Sacred Heart adds life to abortion debate

From a PRWeek article:

Further proof that good PR has nothing to do with good taste.

For the past eight years, the Sacred Heart of Mary Church in Boulder, CO has been quietly holding "funerals" for the cremated remains of aborted fetuses--without the permission of the would-be mothers. Last Sunday, they invited the press. Half the country was appalled; the other half was heartened.

But regardless of what one thinks of abortion, religion, or gratuitous inclusion of the words "aborted fetus" in the morning paper, it's hard to deny the significance of the event.

Whether they know it or not, the Sacred Heart crowd is employing an increasingly popular pro-life tactic: Gradually establish the rights(or in this case, rites) of unborn children in ways seemingly unconnected to the abortion debate, then turn those rights back on the pro-choice crowd and watch 'em squirm.

It's a tactic best exemplified by Laci's Law, named for the oft-exploited Laci Peterson. The law states that anyone who kills an unborn child while committing violence against the mother can be charged with murder.

Who can argue with that? Except that it leads to the obvious question: If a fetus is protected by law in that case, why not when the mother chooses to abort it?

This type of approach is certainly better than stalking and shooting abortion providers. In the battle of ideas and public opinion, the tide has turned toward pro-life because we have made a convincing case that it isn't just a glob of unviable tissue mass that is being destroyed, but a human being that is just in another stage of development--like infants, toddlers, tweens, teens, young adults, middle agers, and neighborhood curmudgeons.