The Wrong Side of History

"With Roe overturned, states will be empowered through the democratic process to determine their own abortion laws and not have them dictated by judicial mandate." - Mitt Romney

"I deny the right of Congress to force a slaveholding State upon an unwilling people. I deny their right to force a free State upon an unwilling people. I deny their right to force a good thing upon a people who are unwilling to receive it. The great principle is the right of every community to judge and decide for itself, whether a thing is right or wrong, whether it would be good or evil for them to adopt it; and the right of free action, the right of free thought, the right of free judgment upon the question is dearer to every true American than any other under a free government." - Stephen Douglas

     Mitt Romney's position on abortion is eerily similar to the position of Lincoln's famous opponent in the Illinois Senate race and, later, the presidential race, Stephen Douglas, on slavery. Both men refused to recognize that the source of the right to self-government, which they use to justify their indifference toward eradicating glaring moral problems, is derived from the same source that the right to life and liberty is. If the later is denied the former cannot stand on its own - no man has a right to violate the rights of others. If, as Douglas stated and Romney implied, the "great principle" is the "right of every community to judge and decide for itself whether a thing is right or wrong," we are left at the mercy of the tyranny of the masses, with no natural rights set as limits on what the majority can do.

    Just as the subsequent generations passed a measure of censure on Douglas and recognized that he stood on the wrong side of history when he refused to take a stand against slavery, it will be clear to future generations that Romney also stands on the wrong side of history when he refuses to take a stand against abortion. In the face of great moral issues deference to the whims of the majority will not suffice. History will not remember kindly those who take such a stance, and their own indifference will condemn them.

For a new birth of freedom!