In the face of a Democratic administration coming into office with a Democrat-controlled congress, the antiabortion activists must be feeling anxious and desperate. It seems they are considering turning to Plan B or even Plan C, since the prospects for Plan A, outlawing the practice entirely, now appear so dim. What surprises me is how far out there Plans B and C truly are.

Frustrated by the failure to overturn Roe v. Wade, a growing number of antiabortion pastors, conservative academics and activists are setting aside efforts to outlaw abortion and instead are focusing on building social programs and developing other assistance for pregnant women to reduce the number of abortions.

Some of the activists are actually working with abortion rights advocates to push for legislation in Congress that would provide pregnant women with health care, child care and money for education — services that could encourage them to continue their pregnancies.

These revolutionary ideas will alienate much of the far right wing. Placing the needs of women ahead of the needs of fetuses is a dangerous idea; who knows how far it will go, and how much damage all these insidious “social programs” will do to the fabric of American society.

You think I am being sarcastic, but that is the argument.

The new effort is causing a fissure in the antiabortion movement, with traditional groups viewing the activists as traitors to their cause. Leaders worry that the approach could gain traction with a more liberal Congress and president, although they do not expect it to weaken hard-core opposition.

“It’s a sellout, as far as we are concerned,” said Joe Scheidler, founder of the Pro-Life Action League. “We don't think it's really genuine. You don’t have to have a lot of social programs to cut down on abortions.”

Full article at The Washington Post.

And this June essay in the New York Times by Waldo Fielding, a doctor who recalls treating victims of botched illegal abortions before Roe v. Wade, reminds us of one crucial fact:

The worst case I saw, and one I hope no one else will ever have to face, was that of a nurse who was admitted with what looked like a partly delivered umbilical cord. Yet as soon as we examined her, we realized that what we thought was the cord was in fact part of her intestine, which had been hooked and torn by whatever implement had been used in the abortion. It took six hours of surgery to remove the infected uterus and ovaries and repair the part of the bowel that was still functional.

It is important to remember that Roe v. Wade did not mean that abortions could be performed. They have always been done, dating from ancient Greek days.

What Roe said was that ending a pregnancy could be carried out by medical personnel, in a medically accepted setting, thus conferring on women, finally, the full rights of first-class citizens — and freeing their doctors to treat them as such.