T H E H U M A N L I F E R E V I E W THE HUMAN LIFE REVIEW SUMMER 2017 Vol. XLIII, No. 3 Vol. THE HUMAN LIFE REVIEW SUMMER 2017 VOL. XLIII No. 3 ◆ Summer 2017 ◆ F E A T U R E D I N T H I S I S S U E ◆ William Murchison on JOHN T. NOONAN, JR.: A HUMANE PERSONALITY John T. Noonan, Jr. on ABORTION IN THE AMERICAN CONTEXT ◆ SYMPOSIUM: WHOLE LIFE V. PRO-LIFE? ◆ “The worst part of abortion is the violence it inflicts on the unborn. The second-worst part of abortion is the violence Mary Meehan • Nicholas Frankovich • David Mills • Jack Fowler it inflicts on the truth.Those who favor abortion favor Fr. David Poecking • Rebecca Bratten Weiss • Brandon McGinley euphemism: ‘choice,’ ‘women’s health care,’ etc. They rely Kathryn Jean Lopez • Kristan Hawkins • Charles Camosy • Anne on euphemism for the same reason they feel the need to Hendershott • Aimee Murphy • Kevin Williamson • Matthew Schmitz suppress and exclude protesters carrying signs with images they deem shocking, ‘graphic,’ or, in the insipid language of the moment, ‘triggering’—and for the same reason they Roland C. Warren on object so strenuously to measures such as the Texas WHY WE SHOULD BE PRO ABUNDANT LIFE sonogram law: The rhetoric of abortion cannot withstand Mathew Lu on the reality of abortion.” THE MORAL WRONGNESS OF SUICIDE —Kevin D. Williamson, “Whole Life v. Pro Life?” Ellen Wilson Fielding on HUMAN PERSONS IN WESTERN LITERATURE ◆ ◆ Chris Rostenberg on A L S O I N T H I S I S S U E THE DAY SOCRATES MET A PRO-CHOICER PART II ◆ ALSO IN THIS ISSUE ◆ Booknotes: Brian Caulfield reviews Racketeer for Life Maria McFadden Maffucci reviews God’s Wild Flowers From the HLR Blog: Anne Sullivan www.humanlifereview.com Appendices: Mene Ukueberuwa • Noemie Emery THE HUMAN LIFE FOUNDATION, INC. ◆ NEW YORK, NEW YORK $10.00 PER COPY ABOUT THIS ISSUE . As soon as we heard of Judge John Noonan’s death in April, we set aside space to reprint “Abortion in the American Context” (page 11), originally published in SUBSCRIPTIONS AND BOUND VOLUMES our Winter 1977 issue. Other work by then-Professor Noonan had already appeared in the Review, including “Why a Constitutional Amendment?” in the debut issue (Winter 1975). In early May our senior editor William Murchison called and asked me if he might do an appreciation of the late judge, whose “remarkable achieve- Subscriptions: the Human Life Review accepts regular subscriptions at the rate of ment,” Murchison writes in these pages, “was lifting to public notice . the God- $40 for a full year (four issues). Canadian and all other foreign subscriptions please to-man connection; humanity as special . and therefore due unremitting govern- add $10 (total: $50 U.S. currency). Please address all subscription orders to the ad- ment protection.” (“A Humane Personality,” page 5). In this issue, we also remem- dress below and enclose payment with order. You may enter gift subscriptions for friends, libraries, or schools at the same rates. ber Mr. Thomas Bolan, our former board member and legal counsel, whose unre- mitting commitment to protecting unborn life was manifest in his longtime pro- Additional Copies: this issue—No. 3, Volume XLIII—is available while the supply bono work for the Human Life Foundation (page 20). lasts at $10 per copy; 10 copies or more at $8 each. A limited number of back issues For over four decades, editors of this journal have monitored the abortion de- from 1996 to this year are also available. We will pay all postage and handling. bate. Several years ago, when I was researching our archive to compile the an- Bound Volumes: we now have available bound volumes of the years 1992 through thologies The Debate Since Roe and The Reach of Roe, I realized that the essential 2001 at $50 each. The volumes are indexed, and bound in permanent library-style elements of that debate were present from the beginning. However, as you will see hardcovers, complete with gold lettering, etc. (they will make handsome additions to in the symposium featured here, the arguments are rediscovered and, to use a popular your personal library). Please send payment with order to the address below. We will pay all postage and handling. term, reimagined by subsequent generations. Many thanks to all of those who par- ticipated in this lively discussion, which we have titled “Whole Life v. Pro-life?” Earlier Volumes: while several volumes are now in very short supply, we can still (page 21). And then there is “Why We Must Become Pro Abundant Life,” an ar- offer some of the volumes for the first 16 years (1975-1989) of this Review at $50 ticle submitted by Roland C. Warren which fit perfectly here. Mr. Warren, a new each. contributor, is President and CEO of Care Net, one of the nation’s largest networks of pregnancy resource centers. Other newcomers include these symposium con- The current issue of the Human Life Review is available in its entirety on our website, tributors: Fr. David Poecking, a Pennsylvania pastor, Rebecca Bratten Weiss, an www.humanlifereview.com. Regular subscribers may create (free) digital accounts Ohio academic, Aimee Murphy, who heads Rehumanize International and journal- in order to access and download articles from this and older issues on the site’s ists Kevin Williamson (National Review) and Matthew Schmitz (First Things). Archives page. Digital subscriptions are also available at the cost of $20 per year. Welcome to you all. The Foundation’s EXPECT initiative, an outreach to college students and young professionals, is now in its second year and receiving high praise. In “Loving Them Both: Being Pro-Woman and Pro-Life,” Mene Ukueberuwa reviews EXPECT’s Address all orders to our NEW address: most recent event: an evening with Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life, The Human Life Foundation, Inc. on June 1. Our thanks to National Review for permission to reprint Mr. 271 Madison Avenue Ukueberuwa’s article (Appendix A, page 93) and to the Washington Examiner, where Noemi Emery’s “Vogue, the Fashion Victim” first appeared (Appendix B, page Suite 1005 95). Finally, kudos to Ifeoma Anunkor, EXPECT’s young director, for success- New York, New York 10016 fully getting the Human Life Review—print issue as well as digital—into the hands Phone: 212-685-5210 of a younger, but no less committed anti-abortion audience. [email protected] ANNE CONLON MANAGING EDITOR the HUMAN LIFE REVIEW Summer 2017 Vol. XLIII, No. 3 Editor Maria McFadden Maffucci Introduction . 2 Senior Editors Maria McFadden Maffucci Ellen Wilson Fielding John T. Noonan, Jr.: A Humane Personality . 5 Mary Meehan William Murchison William Murchison Managing Editor Abortion in the American Context . 11 Anne Conlon John T. Noonan, Jr. Consulting Editor, Europe Symposium: Whole Life v. Pro-Life? Mary Kenny, London Contributors Mary Meehan . 21 Lynette Burrows Nicholas Frankovich . 23 James Hitchcock David Mills . 25 Rita L. Marker Jack Fowler . 27 William McGurn Fr. David Poecking . 29 George McKenna Rebecca Bratten Weiss . 31 David Quinn Brandon McGinley . 33 Wesley J. Smith Kathryn Jean Lopez . 35 Business Manager Kristan Hawkins . 36 Rose Flynn DeMaio Charles Camosy . 39 Production Manager Christina Angelopoulos Anne Hendershott . 41 McFadden Fellow Aimee Murphy . 43 Ifeoma Anunkor Kevin D. Williamson . 45 Founding Editors Matthew Schmitz . 47 J.P. McFadden Why We Must Become Pro Abundant Life . 49 Faith Abbott McFadden Roland C. Warren Published by THE HUMAN LIFE FOUNDATION, On the Moral Wrongness of Suicide . 58 INC. Editorial Office, 353 Lexington Av- enue, Suite 802, New York, N.Y. 10016. Mathew Lu Phone: (212) 685-5210. The editors will consider all manuscripts submitted, but Human Persons in Western Literature. 65 assume no responsibility for unsolicited Ellen Wilson Fielding material. Editorial and subscription in- quiries, and requests for reprint permis- The Day Socrates Met a Pro-choicer (II) . 73 sion should be sent directly to our edito- Chris Rostenberg rial office. Subscription price: $40 per year; Canada and other foreign countries: Booknotes . 85 $50 (U.S. currency). ISSN 0097-9783. From the HLR Blog . 91 ©2017 by THE HUMAN LIFE FOUNDATION, INC. New York, N.Y. Printed in the U.S.A. Appendices . 93 SUMMER 2017/1 INTRODUCTION This past spring, we learned of the death of one of the original editors of our Review, the brilliant Judge John T. Noonan, Jr. (October 1926-April 2017), who is remembered in William Murchison’s sterling tribute as “one of America’s most thoughtful and generous-minded federal judges.” Noonan “surprised,” because his convictions did not line up into an agenda, “offering voice (and naturally) vote to constituencies of one kind and another.” The New York Times obituary said Noonan “defied ideological pigeon-holing on profound issues like assisted suicide, the death penalty, civil liberties and illegal immigration.” Funny, the Times didn’t mention abortion, the subject of his 1979 book, A Private Choice: Abortion in America in the Seventies. On that subject, writes Murchison, Noonan “felt in his soul, and did not scruple to suppress the feeling, that abortion was—is—a moral horror.” And he “most plainly set forth his thinking” in our own pages, in his 1977 article “Abortion in the American Context,” which we reprint next. Re-reading this decades-old essay brings a kind of shock: it’s all there, already: The horror of Roe (“An alligator in Avocado Creek, Florida, is entitled to more protection than a five-month old fetus anywhere in America”); the injustice of federal funding (“As American citizens we are compelled by court mandate to support, to finance this slaughter”), and even the debate over infanticide.