MoveOn emphasizes one undeniably certain consequence of any Republan action to curtail abortion:
As far as I know, unless someone is lying to me, I have never caused a pregnancy leading to an abortion. But I have known women who had abortions back in the days before Roe v. Wade made it clear there is a constitutional right to choose abortion. One of those women almost died from a back-alley abortion. The same woman later had another back-alley abortion, again got infected, and again almost died.
Many anti-choice zealots argue that abortion is murder. That depends, of course, on whether a fetus is a human life... and no other aspect of Western legal tradition holds that it is, so we have to agree to disagree on that one. What I think everyone can agree on is that allowing a woman to die as a consequence of a predictable back-alley procedure is not punishment for sin... it is murder, and the woman's murderers are not only the sepsis-riddled abortionists who infect her but also the legislators who make it intentionally as difficult as possible for her to exercise her constitutional right to choose a safe, legal abortion.
UPDATE a few hours later: the South Dakota legislature is contemplating a bill passed out of committee yesterday which would make it "justifiable homicide" to kill anyone "attempting to harm an unborn child." Eric Rudolph legalized, here we come.
AFTERTHOUGHT directed to President Obama: Do you understand yet why your beloved notion of compromise with Republans is simply not applicable here? This is not about attempting to work out a law that would satisfy pro-choice and pro-life individuals (though I suspect that, too, is unlikely)... this is about whether you can compromise with the GOP leadership in circumstances where doing so means suborning murder, murder of an adult human being whom nobody, pro-life or pro-choice, doubts is a living human being. You can't be half for murder and half against it. Take a stand, even if it does mean supporting for one rare time those who elected you.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
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I may be a Catholic but I decided long ago to "form my own conscience" as my favorite priest exhorted me in matters of faith. On this issue, I decided that I am the the only person who can make decisions about my body and if I want others to respect my choices, I have to extend the same courtesy and respect to others. While I don't believe in abortion, I also never had an unwanted pregnancy and therefore I can't judge or form another woman's conscience. And I for damn sure don't want a bunch of nasty, sanctimonious old men deciding what I or any other woman can do with her body.
ReplyDeleteKay, life would be so much simpler if everyone accorded everyone else that mutual respect. I have never tried... I would never try... to persuade anyone to have an abortion against her will or her principles. But safe, legal abortion simply must be available in this imperfect world. Contraceptives fail. Boneheaded guys refuse to use them. Some husbands think they have a right to sex with their wives, and damn the consequences. Some fathers appear to think they have a right to sex with their daughters. (Forgive me for being judgmental, but... yuck! what kind of father does that?) For all kinds of reasons, as a result of consensual or forced sex, women who never intended to be pregnant, including women who took precautions not to become pregnant, become pregnant anyway. Some of them are in danger of their lives, either from the pregnancy itself or from threats of bodily harm by the father.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, we live in a society that makes no reasonable provision for children out of wedlock. Matters would be different if every child were a wanted child... but life in these United States doesn't work that way. Forcing women, especially very young women, to bear children that were in one way or another forced upon them is cruel beyond words.
I confess I am worried for the continued secular nature of our government and the continued religious pluralism of our society. And I confess that having six (6) Catholics, some of them very conservative Catholics, on the U.S. Supreme Court makes me very, very nervous for the long-term prospects of Roe v. Wade.