And so we’ve had another week of poetry and poses (sorry Dave, wherever you are). The right-to-lifers have had their moment in the sun. The pro-choicers have had a chance to look absolutely sedate in comparison. And the President has once more demonstrated that it is possible to walk the line of reasonable discourse despite people tugging at the rug from both sides.
What Mr. Obama said, essentially, is that there there is no one-size-fits-all answer, and that folks on either side of the fence need to understand that the folks on the other side are neither evil nor wrong — from their own perspective.
This was a major relief for me: to hear someone in the upper echelons of government (and you can’t get much more upper than the Oval Office) say something that was more than political rhetoric about the abortion issue. Many of us who are pro-life understand the reality of the situation: some abortions are going to happen, but they will happen less frequently if we do all in our power to reduce unnecessary pregnancies. Pregnancy should not be the punishment for premarital sex, nor motherhood a 20-year sentence, and choices made in the heat of the moment should not have to haunt us for the rest of our lives. Putting the well being of an ounce of barely-differentiated cells ahead of that of a walking, talking, sentient, suffering human is just plain wrong!
Those of us who have actually worked with young people, particularly troubled young people, have seen the devastation caused by unplanned pregnancy. We’ve spoken with young women who weren’t exactly sure what causes people to get pregnant. We’ve met and talked with young mothers who were culturally raped — put under pressures by their surroundings that made it virtually impossible to resist the attentions of the gang bangers, drug dealers and other low lifes. We’ve seen them with a couple of kids and a STD, or HIV, and known what the lives of those children were going to be like, if not even worse than we could imagine.
Let me be clear about this (to coin a phrase): I am anti-abortion, to the extent that I want to see it unnecessary. But, #1, I don’t think the choices you make are any of my business, nor yours mine and, #2, I think if you’re standing in the way of young people getting the education they need to remain un-impregnated in the REAL WORLD, then you need either to be out adopting kids given up by unwed moms, or you ought to be keeping your mouth shut and your signs hidden in shame.
I believe — I know — that the way to solve this problem is to explain to kids, in detail, exactly where babies come from, and exactly what to do if you don’t want to have them. Then give ‘em all the condoms they can carry. Women who don’t get pregnant don’t get abortions. While I personally find the idea of abortion painful, I do not for one second care to judge or constrain a young woman or child who thinks she needs one. Oh, yes: make that morning-after pill easy to get, too. Screw the moral judgments. Someone once said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
Another thing we who have been on the front lines know: not one in fifty women uses abortion for birth control. To make that claim is so insulting to so many people that you’d think almost anyone would have more decency than to bring it up. Yes, some few women do (there are female sociopaths too, you know) but most agonize before, during and after. In many cases, their lives are altered just as surely and unequivocally as if they had borne the child. If you are of the opinion that such unfortunate people need punishment, you may rest assured that it comes from inside their own heads in greater measure than you could ever impose. No abortion goes unpunished, folks, but that is their business, not yours.
Complete, accurate sex education, mandatory for anyone who is allowed to claim a high school education, and support for pre-pregnancy, real world choices are the ways to reduce abortions. Young human beings are programmed to have sex, and they will have sex. Telling them to just say no to the most powerful urge known to man is not only silly, it’s just plain ignorant.
Thank the gods, of whatever stripe, that our President isn’t.
And, by the way: how come practically all of the leaders of the right-to-life movement are men? What’s that about, guys?
About Bill
Cat-lover, birder, pilot, poet, former lounge lizard, pauper, pagan, lifeguard, chauffeur and ex-cop martial artist turned pacifist addiction worker; pretty good husband, father, son, and brother, and a helluva friend. Trying to follow the Middle Path, one day at a time.
Abortion
And so we’ve had another week of poetry and poses (sorry Dave, wherever you are). The right-to-lifers have had their moment in the sun. The pro-choicers have had a chance to look absolutely sedate in comparison. And the President has once more demonstrated that it is possible to walk the line of reasonable discourse despite people tugging at the rug from both sides.
What Mr. Obama said, essentially, is that there there is no one-size-fits-all answer, and that folks on either side of the fence need to understand that the folks on the other side are neither evil nor wrong — from their own perspective.
This was a major relief for me: to hear someone in the upper echelons of government (and you can’t get much more upper than the Oval Office) say something that was more than political rhetoric about the abortion issue. Many of us who are pro-life understand the reality of the situation: some abortions are going to happen, but they will happen less frequently if we do all in our power to reduce unnecessary pregnancies. Pregnancy should not be the punishment for premarital sex, nor motherhood a 20-year sentence, and choices made in the heat of the moment should not have to haunt us for the rest of our lives. Putting the well being of an ounce of barely-differentiated cells ahead of that of a walking, talking, sentient, suffering human is just plain wrong!
Those of us who have actually worked with young people, particularly troubled young people, have seen the devastation caused by unplanned pregnancy. We’ve spoken with young women who weren’t exactly sure what causes people to get pregnant. We’ve met and talked with young mothers who were culturally raped — put under pressures by their surroundings that made it virtually impossible to resist the attentions of the gang bangers, drug dealers and other low lifes. We’ve seen them with a couple of kids and a STD, or HIV, and known what the lives of those children were going to be like, if not even worse than we could imagine.
Let me be clear about this (to coin a phrase): I am anti-abortion, to the extent that I want to see it unnecessary. But, #1, I don’t think the choices you make are any of my business, nor yours mine and, #2, I think if you’re standing in the way of young people getting the education they need to remain un-impregnated in the REAL WORLD, then you need either to be out adopting kids given up by unwed moms, or you ought to be keeping your mouth shut and your signs hidden in shame.
I believe — I know — that the way to solve this problem is to explain to kids, in detail, exactly where babies come from, and exactly what to do if you don’t want to have them. Then give ‘em all the condoms they can carry. Women who don’t get pregnant don’t get abortions. While I personally find the idea of abortion painful, I do not for one second care to judge or constrain a young woman or child who thinks she needs one. Oh, yes: make that morning-after pill easy to get, too. Screw the moral judgments. Someone once said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
Another thing we who have been on the front lines know: not one in fifty women uses abortion for birth control. To make that claim is so insulting to so many people that you’d think almost anyone would have more decency than to bring it up. Yes, some few women do (there are female sociopaths too, you know) but most agonize before, during and after. In many cases, their lives are altered just as surely and unequivocally as if they had borne the child. If you are of the opinion that such unfortunate people need punishment, you may rest assured that it comes from inside their own heads in greater measure than you could ever impose. No abortion goes unpunished, folks, but that is their business, not yours.
Complete, accurate sex education, mandatory for anyone who is allowed to claim a high school education, and support for pre-pregnancy, real world choices are the ways to reduce abortions. Young human beings are programmed to have sex, and they will have sex. Telling them to just say no to the most powerful urge known to man is not only silly, it’s just plain ignorant.
Thank the gods, of whatever stripe, that our President isn’t.
And, by the way: how come practically all of the leaders of the right-to-life movement are men? What’s that about, guys?
About Bill
Cat-lover, birder, pilot, poet, former lounge lizard, pauper, pagan, lifeguard, chauffeur and ex-cop martial artist turned pacifist addiction worker; pretty good husband, father, son, and brother, and a helluva friend. Trying to follow the Middle Path, one day at a time.