Reply #36: Pro-life or just Pre-life? [View All]

[theHandpuppet]

The ratio of abortions in this country DECREASED during the Clinton years but has since risen again under Bush. Perhaps your friend might have considered that one of the most effective ways to reduce the number of abortions in this country is to allow women (and men) easy access to health and reproduction clinics, birth control, and also via sex education -- the very type of programs these same anti-choice types are fighting to eliminate. They can't have it both ways!

< For the data, I referred to http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_fact.htm >

Let us also, on a practical level, consider what would happen if every woman in this country were forced to carry every fertilized egg to term and abortion were outlawed. We're talking, at the current rate, some additional 900,000 babies born every year, the vast majority to young, unmarried mothers -- the very same demographic (women and children) who already comprise the majority of poor in this country.

Ask her, what programs has Bush proposed to help these young mothers and their children? A raise in the minimum wage? Jobs? Universal health care? Programs for day care, housing, etc? Exactly what happens to these women and children after the baby is born? These are the types of programs DEMOCRATS support and provide, and that's another reason a democratic administration is the BEST one for mothers and children!

Let us take this a step further and say that for whatever reason even half of these young mothers decide to place their babies up for adoption. Where are the homes for these 500,000 children? How many has your friend adopted? How many anti-choicers will sign a pledge to adopt at least one of these children -- regardless of color or any potential handicap/health problems? (Nobody gets to stand in line for the little blonde white babies!) How many will sign a pledge to be foster parents? How many would sign a pledge to vote for any candidate who promises to raise the minimum wage, work for universal health care, or support sex education in the schools? Or are such folks too busy trying to make sure that loving gay couples can't adopt children? Hypocrites!

The answer to reducing abortions in this country is to provide women (and men) with either the kind of education and access to birth control which reduces unwanted pregnancies OR the kind of support systems that make carrying a child to term a more viable option for them. Otherwise we are forcing even millions more women and children onto the rolls of poverty every year -- the very kind of poverty that leads to even more unwanted pregnancies and children without the least access to decent housing, health care and education. It's a vicious cycle unless these issues are addressed.

Yes, there are many ways to reduce abortions in this country, but the REAL long-term solutions are those proposed by DEMOCRATS, not the threats of shame, punishment and imprisonment proposed by RW Republicans. As Democrats these are the kinds of honest abortion issues we need to be discussing with those who claim to be "pro-life".

As for myself, I'd rather plan to build more health clinics than women's prisons, assure that more women and children can be lifted from the rolls of poverty rather than forced onto them. I prefer women to be allowed informed, educated decisions regarding their own reproductive choices, not forced into unwanted pregnancies via ignorance and shame. I prefer to work for universal health care so that women can be assured that if they decide to carry a fetus to term they have healthy pregnancies and healthy babies, and the hope of raising their children with the knowledge they will have a well-paying job to support their families. These are the long term solutions to reducing the abortion rate in this country, and they are the ones supported by DEMOCRATS.

In the meanwhile, I still support every woman's right to make her own reproductive choices. I dread the day when abortions are outlawed in this country, not only for the tens of thousands of young women who will die in back-alley abortions (while the wealthy simply get them "elsewhere") and the millions more who will be forced into poverty or even imprisoned. Compassionate conservatism? Respect for life? Not in my book. Not by a long shot.