Last year a couple co-workers were on a very loud rant in our office on the “hypocrisy of right-wingers” who oppose abortion but support the death penalty. People all around were obviously bothered by the noise, if not by their stridency.

Finally, after about 15 minutes, I just blurted out, “One is innocent and the other is guilty. That’s the difference.”

They shut up, stunned, I think.

“I suppose the most logical stance is to be anti-abortion and anti-death penalty,” I continued, “but it defies logic to be pro-abortion and anti-death penalty.”

Then the woman came over to my desk and leaned over into my face and shouted, “You can’t tell me what to do with my body!” (This is in an office full of people, mind you, who had all got kind of quiet.)

I said, “I’m not tellling you what to do with your body. You just have to decide if that embryo is a person. I happen to believe it is a person. If you don’t believe it’s a person, then have an abortion. But if it is a person, then you have to decide if having an abortion is an OK thing to do.”

That basically ended the discussion. Nobody else in the office spoke, but I got a few quiet electronic messages from people saying they agreed with me.

But you know, many people are confused and approaching decisions on a post-modern relativistic basis, and we shouldn’t be surprised.