My first historical observance is the political shift that occurs.

One of the areas we can generalize about regarding the differences between Republicans and Democrats is the role of government. Today, Republicans tend to believe in smaller government while Democrats believe in larger. This was not always the case, but that’s a story for a different time. Yet, when it comes to abortion, the two parties switch positions.

Though Democrats tend to want more regulation and more involvement in people’s lives, when it comes to abortion, they back off and say it is completely up to the individual. They tend to try to protect those who need the most help, then change on this one issue.

Republicans follow suit. They tend to push for more personal liberties, a more hands-off approach, yet push for more government regulation with abortion. Where Republicans are portrayed as the more uncaring party when it comes to issues such as separation of children at the border, they take a stronger stance on protecting the unborn. When it comes to debating abortion, both parties attack each other on their inconsistencies.

A similar circumstance happens with legalizing marijuana. Democrats argue it’s a state rights issue while Republicans counter it is a federal law.

And it seems to me these two issues are connected. Marijuana is still against federal law, yet state after state has passed law allowing its use. Similarly, abortion is legal in the U.S. according to federal law, but after the marijuana laws began to pass with no reprisal from the federal government, states started to follow suit with abortion laws. Today several states have passed laws limiting the right to abort.

The reason for the switch in position is because morality is involved.

In my classes there are two times I discuss abortion. The first is when we discuss Roe v. Wade. The other is when we discuss compromises over slavery. I understand how odd that sounds. The two have little in common, yet when it comes to debating slavery and abortion, they are quite similar.

For the first century of American history, our leaders were able to compromise on slavery. When I say compromise, I really mean agree to avoid discussing it. Slavery was always a difficult question, so they agreed to find ways to punt the problems to the next generation.

The big compromises, such as the 1820 Missouri Compromise, the 1850 Compromise, and the 1854 Kansas Nebraska Compromise, were all attempts to remove slavery from the national discussion. All three of these compromises were efforts to answer, once and for all, which states or territories would be slave and which free. Our political leaders understood that slavery was too difficult a conversation for Congress. The closer we got to the Civil War, the more difficult the conversations became.

As the anti-slavery movement grew into the abolitionist cause, more Americans began to see slavery as a moral argument. Once slavery was seen as a sin and slaveholders as sinners, it became impossible to have civil discourse.

This is when I bring in abortion as an object lesson. I tell my students it’s like today’s abortion debate. If you are morally against abortion, there is no compromise. There can’t be. If you are anti-abortion and see abortion as a fundamental right for women, you cannot compromise. It’s not like tariffs. Most of us can give a little here or there with tariffs, infrastructure laws or foreign policy, but once something is seen as a moral argument, compromise is over.

I am not the first to see this connection. In fact, modern anti-abortion advocates have taken up the word abolitionist to explain their cause. They have borrowed many words, slogans and images from the 19th century abolitionist movement to explain and promote their agenda.

I’m not sure what this comparison means for modern Americans. Nineteenth-century Americans never figured it out. They were never able to find the magic solution and come to an agreement. It took a war and 700,000 lives to find the answer to slavery.

I do not think abortion will lead to war, but history has shown that we may never find common ground to the abortion question. Abortion-rights and anti-abortion will never find a compromise and, like the abolitionists and slaveholders, will continue to see themselves as holding the moral high ground even if the courts side against them.