The Costs of Contraception
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The negative side-effects of contraception are often ignored in our public discourse, but a truly free decision to use or not use them—and whether to use government to promote them—depends on a frank acknowledgement of their costs along with their alleged benefits.
Parental Consent Protects Young Women’s Health
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The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA) isn’t “mean-spirited,” “constitutionally suspect,” or “callous.” It is a popular commonsense proposal that is fully constitutional.
A Guiding Principle Revealed
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The state should never force anyone to perform an action he or she believes to be wrong, unless it has a good reason, not merely to have the action performed, but to insist that even those who find it wrong perform it.
Conservatism or Liberty?
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Conservatism is misguided, arbitrary, inconsistent, and ultimately inimical to liberty and human flourishing. Libertarianism allows for human flourishing and harmony from respect and cooperation.
Why I am Not a Libertarian
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Libertarianism and conservatism are often lumped together, but there are fundamental differences between the two philosophies that make them incompatible.
Why America Needs Social Conservatism
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An America without social conservatism would be stripped of its conservative enlightenment roots and go the way of Europe via entitlements and centralized economic regulation.
Special Education and Shirked Responsibility
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The commitment to educate special needs children was one of the most laudable education policy achievements of the twentieth century and it must be protected.
A Few Make a Rare Few Rarer: Reflections on World Down Syndrome Day
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Unless regulations and laws are changed, there will be fewer people with Down syndrome to celebrate on future World Down Syndrome Days, making this year the high water mark of lives with Down syndrome.
The Zero Sum Games
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The totalitarians of this age are not petty thugs. They are intellectuals with a vision, and they will see their vision enacted, no matter who they have to run over, because they are certain it is good for you.
James Q. Wilson: Another View
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Wilson’s scholarly achievement was great, but his moral legacy is greater.
After-Birth Abortion Still Kills People
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Whether we call it infanticide or after-birth abortion, ending the life of newborns kills human beings who are moral persons because they are rational beings.
Originalism and Judicial Restraint
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Originalism must guard against an overconfident reliance on history. Restraint and judicial caution are needed in an age of judicial overreaching.
Vanderbilt’s Right to Despise Christianity
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Vanderbilt University has decided that campus student religious groups may not require that their leaders accept the core beliefs of the religious group they would lead. Ironically, Vanderbilt’s right to do so rests on the same freedom it denies to these groups—a group’s freedom to define what it stands for and the views it expresses.
What Marriage Means in Today’s “New Normal”
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A detailed look at how working-class adults view marriage and the search for marital love.
Grave Evil and Political Responsibility
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Morally responsible, prudent voting seeks to defend the common good to the extent realistically possible, even if that means only preventing further damage to an already highly degraded culture.
Intelligible Goods, Marriage, and Intellectual Conversion
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Unless we ask the “what” and “why” in ethical debate, we aren’t doing ethics. Debating ethics requires intellectual conversion and thus a commitment to intelligible reality.
A Tale of Two Sex Hormones
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Artificial testosterone and estrogen use harms both individuals and society.
Just War and the Iran Crisis
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It would be wrong for the United States to engage at this time in an attack on Iran or to participate substantially in an Israeli action.
When Being Pro-Life Isn’t Enough to Stop Abortion
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The challenge in preventing abortion of Down syndrome fetuses is not convincing mothers that their child is a human being with a right to life, but of assuring expectant mothers there will be support for their children after they are born.
Marriage Decisions and the Importance of Judicial Reason
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Recent attacks on marriage threaten not only a foundational public institution but the rule of law itself and the legitimacy of the judicial branch.
Form and Transcendence: A Reply to Micah Mattix
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The authentic story of modernism is not one of continuity and emulation, but of violent rupture and hostility to tradition. Art should be oriented toward beauty.
Reproductive Technologies and the Quest for Immortality
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The fertility industry is booming because we desire genetic and memetic immortality—the preservation and reproduction of our bodies and ways of life.