Clay Jenkinson made several mistakes in his April 1 column about the proposed abortion legislation. For one thing, he repeated myths about public opinion on abortion. Most Americans actually oppose abortion and would favor more restrictions on the act. In fact, a majority of Americans think that most abortions should be illegal, and more women than men hold this view.

Jenkinson also erred in his assessment of House Bill 1466’s “trigger.� Conditional effective dates are not unusual in North Dakota legislation, and they do not tie the hands of future legislatures. 

The column’s most significant flaw, however, was its failure to address the morality of abortion. Jenkinson wrote that he did not want to address the morality of abortion but only the wisdom of the proposed legislation. By failing, however, to address the morality of abortion, he created a “straw man� out of the proposed legislation, the unreasonableness of which is a foregone conclusion.

Any discussion of abortion should begin with a look at what is abortion and the morality of the act. If, as Jenkinson has done, a person evades the underlying issue and treats abortion as nothing more than a mere vice, it is easy to characterize the actions of pro-life advocates and legislation like HB1466 as unreasonable moral posturing. 

However, if a person concludes that the scientific evidence and the use of reason demonstrate that abortion is the deliberate destruction of developing human life, the actions of pro-life legislators and proposals like HB1466 are reasonable and progressive. Most Americans have reached that conclusion, and the proposed legislation is a reasonable step toward a better future.

(Dodson is executive director of the North Dakota Catholic Conference. — Editor)