{"id":159463,"date":"2022-06-27T19:42:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T23:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buchanan.org\/blog\/?p=159463"},"modified":"2022-06-27T19:42:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T23:42:28","slug":"dobbs-and-joseph-sobran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buchanan.org\/blog\/dobbs-and-joseph-sobran-159463","title":{"rendered":"Dobbs and Joseph Sobran"},"content":{"rendered":"

by FRANCIS P. SEMPA at The American Spectator<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Let us pay tribute to the late essayist and his brilliant writing for the \u201cHuman Life Review.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1983, 10 years after the Supreme Court, in what Justice Byron White called an \u201cexercise of raw judicial power\u201d untethered to the Constitution, overturned the abortion-related laws of all 50 states in Roe v. Wade, Human Life Press published essays that Joseph Sobran (who died at the age of 64 in 2010) wrote for the Human Life Review between 1975 and 1982 in a book titled Single Issues. In the wake of the Dobbs decision, which overruled Roe and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, it is worth remembering Sobran\u2019s brilliant literary contributions to the anti-abortion movement.<\/p>\n

Sobran rightly called the pro-abortion movement a \u201csect,\u201d an \u201cintegral world-view that sees man as an animal; an animal whose destiny is a life of pleasure and comfort.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Former White House Communications Director Pat Buchanan, in a foreword to another collection of Sobran\u2019s columns<\/strong><\/a>, described Sobran\u2019s writing, saying, \u201cHis voice was unique, his style readily identifiable, his wit irrepressible, his range as wide as that of any columnist of his generation.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Sobran was a devoted Christian who loved his Catholic faith and knowingly \u201cstood on the shoulders\u201d of the great Christian apologists that came before him, especially C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton. In the foreword to Single Issues, Sobran concisely captured the essence of abortion: \u201cWhat single issue,\u201d he wrote, \u201clies nearer the heart of civilization? What could be more barbarous than the killing of an unborn child, by the choice of its mother, through the agency of a doctor, and with the blessing of the state?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sobran refused to submit to the semantic camouflage wielded by pro-abortion forces in order to conceal the true nature of the mass killing of the unborn that they supported (and still support). The pro-abortion \u201corthodoxy,\u201d Sobran wrote, refers to abortion as \u201cterminating a pregnancy\u201d and the aborted child as an \u201cunwanted child.\u201d Unborn infants, Sobran explained, are called \u201cfetuses\u201d or, at most, \u201cpotential life.\u201d Mothers are not \u201cwith child\u201d anymore, they are \u201cpregnant\u201d \u2014 although, as he noted, some confused or insufficiently educated mothers still \u201csay things like \u2018the baby is kicking.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Abortion opponents, according to pro-abortion forces, are \u201cdivisive\u201d and want to \u201cimpose their values on everyone else.\u201d Opponents of abortion are \u201cinjecting religion into public affairs,\u201d and \u201copposition to abortion is inherently \u2018theological.\u2019\u201d The question of when human life begins, pro-abortion forces say, \u201cis essentially a religious question,\u201d though science tells us otherwise. And, of course, no one is really \u201cpro-abortion,\u201d they are just \u201cpro-choice,\u201d and who can be against that? Sobran would have none of this.<\/p>\n

Sobran rightly called the pro-abortion movement a \u201csect,\u201d an \u201cintegral world-view that sees man as an animal; an animal whose destiny is a life of pleasure and comfort.\u201d And, \u201cif pleasure is man\u2019s destiny,\u201d then \u201cit is his right.\u201d Why should an \u201cunwanted child\u201d get in the way of a comfortable life, a potential career, or an established career?<\/p>\n

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Sobran also attacked the Supreme Court\u2019s reasoning in Roe. He wrote:<\/p>\n

The Court has now adopted, in opposition to the Declaration [of Independence], the great heresy of the twentieth century: that government has not the duty to recognize and protect (\u201csecure\u201d) innate human rights, given by God, but the arbitrary power to create and\/or destroy positive rights \u2014 including the very right to live \u2014 at its whim.\u2026 The Court \u2026 is at war with the American tradition, with the whole Western tradition.<\/p>\n

Justice Samuel Alito in Dobbs set forth in considerable detail the history and tradition of common law and statutes in this country that criminalized abortion throughout most of our history. Sobran was right \u2014 Roe v. Wade was \u201cat war with the American tradition\u201d and the \u201cwhole Western tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sobran also recognized a general social and economic class division over the issue of abortion. \u201c[I]t is the upper-middle classes \u2014 the most powerful and influential stratum \u2026 \u2014 who are the social \u2018headquarters\u2019 of pro-abortionism, as of liberal attitudes in general, in this country,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnti-abortionism,\u201d he continued, \u201cis, numerically speaking, concentrated further down the social ladder.\u201d The \u201cenlightened\u201d class tends to favor abortion, while the working and lower classes tend to oppose it.<\/p>\n

We have seen the truth of Sobran\u2019s observation very recently as professional athletes, Hollywood entertainers, and corporate oligarchs vent their anger \u2014 often in vulgar language…<\/p>\n

Read more at: The American Spectator<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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by FRANCIS P. SEMPA at The American Spectator Let us pay tribute to the late essayist and his brilliant writing for the \u201cHuman Life Review.\u201d In 1983, 10 years after the Supreme Court, in what Justice Byron White called an \u201cexercise of raw judicial power\u201d untethered to the Constitution, overturned … <\/p>\n

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