While it is true that many who contend abortion should be illegal are religious, not all are, and the primary rationale of the movement is certainly no more religious than most of our laws that protect the innocent from injury. The anti-abortion position can be summed up in three short sentences. Therefore abortion should be illegal. You can muddle the issue some with these tangential questions, but in the end, one simple syllogism rises above the pro-death rhetoric. Abortion is murder.
Murder is illegal.
Therefore, abortion should be illegal. Notice this argument makes no mention of religion. Whether you agree with Ms. Trilling's analysis or my own, it is apparent that the abortion issue is a crucial one. If she's right, important civil liberties are in jeopardy. If I'm right, millions of children have been violently murdered in the 26 years since Roe v. Wade.