"The Rights of the Born"

[GreenPartyVoter]

Everything was going swimmingly on the panel. The subject was politics and faith, and I was on stage with two clergymen with progressive spiritual leanings, and a moderator who is liberal and Catholic. We were having a discussion with the audience of 1,300 people in Washington about many of the social justice topics on which we agree — the immorality of the federal budget, the wrongness of the president's war in Iraq. Then an older man came to the mike and raised the issue of abortion, and everyone just lost his or her mind.

Or, at any rate, I did.

Maybe it was the way in which the man couched the question, which was about how we should reconcile our progressive stances on peace and justice with the "murder of a million babies every year in America." The man who asked the question was soft-spoken, neatly and casually dressed.

First Richard, a Franciscan priest, answered that this is indeed a painful issue but that it is not the only "pro-life" issue that progressives — even Catholics — should concern themselves with during elections. There are also the matters of capital punishment and the war in Iraq, and of HIV. Then Jim, an evangelical, spoke about the need to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, and the need to diffuse abortion as a political issue, by welcoming pro-choice and pro-life supporters to the discussion, with equal respect for their positions. He spoke gently about how "morally ambiguous" the issue is.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0210-22.htm

[BlueEyedSon]

1. "Since abortion is so contentious, let's fix all other issues FIRST...."

[DELUSIONAL]

2. ah MALES don't get pregnant

males can be helpful, listen, be empathetic but THEY DON'T GET PREGNANT.

And until males CAN get pregnant -- they need to stay the hell out.

These two bits from the article:

"Then I said that a woman's right to choose was nobody else's goddamn business. This got their attention."

and then this bit:

"During the reception, an old woman came up to me, and said, "If you hadn't spoken out, I would have spit," and then she raised her fist in the power salute. We huddled together for awhile, and ate M&Ms to give us strength. It was a kind of communion, for those of us who still believe that civil rights and equality and even common sense will somehow be sovereign, some day."

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

4. No, But Women Can't Get Pregnant Without Us.

The Baby, after all, is 50% ours :)

[converted_democrat]

5. Yea, just divvy it up like property.. Nice.. n/t

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

7. Had Nothing To Do With That Absurd Notion And You Know It.

[converted_democrat]

10. Nope, I don't "know" it..n/t

[Greyhound]

8. NO IT ISN'T! When you have to go through it, you can decide for yourself

whatever you want, until then, it's out of our hands. EOF

[Beam Me Up]

9. Artificial insemination has been invented.

I understand your point but clearly this issue impacts the lives of women more than men. A man can inseminate a woman and walk away from the event as if nothing happened. A woman who becomes pregnant doesn't have that option.

[FreedomAngel82]

12. Women can

Maureen Dowd was on Stephen Colbert's show earlier this year talking about her new book and she talked about how women don't need men anymore to get pregnant. There is science y'know.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

15. I'm Sorry, Can You Point Me To The Science That Shows Sperm Can Be

manufactured? I must've missed that one. Last I knew the sperm still came from a man.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. No. The sperm is 100% ours.

Kinda like giving someone a seed and demanding the she plant it, water it, and care for it, and then claiming half of the produce.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

16. Yes, and The Egg is 100% Hers.

But the baby is 50% of each. Basic science, really.

[Greyhound]

6. Absolutely right! We can have our opinions and are free to express them

but until we get pregnant that is all we have, an opinion. Men have no right, whatsoever, to impose our beliefs, pro or con, on women, and the government has even less business getting involved. This is the single most dangerous issue for me to get going on in any real life forum as I have a very hard time containing my outrage, whenever another man starts spouting off on this issue I have to physically distract myself to avoid becoming violent. :grr:

[FreedomAngel82]

14. And it really pisses me off that

all these WHITE MEN are going around and talking about "saving the babies"! Well what about rape? Incest? What about an emotionally unstable woman raising a baby? I get so sick and tired of these men who think they have a right to tell me what to do!

[Greyhound]

17. Well if you ever want some unproductive, childish, payback hang

near me at a clinic rally. It won't change anything but the crunchy sounds their faces make are so satisfying. (and I can always use the bail $) lol :rofl:

[Book Lover]

3. Kick

[FreedomAngel82]

11. So they didn't speak about the babies dying in Iraq did they?