will be murdered today. Another 5000 tomorrow…repeat repeat repeat.
@heather,
Take heart, things can change…sometimes, when the time is right, change is rapid.
Eventually, abortion will be re-illegalized…and it will happen when even more of the population was raised with it. Change will come when abortion is finally seen for what it truly is… in a way that is undeniable to all… perhaps horrible… Like what happened with the once popular (but deeply flawed) eugenics philosophy after the holocaust was revealed… Truth changes hearts and minds – let it be revealed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipping_point_(sociology)