The American Spectator

AS PONNURU ONCE NOTED in National Review, the pro-choicers have benefited ever since Roe simply from being the party of the status quo. People who just want to forget the subject and “move on” are in effect on the pro-choicers’ side.

For the left, it is doubtful that any argument can win them over. “The issue is whether a woman has a right to make up her own mind about her health care,” Howard Dean is quoted as saying. “I think Republicans are intrusive and they invade people’s privacy, and they don’t have a right to do that.”

Ponnuru uses the quote to refute claims that Democrats have softened or changed on abortion. What he doesn’t really address is that it is a strong argument on its own terms, one that can win over even those with qualms about abortion.

His solution — and advice to other pro-lifers — is to take it slowly and work on the minor victories. “Of course it is true that a national ban on abortion cannot be obtained now,” he writes. “But it is not futile to pursue an incremental strategy that improves the laws and culture bit by bit.”

In other words, the battles of the last 30 years may only have been a warm-up.