In addition to arguing that her critics' rage is inorganic — that it's the product, essentially, of right-wing ideological carpetbaggers — Ragsdale also dismisses their arguments as illogical. The idea that abortion kills a child, she contends, reflects parental hopes and dreams for the child-to-be, not the reality of what the zygote or fetus actually is. (It is, in her words, "proleptic," a theological term for anticipated realities that come to be treated as extant in the here and now.)
When pro-choice forces signal their partial acceptance of the abortion-as-child-murder idea, says Ragsdale — which they do when they speak of the "tragedy" of abortion — they may be motivated by political concerns, or by a desire to be respectful and conciliatory. But in the process, they're ceding precious intellectual ground to abortion opponents, and backing themselves into a tactical corner: how, after all, can you effectively defend something for which you're simultaneously apologizing?
What's more, they're also increasing the likelihood that women who do choose to have abortions will spend their lives tormented by needless guilt. "I suppose it's possible for an intelligent, faithful person to still believe that there's no moral difference between a zygote and a baby," Ragsdale allows. "But there's no reason for most of us to believe that. And I don't."
Given Ragsdale's skepticism about the motives and logic of her critics, it's somewhat surprising that she doesn't unequivocally reject the possibility of abortion opponents and proponents finding common ground. In fact, she doesn't even reject the linkage of abortion with tragedy. But she has very particular ideas about how these intellectual maneuvers ought to be executed.
"If you want a baby," says Ragsdale, "and you've decorated the nursery, and bought the toys, and named the baby — and then they discover the baby's organs are growing outside the body, and not only will the baby not survive, but the woman will be torn up trying to deliver it — there's a tragedy. But the tragedy isn't the abortion — the tragedy is that you needed one.
"That's the tragedy in most cases," she continues. "That birth control failed, that they might want to have a baby but the economics are such that they can't possibly afford it, that we don't have healthcare, that women can't choose to have the babies they want. There's a tragedy."
At this point in our conversation, Ragsdale offers an anecdote that's meant to be illustrative. "My little brother had to have a stent put in his heart the other day. We thought there was no heart disease at all in our family, and all of a sudden, the doctor said, 'You're on your way to the ER now to have heart surgery.' It's bloody, it's messy, it's nasty. If you show pictures of it, it would gross you out, and I really would rather that he'd never had to have that. But is the heart surgery a blessing?" Here she laughs, loudly. "Damn straight."
