Abortion

November 05, 2008

One of the blogs I read regularly is Ali Edwards. She posted about the election, her support of Barack Obama, and her happiness that he will be the next President. You can read about her reaction to it here.

You can also read some of the ignorant comments posted to her triumphant blog entry, if you're so inclined. I read most of them because the blog post was edited to announce the comment section was closed, and I was curious about what people said to make Ali close the comments.

Most of the comments were supportive, but there were several that mentioned the issue of the unborn. Who will stand for them, several women wanted to know, and some accused anyone who supported Obama, because he allegedly supports abortion, of being sick.

In capital letters, people, as in "SICK, SICK, SICK."

What popped into my mind as I read this accusation was a question: how many BORN children--you know, children who have grown into adults--have been killed in Iraq in the last, oh, 24 hours by Republican George W. Bush, his evil sidekick, and this illegal war? How many have been killed in 24 days? 24 months? I don't know the statistics, but I do know that these women are so outraged at Barack Obama standing for a woman's right to choose whether or not to terminate her pregnancy, yet where's the outrage for the thousands of living, breathing men and women--once unborn--that the current Republican administration has sent for slaughter in these unnecessary wars in the Middle East?

Let's not kill unborn babies, but sending thousands to die in an unending illegal war, that's something they can get behind, whole-heartedly. John McCain, the alternative to Barack Obama, said something about continuing the American involvement in Iraq for 100 years. How many lives will be lost during that amount of time?

I don't talk much about my political opinions. I keep them to myself, for the most part, except when I'm talking with my husband or a handful of other people who I know will respect my informed opinions as I respect theirs. I think political discussion is good, but I think that most people are too identified with their political choices, and as arrogant as it might sound, I think most people aren't near as informed as we should be--myself included--about what's really going on in our political culture. We listen to what we're told, and we draw possibly reasonable, but mistaken conclusions, given the information we have, which is rarely, if ever the whole picture.

Abortion is a complicated issue that has captivated public discourse and perpetuated divisions in the American society as far back as I can remember. During the 1980's, when I was a conservative Christian, raised by devout Christian parents, I towed the line and adamantly opposed abortion, except in circumstances in which the mother's life was in danger, or if a woman was raped, particularly by a family member. Many years later, now that I am not influenced by the rhetoric of the religion of my upbringing, now that I think for myself, my opinion on abortion is different.

Abortion is not the problem. Unwanted pregnancy is the problem; abortion is just one controversial solution. I feel strongly that other solutions are preferable. Birth control, for example. We have the technology, more than any other previous civilization, to prevent unwanted pregnancies. We have a plethora of choices at our disposal, from condoms to a variety of oral contraceptives to surgical alterations. And if a woman really doesn't want to have a baby, she does have the option of abstinence from sexual contact that could result in pregnancy.

That is as much her choice as abortion.

People argue that early pregnancies are simply a small group of cells that can't really be labeled "life" yet, and others argue that life begins at the point of conception. The argument goes back and forth, back and forth, and there doesn't seem to be any way to get the two opposing sides to work together for a real solution. One side is right, the other side is wrong, and while they continue waging sometimes violent cultural warfare, unwanted pregnancies, and the resulting abortions, continue.

I admit, I see a pregnancy, at any stage, as potential human life, and I don't like the idea of taking that life lightly. At the same time, if I were raped, and a pregnancy resulted, I would not hesitate to abort that potential life. I would be emotionally unable to carry the product of a rape. While I do not support using abortion as birth control--I once heard about a woman who aborted four consecutive pregnancies--I definitely see it as an option in certain circumstances, and I do not support making the option illegal.

Instead, I'd like to see this American society take responsibility for our choices, women and men alike. I think women need to understand that every time we have sex, every single time, protected or not, there is the potential for pregnancy. When we choose to have sex, we choose the possibility of pregnancy. While there is only one absolute way to prevent pregnancy, the possibility is certainly and dramatically reduced through proper use of birth control.

Fighting over whether or not to terminate a pregnancy and at what stage seems irrelevant to me when the obvious answer is to keep from getting pregnant in the first place. I don't understand why it is such a difficult thing when a thin layer of latex or a simple dose of hormones in a daily pill makes the question of whether to abort or when largely moot.

I'd be interested to know just how many abortions are performed on teenage girls who turn up pregnant. So many people want to advocate for the right to life, but not many seem too keen on preventing pregnancies in the first place, especially in teenaged girls. When a woman's body is able to sustain pregnancy, at whatever age that happens, she should have the option of preventing that pregnancy. Denying teenaged girls readily accessible birth control options increases the likelihood of abortion.

Let me say that again: young women who do not have birth control options readily available to them are more likely to have an unwanted pregnancy, which increases the likelihood of an abortion. I'd rather have oral contraceptives handed out at school to whoever requested them than hear of another teenaged couple who disposed of an unwanted newborn in a trash dumpster.

Unfortunately, some of the same folks who stand so strongly against abortion do so because of their religious affiliations, and those are the same folks who oppose birth control because they believe it interferes with god's will. I don't believe in god, but using the vernacular of the faithful, god isn't the one who absorbs the consequences of unwanted pregnancy. Humans do, and not just the humans who make the choice to risk pregnancy in the first place.

We can't really have it both ways. If people want to stand for the unborn, if they want to oppose abortion so strongly that they are willing to attack a decent woman for her political choices on her own blog, then they need to decide which is worse: preventing pregnancy or terminating pregnancy.

Arguing over the specifics of abortion wastes our time and energies. We need to accept that it is a debate that probably won't be won and seek a deeper solution to the actual problem. We need to approach the issue with intellect, respect, and reason, not jab with ignorant pablum at people who are doing their own personal best to make the world a better place.