So another rant to add to the my totally random blog.
I can’t say I am a fan really of abortion, and I know it is an extremely emotional topic for many. However, I think the issue of abortion is used more for a political wedge issue than anything else.
I was raised in an extremely socially conservative Catholic family. My family was so passionate about the pro-life movement that I remember going to pro-life rallies when I was as young as four years old. As I grew older and knew women who actually had abortions my entire perspective shifted. I have never had an abortion, and I have never been pregnant, but I know women who have had abortions due to rape, unwanted pregnancy and health issues. Their actual experiences changed my point of view as well as the perceived hypocrisy of the pro-life movement.
1. Myth #1 – The profile movement cares about every embryo
If a embryo is truly a fully formed and viable human being, then why don’t pro-life advocates protest in front of fertility clinics. Many fertility treatments use multiple frozen embryos, most of which don’t survive. So are the women who have treatments like IVF murders? If they create a dozen embryos, implant only two and give birth to one baby have they “murdered” eleven babies? If the movement is going to be so staunch about protecting the womb, then why give these women a pass? A woman having an abortion may only have one or two in their entire lifetime, yet a woman using a fertility clinic might have a dozen or more embryos destroyed as most IVF treatments are unsuccessful. Personally I don’t feel that IVF or fertility treatments are immoral and if a family wants to use them in order to reproduce than its their right.
2. Myth #2 – Abortion was created in 1973, and abortions will no occur once the practice is made illegal
I think some Anti-abortion advocates think that Abortion was created in 1973, or at least they tend to act that way. The reality is that abortion has been with us almost as long as we have been around. There is evidence of abortions in ancient Rome and even Christopher Columbus documented evidence of the natives of Hispaniola practicing early term abortions. So women have always had ways of terminating an early term pregnancy many of which are unsafe. If we make abortion illegal, the practice will still go on, as it was before Roe v. Wade. Women will die, become sterile, and the wealthy will still bribe doctors, go overseas to have the procedure performed. Nothing will stop abortion.
3. The Myth that somehow GOD is punishing the US for having safe and legal surgical abortion.
This one makes me the craziest. First off, there is no mention of Abortion in the bible. Not one. You would think that such an abomination (that was around during the time of Christ) would have at least gotten a mention in the bible. Every other sin seems to, even such trivial things as wearing two different types of thread in the same garment (an abomination) so why not abortion?
And for further evidence that the theory is poppycock. Let’s look at a country with some of the strictest abortion laws in the world as an example – El Salvador. El Salvador’s laws are some of the most restrictive in the world, they even amended their constitution in 1999 to read that life begins at conception.
Now let’s look at the country of El Salvador, how is it doing? It is the most densely populated country in Central America, it has extremely high rates of crime, poverty and has even faced civil war. As far as natural disasters are concerned this tiny country its has its share hurricanes, volcanic activity, landslides, earthquakes, extreme rainstorms and oddly enough droughts. All this while 90% of the population identifies as Christian. Now I am sure the good people of El Salvador are wonderful and their country has plenty of beauty and natural resources, but so much for the theory that God is shining his light down on any country that so fervently protects the life of the unborn.
And as an agnostic I don’t think God is either punishing or rewarding any nation for its stance on abortion. The political and economic situation in El Salvador has more to do with corruption, colonization, and the IMF than with the good people of El Salvador. The natural disasters that El Salvador is plagued with have more to do with its geography than with any omniscient being deciding to unleash his judgment upon the vast majority of the Christian population living there.
Just my opinion of course, but if God is judging the United States for Abortion he has been quite kind to us considering we have by far the largest economy in the world, and for the most part have seen less disease, strife, war and unrest than nearly any other nation on the planet.
4. Myth #4 – Every pregnancy will end with a healthy baby.
According to the American Pregnancy Association Studies reveal that anywhere from 10-25% of all clinically recognized pregnancies will end in miscarriage. Most of these occurring in the first trimester. That is a fairly large number, so even the women who chose surgical abortion 10-25% of them wouldn’t have carried to term anyway, as most abortions are performed in the first trimester. Add to that the number of women who chose abortion because their fetus is severely deformed, medically risky, or weather the child is a product of incest or rape.
Or in the case of a nine year old girl from Brazil was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant with twins as a result. The mother opted for an abortion at 15 weeks as her doctors believed her life to be in danger. Then the church steps in and excommunicates the mother and the doctors. So I guess the nine year old should have been forced to potentially die because of her stepfather’s crime.
Women are more than just wombs, in some cases it really is the life of the fetus or the life of the mother, and the mother should not be forced to make that decision by the state.
5. Myth #5 – The pro-life movement cares about babies
This is the biggest lie that I see. Of course there are some exceptions to this rule and some pro-life groups and individuals are advocates of child welfare in the US and around the world. But I do not see a lot of energy going towards the babies in the third world and developing countries. According to bio-medicine.org in the developing world approximately 4 million babies die every year before the age of one month. And according to Unicef 5,500 children die each day across the 21 countries of Southern and Eastern Africa. I also don’t see a lot of group homes, charities, or support systems for single mothers that are supported by the prolife. Again, there are some out there, but hardly enough for demand.
6. Myth #6 – Families would adopt all of the babies that are aborted each year.
This statistic really depressed me, according to the Adoption Institute In 1999, the latest year for which totals have been finalized, there were about 581,000 children in foster care in the United States.[1] Twenty-two percent of these children — about 127,000 kids — were available for adoption.
Now many of these kids are older and harder to place, but the point is, we have a lot of children on this earth RIGHT NOW who need supportive families!
7. Myth Number #7 – Pro-lifers care about ALL human life
Again, some are consistent on this. Some pro-life supporters are anti-war and anti-death penalty. But many especially on the fundamentalist viewpoint are actually pro-war and pro-death penalty. A fact that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. At least formally the Catholic church is against war, and against the death penalty. To say it is OK for the government to chose who lives or dies, but not OK for a woman and her doctor to make a health care decision is insanity.
And of course abortion clinic bombings and doctor murders are completely against any moral code of human life being precious. Many people have died or been injured due to these terrorist acts. There is no moral justification for killing one person to prevent the “murder of innocents” the women will just go to another clinic, or perform an illegal an unsafe abortion on themselves. Using the logic that is OK to kill the doctor because he was murdering babies would be the same as saying it was OK to kill the designer of a weapons system, or to kill a soldier who bombed the wrong house, or to kill a nurse who may have accidentally caused the death of an infant, or to kill a woman unsuccessfully tried IVF, or her doctor who performed the IVF and on and on. I would see the point in this crazy logic if the woman who went to Dr. George Tiller had gone to Dr. Tiller against their will. But these women instead sought Dr. Tiller out in a moment of crisis. If it wasn’t Dr. Tiller, it would have been another doctor. Some of these pro-life extremists would have the mother killed, but that would of course mean killing her unborn child, so they go after the doctor instead.
8. Myth Number 8 – Birth Control is Abortion
This one is truly maddening. The birth control pill doesn’t kill embryos, it doesn’t kill babies. This is also what makes me most believe that the heart of the pro-lfe movement isn’t about babies but about forcing women back into the traditional role of mother, and mothers that have as many babies as their God sees fit. As a childless married woman myself, not only do I see that perspective as ridiculous but it is also reckless and dangerous. Some women can’t have children, and for others due to health concerns it is dangerous for them to become pregnant. I have had a handful of friends who have nearly died during pregnancy. Two of which are now surgically sterilized. If there were to get pregnant again, it could kill them.
Not to mention to harsh reality of our planet today.
We have a world population of nearly 7 billion. Today’s estimate puts the world population at 6,706,993,152. We are quickly running out of resources such as fuel, clean water, food, space, and pretty much everything needed for human survival.
According to UNICEF, 25,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”
Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
We should be encouraging the use of birth control in such overpopulated areas of the earth, not discouraging it. We should care about the children who are here and living now. More resources should be provided for those babies many of which do not live beyond their fifth year. The more mouths there are to feed, the harder it gets for families to provide for each child. I am not advocating for any forced family planning such as in China, but for women to at least be educated and have a choice in the amount of children they want to have.
If a person is truly pro-life, then they should be in every way. But it is not what I have witnessed. All I have seen is people judging other people, condemning them as murderers. Well as it says in the bible, If you are without sin, then you can cast the first stone. And as I don’t believe I can judge another woman or her situation, I believe abortion should remain legal and the right to abortion, even late term abortion, should be up to the woman’s doctor and herself. The phrase that I think puts it best is “If you are against abortion, don’t have one”. My sister had an unplanned pregnancy and she made the CHOICE to not only have her baby but to raise her. My niece is a direct result of that choice and I love her dearly. It is not an easy decision for any woman to make, but it should be her choice to make it.
Posted by littlemissangrygirl 
The day after I saw the new Star Trek film, the FIRST woman I mentioned it to said and I quote “Aren’t the men in that movie hot”. I agreed. They are almost all disturbingly attractive. This became a theme of sorts, nearly every female I encountered would exclaim THE STAR TREK MEN ARE SO HOT!!!