Ideology cannot move us

Feeling very tired this evening I watched an episode of All in the Family on TV Land. I had forgotten what a brilliant program this was. Of course, when it was on CBS on Sunday evenings I was quite young. In this episode Gloria finds out she is pregnant and is thinking about having an abortion because Michael does not want to have children. His reason for not wanting children is because the world is a mess and he is worried about overpopulation, or, so he says. Their neighbor, Irene, straightens him out. What really moved me, which almost always happens in All in the Family, is when Edith says something- go to 6:17:

Edith: Mike will be very happy once the baby gets here.

Gloria: Maybe the baby won't get here.

Edith: Well there ain't nothin' you can do to stop that...
(She realizes that Gloria is alluding to having an abortion and says...)
Edith: Gloria no, you wouldn't do a thing like that!

Gloria: That's exactly what I've been here thinking about.

Edith: Oh my, uh if I'd thought like that I'd be sittin' here now talkin' to myself.

Gloria: Well Ma, don't you feel that a woman has a right to do what she wants with her own body?
(Edith looks puzzled)
Gloria: Well?

Edith: When I'm sittin' here watchin' them women about it on t.v., I guess it's yes, but when I'm sittin' here with my own daughter whose carryin' my own grandchild...Oh, Gloria, I'm already in love with that baby.

Now, I realize that every woman considering an abortion does not have the kind of love and support that Gloria has in All in the Family. In fact, many women have abortions at the insistence of their husbands and boyfriends, the fathers of these children. So, what's my point? Ideology cannot move us.