Matt Walsh's Latest Take on Abortion Will be Controversial to a Lot of People
Is there room to be undecided on the issue of abortion?
More to the point, is it possible for someone to call themselves a conservative while also being pro-choice?
Those are questions that well-known blogger Matt Walsh just tackled during an appearance at Texas A&M University … and his controversial conclusions will no doubt ruffle some sensitive feathers.
Walsh began his writing career on a fairly unknown personal blog, but quickly gained conservative followers — and liberal enemies — for speaking his mind on tough topics like abortion and fatherhood.
Now a contributor to outlets like The Blaze and Daily Wire, the commentator has over 600,000 fans on Facebook. He was recently invited by A&M’s “Pro-Life Aggies” group to speak on campus, and he began by announcing that he wouldn’t sugar-coat the subject of abortion.
“Today we are going to talk about a very difficult subject which is the murder of the unborn,” he said, according to Texas A&M’s “The Battalion” newspaper.
Trigger warnings and safe spaces have become the norm on liberal campuses today, but Walsh insisted that hearing uncomfortable truths was important.
“I’m going to say some things that are difficult … I just wanted to say up front that if you feel attacked, or victimized, by words and ideas spoken directly and to the point then I think you especially need to be here,” he continued.
His point was that absorbing and considering difficult topics was one of the hallmarks of intelligent debate, and students shouldn’t fear being confronted with speech they might not like, even on a tough topic.
There may not be a more polarizing issue than abortion. Some people may avoid the topic because of its controversy, but Walsh explained that where people stand on the issue of abortion is essentially a “litmus test” for all of politics.
“Abortion sets the stage for every other cultural battle,” he explained. “Abortion is the number one defining issue in our society, because it gets down to the fundamentals of who you are and what you believe.”
In Matt Walsh’s view, you cannot be on the side human dignity while supporting abortion.
“It plants you firmly on the side of objective truth and human dignity or firmly against it,” he insisted. “Everything else you believe will grow from this root. It is the epicenter of America’s vast ideological divide.”
“We are pro-life completely or not at all, and the world, I believe, needs us to be pro-life completely,” the pundit continued. “The world needs us to testify unwaveringly that life has meaning, life has value, life is sacred. That is our entire argument.”
Walsh’s declaration implies, of course, that no authentic conservative or Christian can be pro-choice.
According to the commentator, the abortion issue is more than just another talking point to be debated or finagled, but is the fundamental issue of our time.
“Being pro-life is apart from a mere argument or a cause, it is a purpose,” Walsh said. “It informs, directs, and gives substance to every other argument we make on every other subject.”
“It all comes back to abortion because if human life has no intrinsic value then none of this other stuff matters … if we cannot first establish that life matters,” Walsh insisted.
That last point may be the most powerful. It’s hard to argue with his logic: What is the point of any law or society at all if we don’t believe that human life is vital and should be protected?
Far too many Americans — conservatives and liberals alike — simply pass on the abortion question for another generation to solve, kicking the can down the road on an issue that is literally life and death.
Walsh’s absolutist “in or out” stance may be tough to endorse, but that doesn’t mean it should be dismissed. As he pointed out, hard topics are often the ones most important to wrestle with … and no other subject is more vital than the ethics of human life.
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