The move toward swallowing abortion pills at home takes us back to an earlier era when abortion-seekers avoided surgical abortion, a risky proposition for women not only morally but physically, due to the great risk of infection. Abortifacients—potions designed to produce abortion—included oil of savin, ergot, rue, tansy oil, and wormwood, all of which caused a horrible shock to the entire body of the maternal user. Dosage was key, and effects could range all the way from a slightly upset stomach to death of child or death of mother and child.

Three centuries plus five years. That’s how long American legislators have tried to stop the use of abortion pills. In 1716 New York City enacted an ordinance requiring midwives to swear they would “not Give any Counsel or Administer any Herb Medicine or Potion, or any other thing to any Woman being with Child whereby She Should Destroy or Miscarry.”

Can anything good come out of Wednesday’s mob action in the Capitol? Only if we do our best to minimize the possibility of something far worse happening.

As a Democratic administration comes to power, pressure from the left to expand governmental welfare programs will grow. I hope some of the new U.S. leaders will read a book published 30 years ago, Gertrude Himmelfarb’s brilliant Poverty and Compassion, which looks at how British leaders fought poverty in the late 19th century.

For 30 years I’ve criticized left-wing journalists for some of their outrageous statements. I now have to acknowledge that some on the right have caught up. 

One of WORLD Magazine’s slogans since the 1990s has been “Sensational facts, understated prose.” Many publications, though, practice angry overstatement—and, starting in 2005, Erick Woods Erickson became known as a master of the form. He was editor in chief of RedState and then a political contributor to CNN and Fox News. At age 45 Erickson, still lively but less militant, concentrates on his popular Atlanta talk show: This month brings his 10th anniversary on radio station WSB. Here are edited excerpts of our Dec. 9 interview. 

John Perritt’s short A Student’s Guide to Technology (Christian Focus, 2020) summarizes positives of new technology in chapters like “One of God’s Greatest Graces” and negatives in “Every Knee Will Bow … To Something” and “Why Am I So Tired?” He cites statistics such as “we look at our phones every 4.3 minutes. … If that’s not worship, I don’t know what is.” Perritt advocates thoughtful engagement: “We are to live in the times God has called us to live in. To engage and use technology for the glorifying of His name.