Fuck the Middle Ground

There's no 'common ground' with the people killing us

Anyone still holding out hope for a ‘compromise’ on abortion rights needs to give it up. Right now.

Over the past few days, a Louisiana mother was arrested for getting abortion pills for her teenager, abortion reports became public records in Indiana, and Arkansas advanced a bill mandating an anti-abortion propaganda video be shown in public school classrooms.

Also in the last week, the new Trump administration erased information on reproductive health and privacy rights from government websites, Missouri Republicans moved to overturn a pro-choice amendment that voters approved in November, Idaho legislators proposed a bill that could punish abortion patients with the death penalty, and South Carolina lawmakers pushed legislation that wouldn’t just ban pro-choice websites—it would make it a felony to even talk about abortion with a pregnant person.

In the short amount of time Donald Trump has been in office, anti-abortion extremists have been told they can attack clinics without fear of arrest, and the Republican party who once claimed they’d never punish women for abortion now say bills to prosecute patients as murderers “inspire healthy dialogue.”

Do these sound like people interested in ‘compromise’? We’re watching conservatives dismantle democracy and force women back into the home—killing quite a few of us along the way. In what universe is the appropriate response finding common ground?

You don’t ask the guy with the boot on your neck to wear a softer shoe. You rip his fucking foot off.

To be clear, I’ve never believed in compromise on abortion rights—because there’s no such thing as a ‘middle ground’ for my humanity. But this isn’t just a moral stance, it’s a strategic one.

Republicans have never been weaker on abortion rights: Anti-choice organizations and policies are incredibly unpopular, and Americans want abortion to be legal—even Trump voters oppose bans! Rather than meeting voters where they’re at, conservatives have doubled down on their extremism—proposing bills that attack speech, restrict travel, and force women to carry doomed pregnancies to term. Most incredibly, they’re framing these once-fringe nightmares as ‘moderate.’

Every minute we waste catering to an imaginary middle only strengthens that manipulation. Every time a pro-choice politician backs parental consent laws to sidestep controversy, they’re not just abandoning one of the country’s most marginalized groups—they’re reinforcing the lie that abortion is more dangerous or serious for young people than forced pregnancy and parenthood. And when they allow restrictions later in pregnancy to avoid accusations of supporting abortion ‘up until birth,’ they’re accepting the premise that pregnancy should be legislated at all.

Don’t get me wrong, I support harm reduction and understand the desire to restore any access we can. Things are very bad and we’re all eager to stop the suffering. But it’s never been clearer that the only road forward is the one without concessions.

Americans are more pro-choice than ever, the GOP is afraid of the issue, and people are being harmed by bans every single day. If we’re making trade-offs when we’re at our strongest and the stakes are at their highest—when will it ever be the right time to fight for the future we want?

Conservatives aren’t waiting for their perfect moment. They’re not letting bad polling, bad press, or even the will of voters stop them. (I mean that literally.) They want abortion banned so that’s what they’re fighting for—at any cost and with any tactic.

And while I’m not suggesting that Democrats follow in their deeply immoral footsteps, I am calling on us to stop pretending as if good faith politics is still possible. The people we’re fighting are selfish, dishonest, and cruel; and we’re allowing them to dictate rules they would never even consider following.

Calls for civility and compromise on abortion are traps, ways to keep pro-choice politicians believing that there’s some magic middle ground policy that will keep voters happy and Republicans off their backs. But the middle ground disappeared the first time a 10 year-old had to leave her state for an abortion. Compromise died right alongside women in Texas and Georgia.

Yes, refusing to capitulate will mean being called extremists and baby-killers. What else is new? Anti-abortion activists and lawmakers have lobbed the same ridiculous accusations at us for decades, and they’ve done that no matter what kind of laws we’ve fought for.

Do you know what we do when conservatives call us radical, violent, unhinged and ridiculous? We let them. Let them say we’re pushing abortion ‘up until birth.’ Let them say we want women to use abortion ‘as birth control.’ Let them tire themselves out with their pathetic talking points in the same way you would a toddler having a tantrum.

That doesn’t mean we allow lies to go unchecked. But we can address anti-abortion deceptions without allowing them to frame our fight. We have to—because it’s likely the worst hasn’t happened yet, and we can’t fend off more attacks from a defensive crouch.

What’s happening with abortion isn’t some run-of-the-mill political fight or disagreement. They are literally killing us, a horror that’s become increasingly normalized because we’re used to playing by the rules and staying within bounds.

We’re fighting for our lives. It’s past time to act like it.