No, You Can't Have My Rights -- I'm Still Using Them

That's what it says on a button given to the columnist Nat Hentoff by his daughter recently.  If you haven't heard of Nat Hentoff, he was a columnist for The Village Voice for many years, espousing civil rights and what one would think of as typically "liberal" causes.  What shook the left was when Mr. Hentoff proclaimed himself to be pro-life in the 1980's; a decision he saw as quite consistent with his anti-war, pro civil rights thinking.  However, he soon learned that others in his profession did not see the consistency.

In a recent column for the Human Life Review , Hentoff describes the personal and professional difficulties that came to him after his announcement of his anti-abortion stance.  He almost had a school of journalism named for him at Antioch College, until they learned he was pro-life.  The dean had to sheepishly call him back after the announcement to tell him that they had changed their minds.

He was a writer for The Progressive for many years and believes he was not only the sole pro-lifer on the staff, but among the readership, as well.  Mary Meehan, another civil rights activist turned pro-lifer, wrote in its pages:

"It is out of character for the left to neglect the weak and helpless.  The traditional mark of the left has been its protection of the underdog...The unborn child is the most helpless form of humanity, even in more need of protection than the poor tenant farmer or the mental patient."

Why so many in the left-leaning political realm can't see the terrible injustice of abortion is puzzling.  Unfortunately, their blindness continues to permit the innocent to perish.