If you are pro-choice, let me ask you a question. Why are you still falling for the anti-abortion it’s all about saving innocent lives nonsense when clearly it is not? If so called pro-birth activists cared about protecting those who do not deserve to die, say a wrongly convicted inmate on death row, they would ban the death penalty. Isn’t saving one innocent life worth the price of keeping persons guilty of murder in jail for life?
If you are pro-life, the answer would be yes. Oh, I know, if you try this line of reasoning you will get the with families it’s different, and if you manage to take a trip to crazy QAnus religious fervor land you will find plenty of “pious patriots” who are more than willing to tell you about God’s righteous vengeance. Sick really. Makes no sense at all.
For my part, life is life and that is all there is. It’s not a difficult concept. When in doubt, I would choose the born be born, the living stay living and the dead do what they do best. Stay dead. Hopefully.
With the election of our 46th President there has been a great deal of talk about Biden’s Catholic beliefs and his counter to doctrine pro-choice policies on abortion. Many of you may ask, how is this possible? I would argue Biden’s position is wholly rational, and is in fact, despite my own pro-life bias, entirely correct as a matter of church and state and yes, includes issues related to morality as well. Here’s why.
God gave us free will. He didn’t give you the right to lord your morality over mine, or mine over yours. Morality is a personal choice. In a world of personal choice, by its very definition an individual is free to make a good choice, a bad choice, or in some instances, no choice at all.
God knows people will make bad choices. Sometimes really bad choices. Yet he lets them. Why? The short answer would be so they learn to deal with fate. If you do this, then this will happen, if that, then that will follow. Basic reap what you sew stuff, nothing out of the ordinary to see here.
Therefore, when one individual denies another the right to choose, and hopefully choose wisely, they are denying that person the right to meet their destiny, whatever that may be, without outside interference or influence. In other words, the interloping oppressor is monkeying with another person’s right to experience his or her personal relationship with God.
As problematic as I find this from a sectarian point of view, I find the abortion issue has been so mindlessly bandied about and maligned without contemplation that its very existence in the secular world of politics and government has become in and of itself an abhorrent situation.
Simply and directly put it is my contention that abortion as a medical practice may be subject to some regulations for safety’s sake, but any prohibition or limitation on a woman’s right to choose as a matter of some sort of group, or my morality is better than yours is a complete abomination of God’s plan and is indeed an insult to what we know, what we can see, feel and experience as part of our personal relationship with the Almighty.
It is also part and parcel of the separation of church and state, although the Pro-Interference Party (PIP) doesn’t want you to know that. Throughout history including English and American common law a woman has always had the right to an abortion. Much in the same way, an individual had the right to own a firearm for hunting and protection at common law, the decision to terminate a pregnancy was left to the woman up and until the time of the quickening (movement in the belly).
This natural right was except in cases of royal blood rarely challenged by either the church or the state. So why now? If you do a cursory review of abortion rights you will find that in the United States the right to terminate was not much of an issue until after the US Civil War.
Perhaps it was due to the wholesale loss of life often between friends and family members that sparked a new-found religious interest in childbirth. The pathway to the present is not entirely clear, but it does appear there was no one person or event who led the change in attitude, just a slow steady drift into our social conscience and acceptance.
Then along came the 1960s and the sexual revolution where young people began to wonder, and not to be flippant, “If sex is so dirty, why does it feel so good?” Again, another question I believe is best left to you and your chosen savior, and possibly a good doctor.
Then, along came Roe v. Wade a case that today stands for little more than the proposition as a legal matter, subject to the laws of the land in a land of laws, a woman’s right to seek an abortion is a fundamental right and may not be unduly burdened by the government, or by an entity acting on behalf of the government.
Therefore, the national discussion regarding the fate of Roe and its progeny are therefore squarely where they need to be as a Constitutional matter particularly in deference to the doctrine of separation of church and state.
The basic right to an abortion is still intact under which no state, or municipality can entirely deny a woman the right to terminate of her own choice and volition. Personal choice. Personal responsibility. Did I miss something?
Ah yes, I almost forgot to mention the ongoing charade called Pro-life and the actual reason so many misguided souls are willing to assassinate doctors and blow up clinics, both acts that can hardly be described as Pro-life.
First and foremost, the anti-abortion movement is about violating the separation of church and state. It’s a way of putting religion, through “morality” back into the center state of American culture and society. What else could it be? Virtually throughout recorded history Women have always had the right to choose, until now.
Why? Did someone discover a new part of the Bible? Please don’t send any scripture, I said new as in text, not as in interpretation. Interpretations are a dime a dozen. Oh, and you can stop eating shrimp while you’re at it.
No, and here it is, if we apply even the teeniest bit of reason to our discourse, as opposed to intercourse for that would be an entirely different matter entirely, the recent fervor over abortion rights amounts to what we all have always known it is. Control. Not merely of mind, or personal choice, by over the body as well.
If you are a woman, and you feel “invaded” by anti-abortion rhetoric, you are right. You are under physical and mental and spiritual attack. You are being told what do to, what to say, and for all intents and purposes how to decide in what will be the most important decision, or decisions in your life.
I think of it this way. If you can be persuaded to relinquishing your right to decide when to have a child, raise a family, allow the church through the government into your home, your bedroom, what won’t you relinquish?
In fact, with today’s Mad as a MAGA Hatter Party, it is also suggested you put the life of your unborn child before your own. Further, you are also commanded to give the rapist or incestuous father of your child the right to prevent you from ending the pregnancy, and I feel confident in saying, if your molester/criminal/deviant is a member of the local church, you might find yourself without even so much as visitation rights.
This is part of the religious right’s “morality”, as applied to you. Them? Not so much. Again, different rules for different “levels” of society. What I have never understood is how any sentient human being can’t see the subjugation of women in this manner is no less disgusting, distasteful and immoral as any act of slavery. Isn’t it?
When we factor in the economic impact, the helplessness of a young mother and susceptibility to help where she may find it, well, throw in an arranged marriage (or two) and there you have. Servitude for life. They know this and now you do too.
Oh, they will feel all good about themselves, and constantly remind you it’s all for the best, their best anyway. Do you know what happens to religions that practice what they preach, as in total abstinence? That’s right they all die off and maybe go to heaven, but, they may also become zombies. Nobody really knows, do they?
Now we are at a crossroads where the time we spend, whether building or destroying our future, will be decided. I posit it is time to put this issue to bed. For my part, I no longer feel it necessary for anyone to agree or side with me. We just need to move on and now is the perfect time. Here’s how and you will be surprised just how damn easy it is. It’s called the legislative process.
With the recent addition of several religious loony-tunes to the SCOTUS, it is time to end the endless trail of cases after cases to the Court and instead, legislate into federal law, a woman’s fundamental right to have an abortion free from government intervention, free from the murderous forces of the American Taliban, free from shame, derision, stigma and fear. Why aren’t we doing this? We are.
Make no mistake, the place is here, the time is now. Let’s get this done and get back to the shared task of healing a torn and tattered psyche of a nation. We can do this. We must.
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