My record on women’s issues is not very good, but here is a reblogged post that I totally respect on the abortion issue.
You probably can’t tell from my blog posts, but I love words. I love the sound of them, the feel of them in my mouth and at my fingertips. How changing just one word can transform a sentence from shit to shinola.
So I love it when somebody proves me right-ish. Or like I’m in the right pew.
For decades one term has bothered me. “Pro-Choice.”
Abortion ain’t a “whole wheat or rye” sort of “choice.”
So I’ve had my thinking cap on for all that time, trying to think of a better way to say it. What else could it be called? What word can express the magnitude of that decision for any woman.
And am I the person to come up with it anyway? You see, I never had an abortion. I never was able to get pregnant. So perhaps it isn’t my role.
But I do know…
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Still Skeptical After All These Years 
Elyse wrote a good post!
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Jim: Sandie forwarded this essay to her group of very talented, achieving women. Even the two former nuns in the group agreed with the points in the essay. Do you feel as self-conscious as I about holding forth on this obviously women’s issue? Bud
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Bud, see my latest comment on Elyse’s blog. 😉
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Jim,
There are now 92 comments on the referenced blog. I provide a view herein so you and perhaps Bud and Sandie can see my point.
While “officially” I am an Independent I lean conservative, but not GOP if that makes any sense. Two progressive efforts I have long supported however, pro-choice and far better control of guns. The recent explosion about Planned Parenthood tactics gave me pause to reconsider but I remain pro-choice, morally and politically.
The preservation of human life, no matter what, makes no sense to me. A worthy goal is of course to not “kill” makes sense, but not in all cases. We can argue forever about “life boat ethics” for example with a no conclusion with who really knows what is right or wrong in every case. Had someone had the nerve and sense to kill Hitler in maybe 1939, or Stalin at the same time, well who knows for sure.
I found Walker’s and Huckabee’s advocacy for totally outlawing abortion, no matter what, (and Santorum’s as well perhaps) as dead wrong during last night’s debate. I remain firmly in support of McCaskill;s “safe, legal and rare” as a much better position. But how can any government enforce “rare”. Impossible I say. It must become an individual moral choice in my view.
I know women that have had abortions (adding that I was not the “father” in any such cases).. In every case (they were all in the “rare category”) they were choices that I supported. I retain that position even thought DNA, unique DNA, is present at conception as well.
Parents make life or death decisions for children all the time. Once birth has transpired such legal decisions for children when life or death is at stake are determined in courts of law when time allows such careful thought and discussion. But to require every abortion to be decided in a court of law before such a medical procedure is rendered makes no sense to me as well. Consider the “life or death” decision when two kids are drowning, only one can be saved and a parent makes such a terrible choice, save one and let the other die. There is no right answer for society to make. Individual choices must be used without society intruding into a parent’s dilemma with Monday morning quarterbacks making judgments.
It is beyond my understanding how people that want limited government want government to dictate such terrible moral choices through laws that must apply to everyone, no matter what.
As for Planned Parenthood, the political choice is clear to me as well. Defund them for any and all abortion procedures, pure and simple and let private organizations detail with the “technical details” of abortion. By law we do not allow any DOD facility to perform abortions. Why allow PP to do so with taxpayer dollars? A DOD paid physician (or other HC provider) can recommend abortion to a woman but she must then seek a non-taxpayer funded organization to provide the “services”.
As for “harvesting babies” I believe it is again a moral choice, for a doctor to make. I have it on record to donate organs when I die. But I sure as hell don’t want my family to see pictures of such “harvesting” of my organs. I take such a position based on “science” as well. While not proven yet, I believe stem cell research will eventual produce remarkable medical procedures to both save lives and increase the quality of life for ill and dying people.
Maybe Claire should now say “safe, legal, rare, and only with private funding” in her stand on abortion. With such a constraint, under the law, the poor ghetto pregnant woman would then face the same dilemma as the poor enlisted woman in the military (no money) would face. Considered from a different perspective, it seems to me that moral dilemmas are much harder to decide when money as well is at stake, one’s own money. But that makes such decisions financial ones, not moral ones, as well. Whole different story when that is the case, in some cases.
Anson
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Anson, so you are out there! I haven’t seen you in print now for, must be, several months? And by the way, do you happen to know anything about Duane? He’s been absent longer than you.
You will see, I think, that your views on abortion are actually not that different from mine. (Remarkable, isn’t it?) Allow me, if you will, to summarize my own thoughts on the subject:
1. Fetal development is a continuum, starting with mere tissue and a blueprint and becoming person-like somewhere around the start of the second trimester.
2. God, or nature, whichever you want to call it, is the greatest abortionist. It is scientifically found that half of all fertilized human eggs are spontaneously aborted, doubtlessly reducing a large number of defective fetuses. Each of those have a unique combination of genes that would otherwise have made them individual people. Although the process is terribly complex, it is already pretty well understood by scientists. Abortion is a natural part of the process.
3. Abortion after the first trimester or so is repugnant because the form of the child is then apparent. This is also natural. However, and here you and I especially seem to agree, by that time the baby’s health is firmly intertwined with the mother’s. It is arrogant, I submit, for anyone else but the mother to make an abortion decision, assuming that she is of sound mind and reasonable health. It’s kinda like advocating background checks for gun-trading shows – there’s a middle ground to be found.
4. The best reasons for abortion are to prevent birth defects and to avoid unwanted children. The good news is that modern contraception is generally reliable and has resulted in a neutral (replacement) birth rate in most industrialized countries. The bad news is that right-wingers refuse to understand the necessary role of government in preventing unwanted births. Help with costs and counseling for reproductive health are proven remedies for those, young people being generally fecund and relatively immature. That is something PP does far more than abortions. Right-wingers seem ready to shoot doctors to prevent abortions and then vote down social support for the kids that result.
5. Unwanted children are a burden that society need not have. Nobody knows how many criminals and mentally-handicapped people were unwanted children, but I’m guessing it’s a bunch.
5. The selling of fetal tissue is much in the news lately, as you mention. I’ve read that the carefully-edited videos spying on unsuspecting PP employees are the result of sifting through three concentrated years of laying traps and coaching. PP makes no profit from harvesting such tissue which is very important to research on diseases like Parkinson’s and genetic treatment of cancers. Denial of government support to such research would have a chilling effect on it. Most people don’t realize the impact of basic research on society. Most new drugs, for example, derive from government labs because basic research is chancy and expensive. Big pharma mostly just develops and tests after the discoveries are made. The same would be true of genetics.
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Jim: I am sure I don’t need to point out that the Hyde Amendment forbids the use of government funds to support abortions, and Planned Parenthood does not use any of the funds it receives from the Gov. in support of abortion. Its other services for women vastly outnumber its providing abortion services, and the loss of these services would be a disaster for the huge number of women who depend on PP for their health needs. Bud
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Thanks for that added information, Bud. Opponents of PP suggest alternatives but do nothing to make them happen. All too often, “privatizing” is just another word for doing nothing. Unless there’s real money in it of course, and in this case, there’s not.
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Jim: I just noticed that Joplin’s Donald Trump, Geoff Caldwell, takes on the issue of abortion and the funding of Planned Parenthood in today’s Globe, with his usual reasoned, compassionate, caring touch. I searched and searched, in vain, throughout the article for the answer to how Obama was responsible for the entire problem. I can’t believe that The Evil One is not complicit. Bud
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I think by now, at least in this part of the woods, that Barry’s complicity is implied in every seemingly-nefarious government enterprise. It’s got me wondering whom they will blame if the GOP captures both branches of government? They may be like the dog who finally caught the car. Oops. 😉
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I would like to say just random thoughts. Too late in evening to organize. I was pregnant 5 times. Only 1 pregnancy was planned. Two were condom pregnancies, one the Pill and one an IUD baby. I miscarried the IUD and Pill babies. I was married during all 5 pregnancies, 3 lived.
If you had a 1 out of 100 or 2 out of 100 chance of getting killed by a car, would you even cross the street?
Just in case, I am a “fluke” than I will tell you that my oldest daughter h I t pregnant as fter she had the every quarter shot by an OB/GYN. There is no 100 % preventable pregnancy. Additionally, we both are college educated.
My brother says the fetus becomes a baby when the brain stem connects to the spinal cord. Like a brain dead human, up until that point. Find out when this happens, I feel thus may be more important yo know.
I had a friend who had 3 live teenagers and a husband. While her hormones went crazy her first few months of pregnancy, they found she had cancer. Jean chose to keep her baby and died when he was 2 years old. Cancer treatment would have prevented death only had they started after she would have chosen abortion. I weigh this in my mind and always come up with her sacrifice. Typical mother. But as a friend u hurt her by saying early on, “Your living children and husband need you.” Of course, the growing boy is glad she chose his life.
Catholics won’t bless premature babies we miscarry and we try to take brain dead people off life supports. These facts have comforted a few of my friends who chose abortion. Not all are comforted, their is a stigma and pain to the memory of their choice they made. ~Robin
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