Gay ‘marriage’ leaders: ‘LGBT rights and abortion rights are inseparable’
While some in the pro-life movement do not see a connection
between the right to life and the struggle to preserve traditional sexual
morality, those on the other side see how the efforts coincide quite clearly.
The plaintiffs in the case to force California to redefine
marriage say the LGBT political movement and actions to expand abortion “are
inseparable.”
John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney, a homosexual couple, won a
California Supreme Court decision in 2008 stating that refusing to issue
marriage licenses to same-sex couples is a form of discrimination that violates
the state constitution. They went on to join Marriage Equality USA, fighting to
overturn voter-approved constitutional marriage protection amendments
nationwide.
Now, they're weighing in on another pending court case: Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the U.S.
Supreme Court case testing a Texas law requiring abortionists to meet the same
health and safety standards as other ambulatory surgical centers.
"At first blush, some LGBT folks might think that abortion
rights have little to do with them,” they write in the San Francisco Bay Times.
“However, LGBT rights and reproductive freedom have long been closely
intertwined.”
The two reminisced about holding a sit-in on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in
1987, wearing t-shirts that read, “Queer and Present Danger.”
Their demonstration was to protest the 1986 Bowers
v. Hardwick decision,
in which justices upheld the constitutionality of state anti-sodomy laws. Just
17 years later, the High Court would reverse itself and overturn its precedent
in 2003's Lawrence v. Texas ruling, in which Justice
Anthony Kennedy cited
foreign law.
That ruling also relied upon the legal reasoning of the abortion
movement: That sexuality is private and should not be subject to any moral
restrictions.
They wrote, “The Supreme Court’s Lawrence decision relied heavily on language
from a key abortion rights precedent, when it stated:
[M]atters,
involving the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a
lifetime, choices central to personal dignity and autonomy, are central to the
liberty protected by the [Constitution]…At the heart of liberty is the right to
define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the
mystery of human life. Beliefs about these matters could not define the
attributes of personhood were they formed under compulsion of the State…It is a
promise of the Constitution that there is a realm of personal liberty which the
government may not enter.
“That language comes verbatim from Planned
Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, which, among other things, invalidated
a law that required a married woman to notify her husband before having an
abortion."
Justice Kennedy co-wrote the decision in Casey,
along with Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter.
The LGBT activists say, in addition to legal logic, liberal
homosexual and pro-abortion activists share the same enemies: people of faith.
"The fiercest opposition to both the LGBT and reproductive
freedom movements comes from conservative Christian political forces,” they
write. “LGBT and reproductive choice supporters have fought side by side in
efforts to defeat right-wing ballot initiatives."
While same-sex “marriage” has seen a dramatic increase in public
acceptance over the last few decades, abortion-on-demand remains mired at less
than 50 percent support and is quickly eroding among younger generations.
Lewis and Gaffney believe the way to increase public support for
abortion is for women who have had abortions to share their stories, telling the
public how abortion helped them.
It is unclear that such a move would increase acceptance of the
procedure, though. Multiple studies
have confirmed that women
who have had an abortion are at drastically higher risk of depression, suicide,
post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol or substance abuse, and other health
maladies.
Every year at the annual March for Life, post-abortive women
associated with Silent No More share their stories of grief and healing
outside the U.S. Supreme Court.
Pro-family advocates have begun holding an annual March for
Marriage, as well.
