Thursday night’s presidential debate has fanned and reignited many longstanding controversies, but one of the more contentious segments that’s being somewhat overlooked concerns the subject of abortion.

Two years removed from Roe’s reversal and the return of abortion to the states, the subject remains as controversial as it’s ever been – and likely even more so.

That’s because the debate over abortion will never go away until it’s outlawed altogether and seen for what it is – personally and culturally devastating and destructive, a violation of human rights and dignity, gruesome, inhumane, illogical and downright heartbreaking.

Relegating it to the states might be an initial and legally inevitable outcome given the unconstitutionality of the 1973 decision, but giving states the right to kill children makes no sense and horrifies any morally critical thinker.

Consider the subject of slavery, which likewise horrified and paralyzed generations. It was only the passage and ratification of the 13^th Amendment in 1865 that ultimately outlawed it – but it took a lot of time, the Civil War and tons of tears to get it done.

Pragmatic lawmakers back in 1820 settled on the Missouri Compromise to presumably split the raging differences over slavery. You’ll remember from your history class that Congress passed a law that admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free one. Slavery was also banned in certain areas that made up the Louisiana Purchase, even drilling down to certain latitude and longitude coordinates.

Hindsight being 20-20, looking back on the proposition now, it’s obvious how foolish and unethical it was to try to enslave some Americans simply based on their address.

That’s because you can’t compromise on something as fundamental as someone’s life and freedom.

Regardless of party affiliation, people today are universally opposed to the enslavement of human beings. It has become an anathema – unthinkable and an embarrassing chapter of history that’s closed for good.

Slavery was debated for generations, and the debates only ended after slavery was outlawed.

Likewise, the abortion question and controversy will only be truly settled once it’s relegated to the dustbin of history.

Post-Roe America is living in a “Missouri Compromise” paradigm, trying to balance competing interests and convictions. It won’t work, it won’t last, and it won’t end well.

Bad law tends to beget bad law. Consider the fact that the Supreme Court ruled the notorious compromise unconstitutional – by issuing the infamous Dred Scott decision. It made a bad situation even worse.

You’ll remember that horrific 7-2 ruling declared black people could not be American citizens. It also legalized slavery in the new territories.

The quest to protect every life is a moral campaign, not a political one. The subject may be argued on public stages and in party platforms – but our push to preserve and protect innocent preborn babies is an inherently righteous pursuit. We care about preborn life because God is the Creator of it.

It was the prophet Jeremiah who wrote, “Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations'” (1:4-5).

How detestable and insulting to ignore and carelessly and recklessly discard God’s most valuable creation, which is exactly what abortion does.

The abortion debate rages on. The controversy surrounding it will not end until the same sensibilities that see slavery as evil likewise see the destruction of the preborn as wicked.

Image from Shutterstock.