Two and a half centuries ago, slavery was the law of the land, a norm in American life and an institution on which many demanded. Within 150 years, abolitionists had succeeded in making slavery first controversial, then peculiar, and finally discredited.

Thirty years after Roe v. Wade, abortion is still the law of the land, one of the most common surgical procedures in America and one of the most polarizing issues in public policy — so polarizing that some wish to shy away from it.

In the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, the court upheld Roe v. Wade, saying that women had come to depend on abortion, although six justices indicated that Roe v. Wade had been decided incorrectly.

How sad that the same feminist movement that made women independent of men has made women dependent on abortion. Dependence on abortion is no more a justification for its continued legality than dependence on slavery was a justification for the continuation of that institution.

The abolitionists succeeded in changing the values of this country because they had the moral fortitude to combat a widespread and widely accepted practice for more than a century.

Will today’s abolitionists succeed also?

Only if they do not shy away from this polarizing issue.

Nicole Asmussen

Freshman

Political Science