Abortion Rights
Abortion is something I've been uneasy with for a long time. And I think it's especially hard for those of us trying to make a very wanted baby. After all, how horrible to think of a baby who would be wanted and loved not being allowed to become that child?
Not all children get to come into prepared and loving families. Too many are hurt both emotionally and physically, learn to be sexual beings too early through sexual abuse, worry about where their next meal or their next hug will come from. Too many have parents who may love them but don't know how to care for them, or are in the grips of drug abuse, or are simply still children themselves. Too many will grow up to perpetuate the abuse that is inflicted on them.
Then there's the issue of abortion and women's rights. I can't imagine someone dictating to me what I can and can't do with my body, the body that will be the sole physiological support for a developing child. The one that will go through sickness and pain, maybe hypertension and may even be threatened with death. How is it ethical to force a woman to go through an unwanted pregnancy?
I would love to live in a world where every child is wanted and abortion is used only in the most extreme cases. But I don't.
In South Dakota the legislature has passed, and the governor has signed, a ban on abortion so sweeping that it will only be allowed if the mother's life is threatened. If a doctor performs an abortion, he or she faces up to five years in prison. This was done with the specific intent of forcing a showdown at the supreme court level. This law is so heinous that it must be challenged, it will reach the supremes, and general opinion is with the appointment of Roberts and Alito, Roe v. Wade will not stand.
We are about to take a huge step backward. This is a wake up call.
M. and I are going to donate some of our scant monetary resources to support groups that are working to protect all women's right to an abortion. Because the people who should be deciding whether or not to have an abortion are women, not elected officials.
posted by Sacha @ 5:18 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
It is pretty scary, huh? It always floors me when politicians play with women's lives like this. Aside from their self-serving agendas, I think most of them truly do not understand. I grew up pro-choice, but I didn't fully understand the issue until I faced a late period that might have meant an unwanted pregnancy. When I did, it became crystal clear for me, and always will be. There is so much distortion of it in the media, where they demean teenage girls who are pregnant or parenting, ignoring the fact that half of women seeking abortions are already mothers, making a very painful but necessary choice. For the other half, the younger women and girls, I can't imagine forcing my daughter to carry an unwanted pregnancy. That's something I've been thinking about recently as J and I get closer to a ttc plan. Nobody likes abortion, but it's a choice that needs to be there- I hope I can raise my kids, especially my girls, in a safe and pro-choice place. -Kate-
What bothers me the most is that making abortion illegal won't say any babies and it will probably kill their mothers. Abortion will happen, legal or not, and at least when it's legal it can be done safely and cleanly.
Anyone who thinks that outlawing it will save babies is an ostrich with his head in the sand.
My second problem is that the authors of this bill are the same party that wants to strip social services. When some 16 year old gets knocked up and can't terminate, who will provide WIC for feeding her and the bay, who will pay for Head Start so the kid can catch up in school? Why are we bringing babies into the world, only to abandon them immediately?
Kate: I like your perspective from the POV of your daughter. What kind of world are we considering bringing children into?
Ejw: Death by illegal abortion has directly affected my family. My great grandmother died of a botched abortion, leaving three children without their mother.
The lack of social services to support the children of women forced to have babies is a good question to pose. It calls into question the motivations of the anti-abortion crowd. How can they take on the self designated noble job of protecing The Unborn if they abandon them once they make that shift into being The Born?
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