Sometimes I watch the news, and sometimes, when I’m being really lazy, I rely on Jon Stewart of the Daily Show for my news. The other evening, while watching Comedy Central’s version of the news, I was surprised to see the topic of abortion back in full swing in the political arena. It’s been a while since it’s gotten much attention, so I suppose it is due. With all the issues going on in our world right now – what with half the countries in the Middle East holding protests or civil wars and trying to kick out their various cruel, and/or insane, and/or corrupt dictators, and people in OUR country are more pissed off that our gas prices are going up because of it rather than the hardships and human lives lost in these battles for freedom and democratic governments, and the growing turmoil going on that could erupt in WWIII (in my opinion) – I am surprised abortion is even being brought up for 24 hour debate among the various “news” channels. Even more so, the new strategy to sway more people to be pro-life.
My personal views on abortion aside, one group of pro-lifers is trying to compare the lack of rights and freedoms and ability to be a person the African Americans during (and after) the days of slavery had to live with, to the lack of rights, freedoms, and the ability to be a person to people in the womb. To me, that SCREAMS such an extreme lack of understanding and compassion, and such complete ignorance and outright offensiveness. I can’t believe someone has the cahonas to go on TV and expect to win over modern-day African Americans by trying to equate their ancestors’ struggles to human embryos’ struggles. First off, the people who endured this cruelty and less-than-human status were people with developed brains, thoughts, and feelings; with memories and the daily lifelong struggle that has affected this community for GENERATIONS. How can anyone, with a serious face, possibly claim the “people” in the womb are suffering the same lack of civil rights? These “people” aren’t yet people! No formed brain and no sense of self, memory, or concept of anything at all – ESPECIALLY when most abortions occur – the first 8 weeks of a pregnancy. It is beyond belief! It’s like standing in the Room of Shoes claiming the Holocaust never happened. These “people” in the womb don’t have any of the characteristics of past slaves, apart from being genetically human. Is it because the religious argument wasn’t working on the entire population that someone decided it was a good idea to tie it to the suffering of an entire race of people? Really?? It’s offensive at best.
I do believe in human rights, and that an unborn baby in a healthy mother should be given the chance to live (exceptions of rape and incest, in my view). With all of the struggles we’ve had in having our sons, how can I not? Are you surprised I hold this view? However, I don’t know that the law is the place for that…it seems more of a personal and religious issue within the person considering doing it. I don’t like the idea of abortion, and there are few things sadder than the thought of late term abortions – that IS murder in my opinion. My views come from my personal experience with pregnancy – I struggle with people like myself who would do, and DID, anything to keep a pregnancy and give birth to a healthy baby, but then also seeing all the pregnant 12 year olds at the high-risk-pregnancy clinics who were anything but equipped to raise a child…surely not all of them would make the decision to hand the baby over to a caring, loving, desperate adoptive family. But in the case of embryo=slave, you can’t equate apples and mini-blinds. It doesn’t work.
And have you seen these billboards?
Obviously these are very controversial, and were almost immediately taken down, but they got their intended shock-value and 15 minutes of fame. These were based on a statistic that was interpreted to be that black women have three times the abortions as white women, and if all the aborted babies had been born, the black population in the United States would be doubled. If you're wanting to piss off a lot of people by being totally offensive and guilt-inducing, congratulations. If the goal was to bring awareness to the issue of unprotected sex and prevention of unwanted pregnancies, yeah, not so much!
And you know what no one's talking about, that I can see? How to fix this. It's not by banning abortions - there are always dark allies and coat hangers. And I don't think in THIS country it's purely a lack of education on how babies are made or lack of access to birth control ($4 birth control pills are hard to beat). I think it's the lack of education on the value of physical intimacy. No one talks about THAT in this day where people are famous for sex tapes and reaching triple digits in their number of sexual conquests. THAT'S what we need to be teaching in this country - abortion is not a form of contraception, and getting pregnant with someone you are completely involved with, in love with, and sharing your life and future with is a whole lot different than getting pregnant from a booty-call or one-night-stand.If we're going to discuss the value of life in this country, let's do it without the shock and offensiveness. Let's get to the disease instead of the symptoms. The tacky billboards and ridiculous comparisons only polarizes each side that much more, and doesn't open a true discussion - just an argument.
Just my opinion.
2 comments:
Hear Hear!! And this was the sex talk on Glee the other night that the dad has with his gay son. Nails it!
"He went to the free clinic to get gay-specific pamphlets that covered the mechanics, but more importantly, he spoke to Kurt about the emotional side of sex. Women, he said, understand that there is one, while men are more likely to think of it as just something fun to do. “With two guys, you got two people who think that sex is just sex. It’s gonna be easier to come by. And once you start doin’ this stuff, you’re not gonna wanna stop,” Burt said. “You gotta know that it means something. It’s doing something to you, to your heart, to your self-esteem — even though it feels like you’re just havin’ fun.” Kurt thought this was his dad’s way of telling him to not have sex. It wasn’t. “Kurt, when you’re ready, I want you to be able to … do everything. But when you’re ready, I want you to use it as a way to connect to another person. Don’t throw yourself around like you don’t matter. ‘Cause you matter, Kurt.”
Whoa! insane billboards. Hopefully the Mormon church has a better way of dealing with this issue than what the public seems to have adopted.....
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