Originally appeared<\/a> in the Stanford Review on October 25th, 2022.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the morning of Friday, May 6th, two rallies occupied White Plaza: a pro-abortion rally on one side and a pro-life rally on the other. If you exclusively read the Stanford Daily<\/em>, however, you would have been shown an entirely different picture. In the article \u201cProtest Supporting Roe v. Wade Takes Over Campus,\u201d Bryan Steven Monge Serrano gushed<\/a> over the efforts of Stanford\u2019s Planned Parenthood Action group and its supporters. And the pro-life rally? It was given a mere three lines in the entire article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For pro-life students, being treated as superfluous is not a new phenomenon; the vast majority of us have plenty of experience with fellow students dismissing our moral and intellectual convictions. Philosophical arguments for fetal personhood are usually rebutted with some mechanical assertion of \u201cMy body, my choice,\u201d \u201cIf you don\u2019t like abortion, don\u2019t have one,\u201d or \u201cNo uterus, no opinion.\u201d Explanation of the logical flaws with these responses inevitably elicits \u201cYou\u2019re just sexist,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re just Catholic,\u201d or some other rote presumption of bias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This mimetic repetition of ancient one-liners not only gives you a nauseating sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu<\/em>, it also reveals the source of fervor behind modern pro-abortion ideology\u2014especially the kind that lives on college campuses. It is not reason or empathy that drives the obsession but a deep-seated, instinctual desire to protect the hedonistic status quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, the Daily<\/em>\u2019s presentation of a heavily filtered piece as a standard report of events is simply a continuation of protocol. The casual neglect\u2014the erasure, one might say\u2014of the pro-life perspective is the ideal way to avoid intellectual engagement. You don\u2019t have to respond to a group that functionally doesn\u2019t exist. The real<\/em> question is this: why are the nation\u2019s \u201cbrightest\u201d students so afraid of critically reconsidering their first principles?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe this whole thing was never about defending truth or saving women in the first place. Maybe there\u2019s something else seducing hundreds of college students into being so adamantly pro-abortion. Here\u2019s a clue: what\u2019s hollow, cheaper than a Rosary, and more enticing than truth? Pleasure without consequence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you think this is psychoanalytic nonsense, consider a metaphor. Imagine we started to like the taste of food a lot<\/em> more than we do now. We no longer care about nutrition or being healthy. At first, we might all get along. Wilbur and Stern will be even more packed while Arillaga, with its moisture-vacuumed chicken, will be empty (although I must say, it\u2019s been pretty good lately). Then, a month passes, two months, and people start to get antsy. They start to get hooked. The allure of free dopamine in a box of Cosmic Brownies<\/a> is too much to resist. Cosmic Brownie vending machines start to appear in public bathrooms. Let\u2019s say there\u2019s an app too\u2014swipe right to get more brownies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s not enough. It feels like everyone is eating their fill except for you<\/em>. You\u2019re angry, jaded, and itching for some sweet, sweet batter. What\u2019s that in someone\u2019s bag? A box of Cosmic Brownies! They won\u2019t notice if you take just one, right<\/em>? After all\u2014we all agree they\u2019re beautiful and good and we should eat them if they make us happy. Eh, what\u2019s the harm in one more\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, the group of deviants is fringe. But they get larger and more vocal. Eventually, they\u2019re in government, schools, and businesses. Inevitably, we have a health crisis on our hands. People are eating way<\/em>too many Cosmic Brownies, but we can\u2019t ask people to stop. That would be misogynistic. So the Stanford intelligentsia convenes and puts together a plan: state-sponsored liposuction. The plan is a success: within forty-eight hours the streets are filled with signs stating \u201cLipo is healthcare!\u201d and \u201cMy stomach, my choice!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you wanted to continue eating as many Cosmic Brownies as possible because it made you feel good, and if you believed that its natural effect on your body is merely collateral damage, then of course<\/em> you would praise liposuction. In fact, you might even call access to it a \u201cright.\u201d You would see it as an \u201cout\u201d in case the calories catch up to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the real world, it isn\u2019t a bunch of sugar-crazed gluttons that we have to worry about. Instead, our tragedy is a generation of dopamine-crazed sex positivists. Hundreds march and the Daily <\/em>takes pictures because it is easier to demand a taxpayer-funded escape route than to simply stop consuming<\/em>. In other words, widespread support for abortion on college campuses is simply the logical consequence of a prevailing dogma: that sex is only<\/em> about pleasure and children are collateral damage. Without abortion, the whole \u201csexual ecosystem\u201d of casual flings and meaningless hookups falls apart. So, America\u2019s future \u201cinnovators\u201d mobilize to protect the machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some might admit that this is indeed what motivates them. That it is not an argument against fetal personhood that does the trick, but the \u201cburden\u201d of having to consider those pesky zygotes when you\u2019d rather just focus on the pleasure. To many, this is reason enough to keep protesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while you raise your signs, don\u2019t forget that your efforts ripple. The world you fight for\u2014where, as a message on White Plaza once read, \u201csex is beautiful, reproduction is optional\u201d\u2014has its consequences. As they did with the Cosmic Brownies, deviants will take their motto to its radical conclusion. They\u2019ll institutionalize a desire for blithe gratification with messages like \u201creproductive \u2018healthcare\u2019 is a human right.\u201d They\u2019ll create apps to facilitate ease of access and convince everyone that it is empowering<\/em>. They\u2019ll teach a whole generation that hookup culture and porn are normal, and they\u2019ll shame you for pointing out that they objectify women and emasculate men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participating in an epidemic of chocolate-glazed bad decisions might be tolerable. Being complicit in a moral plague of sexual malaise is not. So which will it be: love of pleasure or love of neighbor?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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