On Abortion—Does Silence Mean Consent?

I thought I'd never say this, but left-leaning columnist Barbara Ehrenreich has a remarkably interesting op/ed in today's New York Times. "Abortion is legal—it's just not supposed to be mentioned or acknowledged as an acceptable option," notes Ehrenreich. Mentioned or not, most Americans do know a daughter, a wife, a lover, or a friend who has made this choice. Some 30 million American women have chosen to have an abortion, but the fact that one has had one is simply not talked about in polite society. Ehrenreich is right when she warns, "The freedoms that we exercise but do not acknowledge are easily taken away."