There is no issue that divides Democrats and Republicans more deeply than abortion.  It is, after all, a matter of life and death.

How can liberals, Democrats, and the left be such enthusiastic supporters of something that is, at best, a necessary evil?  Why are they so protective of unlimited abortion and paranoid about placing any restrictions whatsoever on it?  How do they manage to feel so positive about something that is so profoundly negative?

Although liberals give every indication that they believe that abortion is a virtuous and morally neutral act, they also reveal that they are not comfortable with that position.  You will rarely hear liberals say they are "pro-abortion."  They use various cowardly and misleading obfuscations such as "a woman's right to choose" and "reproductive rights."  If they have any conscience at all, they have to be conflicted.  If you've ever tried to have a polite discussion about abortion with a liberal, you know that it turns ugly fast.

The abortion enthusiasts have hijacked the word "choice."  That word is far too general and anodyne to substitute for the reality of abortion.  They're not "pro-choice"; they're pro-abortion.  Why can't they just say that?

The very name "Planned Parenthood" is itself a grotesque fraud.  Planned Parenthood is an organization dedicated to the prevention of parenthood, not the planning of it, either for the birth mother or for a couple eager for the chance to adopt.

Right-to-life advocates do not believe that the location of an unborn child is equivalent to ownership.  An abortion is not morally equivalent to an appendectomy.  There is no dispute about who owns your appendix.  An appendectomy or the removal of a malignant tumor prolongs a life; an abortion ends a life.

A pregnancy is usually the result of a choice to have sex.  Because you did, you now have another human being developing inside your body.  The fact that you irresponsibly had sex with someone you were not married to does not give you the guilt-free option of ending the life you started.  Roe v. Wade made abortion legal.  It did not make abortion either moral or admirable.

Ronald Reagan said, "We cannot diminish the value of one category of life — the unborn — without diminishing the value of all human life."

It is not just unborn children who pay the price for abortion; we all do.  The number of abortions committed, as well as the ho-hum way abortion is viewed, does more than anything else to numb our sensitivities about the sanctity of life.  There is probably nothing else that has led to the coarsening of our culture as much as the occurrence of millions of abortions.

A debating tactic that liberals like using is to point out that conservatives are against abortion but favor the death penalty.  They think it shows that conservatives are inconsistent and hypocritical.  Their smugness, however, is undeserved.  It demonstrates their refusal to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent.  A fetus is as innocent as anything can possibly be, and an unborn child is not in any way equivalent to a convicted murderer.

For too long, Planned Parenthood has been getting away with the lie that it is something other than what it is — primarily an abortion provider and promoter.  Furthermore, it discourages adoption.  You may as well ask Dr. Kevorkian for pregnancy counseling as to ask Planned Parenthood.  Pro-life taxpayers are sickened by the reality of their tax dollars being used to support such a despicable organization.

We hear the chant, "black lives matter."  That's true, but it is usually in reference to blacks being killed by police officers.  It would be good to keep in mind that the number of black lives ended by abortion is thousands of times greater than the number of black lives ended by police officers.

We who are saddened by the fact that over a million abortions are committed each year in the U.S. can fight back in a number of ways.  Let's no longer let the abortion advocates get away with their rampant language cowardice and distortions.  Let's vote for politicians who promise to stop public funding of Planned Parenthood.  Let's vote for politicians who aren't afraid to speak the truth and say what they believe.  Let's make it clear that abortion is not just another form of birth control.  Let's make it absolutely clear that adoption is infinitely superior to abortion.

Moral clarity can be a powerful force.  

Ron Ross, Ph.D. is a former professor of economics and author of The Unbeatable Market.  He resides in Arcata, California and can be reached at rossecon@aol.com.

Image: David Berkowitz.