The Left, Abortion, and Adolescence

The Left will bitterly oppose any nominee for the Supreme Court if the Left finds in that nominee a scintilla of opposition to legal abortion.

What I want to know is why that issue is of such great importance to the Left. What is it about abortion (or the "right" to have one) that seizes the passions of the Left? Is it the notion of self-ownership, that is, the "right" to do with "one's body" as one will? If the Left were consistent about self-ownership it wouldn't also encourage government to take money from others in order to provide "free" programs, ranging from health care to bike trails.

The Left's selective embrace of self-ownership indicates that its elevation of abortion to sacramental status has deeper, more psychological roots. The Left is in an arrested state of adolescent rebellion: "Daddy" doesn't want me to smoke, so I'm going to smoke; "Daddy" doesn't want me to drink, so I'm going to drink; "Daddy" doesn't want me to have sex, so I'm going to have sex. But, regardless of my behavior, I expect "Daddy" to give me an allowance, and birthday presents, and cell phones, and so on.

"Daddy," in the case of abortion, is government, which had banned abortion in many places. If it's banned, the Left wants it. But the Left -- like an adolescent -- also expects government to cough up money (others' money, of course) to quench its material desires.

Persons of the Left simply are simply unthinking, selfish adolescents who want what they want, regardless of the consequences for others. The Left's stance on abortion should be viewed as just one more adolescent tantrum in a vast repertoire of tantrums.