The Seen and the Unseen

Ann Althouse writes... 

because gay people could and did hide from public view for a long time, many people felt comfortable with oppressing them, which gave them all the more reason to hide. That dynamic changed over the past 5 decades or so, and as more and more gay people became visible, more and more people grew uncomfortable oppressing them. That has had a big effect on public opinion, to the point now where the holdouts — the ones who would continue the oppression — have resorted to crying that they themselves are oppressed.

I think we will see a similar dynamic in regards to abortion.  Liberals can and do "hide from public view" the appalling infanticides that take place every day.  So right now many people feel comfortable with supporting abortion rights. 

But what happens if and when that dynamic starts to change?

As more and more abortions "become visible," more and more people will be uncomfortable supporting abortion.     

Abortion relies upon invisibility.  Here Althouse writes brilliantly on the "morality of the seen and unseen."    

This is a shallow morality that infects our lives. If the human entity is inside the womb, and it is cut into pieces that is one thing, but if it's "partially born" so that a nurse sees it clenching and unclenching its fists as it meets its demise, it's another. And if it slips entirely out, and everyone sees a living child and then the doctor severs its spine, then everyone is supposed to know it's murder. From the inside, these deaths are all the same.

Yes, that's right.  Infanticide is infanticide is infanticide.  And our society cannot allow mothers to kill unwanted children.  We flinch from this.  We hide from it.  We know it's wrong.   

More Althouse...

increased visibility was an essential part of the political dynamic we have witnessed. Glenn Loury, in that clip, openly admits that the dynamic made him switch sides. I'm glad that happened and is happening in our political culture, but I think the argument based on principle should have been enough.

What will happen to the pro-choice movement when the AP and the Washington Post and CBS and NBC and ABC and Fox and all the rest of our Pravda media actually start showing abortions to our people?  Of course we will be shocked ("shocked!") that abortion looks like a baby that's been ripped to pieces.  But the truth is that this is precisely why the media hid these photographs from our people in the first place.