Commentary
No right is absolute. The state can curtail speech for compelling reasons, the old “yelling fire in a theater” cliché. Religious liberty can be restricted too—just ask the Christian florist found financially liable because her faith forbade serving a same sex wedding. The Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear arms, to be sure, but the government can legally forbid private citizens from owning machine guns. But now, the first absolute right is being conjured—unconditional access to abortion at any time, for any reason, and without cost.
“Safe, legal, and rare,” was always more a political slogan than a policy prescription, but at least it acknowledged the moral element in the abortion question. It’s a sign of our amoral times that the contemporary guiding principle of pro-choice activism is, “Free abortion on demand without apology.”…