The Price Of Admission

     Most “exclusive” groups have a membership test: a specific course of action the applicant must fulfill to qualify for admission. Often, within such a group there exists an inner circle with even more demanding requirements for entry. In each case, the advantages that accrue to the member will be proportional to the severity of the test he must undergo. (Accordingly, a group with no explicit requirements for membership will confer no substantial advantages upon its members.)

     Some of the violent gangs that have blighted America have had as a membership test that the applicant must commit a murder in the presence of other gang members. By doing so, the applicant is said to “make his bones.” The gang assures itself of the applicant’s loyalty in this manner, for he would literally have to stake his life that in exchange for his testimony, the authorities would overlook his capital crime.

     Now let’s talk about abortion.

     The Left has striven to raise abortion to sacred status: as untouchable a political issue as Social Security. Pro-abortion activists have gone so far as to hold “shout your abortion” rallies, at which they exhort women who’ve had abortions to celebrate them publicly. However, an enormous number of Americans are still staunchly pro-life, while an equal number are disgusted by the contemporary use of abortion as post hoc contraception. Recently, the most extreme pro-abortion advocates, who want it to be a legally protected act from the instant of conception all the way up to the instant of birth, have found themselves fighting a rearguard action against the swelling of the aforementioned groups. There’s a lot of money involved, especially on the pro-abortion side.

     Abortion is a “non-negotiable” within the Democrat Party. Democrats who are even mildly uneasy about unrestricted abortion are not to be found among the party’s leaders. Indeed, they’re rare among the rank and file. If you’ve ever expressed a qualm about abortion, you’ll find it impossible to win admission to the party’s inner circle, where the money, power, and prestige are concentrated.

     One way to “make your bones” to the Democrat leadership is to have an abortion and speak of it proudly and publicly. It might not be strictly necessary, but as a token of commitment it’s valued highly. The reason, of course, is that thereafter the other leaders have “got something” on the applicant that she would have a hard time backing away from. Even among the Democrat rank and file, proclaiming your abortion openly can gain you acceptance and enhanced status.

     That’s not a complete explanation for behavior such as this:

     Outside of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, pro-abortion protesters allegedly ingested abortion pills as the court prepared to hear arguments over a case from Mississippi that could dramatically alter abortion in the United States.

     As reported by Fox News, “At least four women were seen taking pills as others cheered. The group Shout Your Abortion did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment on the video and protest.”

     According to a Twitter post with video by feminist writer Erin Matson on Wednesday, “people took abortion pills outside the Supreme Court!”

     …but it goes a long way toward making it comprehensible.

     Stephen Kruiser comments on the “creepiness” of it:

     Abortion — that most contentious of all issues — is front and center in a way that it hasn’t been since the abominable Roe v Wade decision was handed down in early 1973. American lefties are melting down over the fact that their ability to kill babies in the womb with impunity might — heavy on the might — be restricted a bit. They’re so twisted they act as if the very survival of the species depends on the ability to commit infanticide….

     The joyful celebration of the termination of innocent life is something that sane, decent people can’t wrap their heads around. It isn’t just that the American left has lost their minds when it comes to abortion, it’s that they’ve lost their humanity.

     I pray that some of them get it back.

     If we see it as a membership test, it becomes more comprehensible. Someone determined to gain entry to the circles in which abortion is deemed sacrosanct is likely to behave this way. The attraction is increased if other advantages might also come from it. (Of the readiness of horny young men to cheer on such women and their “right,” it is unnecessary to speak.)

     (A side note: Quite a number of the most extreme pro-abortion advocates have made the claim that we who are pro-life merely don’t want women to have sex. It’s absurd, of course. Given the efficacy and ease of modern contraceptive methods, no one could logically claim that without unrestricted abortion, sex would be too risky to indulge. But the Left has found linking abortion to sexual freedom to be a winning approach, even though it’s utterly false.)

     Abortion is the most durable of all “cleavage issues” that separate Left and Right. No other issue commands its level of passion or commitment. Mississippi’s new law banning abortion after 15 weeks of gestation, which is now before the Supreme Court, will raise the emotions, the accusations and counter-accusations, and the stakes to unprecedented heights, greater even than those that pertained at the time of Roe v. Wade. Therefore, expect the Left to beat its loudest drums, and to instruct those who’ve “shouted their abortions” that once they’ve “made their bones,” there’s no going back.

     Yet there is “going back.” Catholics know it well. It’s called absolution. And it’s available to anyone who sincerely repents. Verbum sat sapienti.