I Regret My Abortion. That's a sign I hadn't seen pro-lifers use before. When I saw it for the first time, I couldn't believe how stupid the sign was. But apparently it is the brain child of a charity called Silent No More Awareness. It certainly seems appropriate that they are calling for a lack of awareness.Apparently this Christian charity reaches out to women who have had an abortion, and then they try to exploit their emotional hurt regarding their difficult decision, in order to push their political agenda.
But what I don't understand is their marketing slogan. What they are admitting is that women made a free choice, which they now regret. So what? I'm sure people regret smoking their first cigarette, but does that mean we should ban smoking? And would banning smoking actually stop people smoking, or just push it underground? How about guns? I suspect there are some criminals in jail right now who wish they had never picked up a gun a shot someone with it. So how about we ban guns too?
However, this wasn't my real reason for writing this post. What I was actually going to talk about was how things really are in a 'pro-life' country, like Brazil.
It was in the news yesterday that Brazil is currently having an abortion witch hunt. Over 1,200 women are being investigated on suspicion of having an abortion. Some of the tactics used during the witch hunt include forcing women to undergo intimate sexual examinations. Thousands of women had their medical records opened to the public. Ex-husbands, ex-boyfriends, partners and other family members were interviewed too.
The clinic at the center of the controversy ended up closing in 2007. So far 30 women have been convicted of having an abortion, and as punishment were forced to work with disabled children against their will.
You know I really get that abortion is a horrible thing. No one is pro-abortion. But I cannot fathom why people are so eager to take us down a path that would make our society like this. Witch hunts? Non-consensual sexual examinations of women? Forcing women who had to make a difficult decision re-live it and suffer humiliation? Releasing possibly innocent women's medical records to the public? How is any of this good, and how is any of it a model of an ideal society?
And for you 'pro-lifers' out there, do you imagine even for a second that outlawing abortion in this country would actually prevent abortion? Have you ever heard of a meth lab? Drugs are illegal right? Yet oddly, people still take drugs all the time.
When people want to do something, but you make it illegal, all you do is push the same behavior underground, with all the risks associated with that. You can't wave a magic wand and make abortion go away; life isn't like that. If abortion is outlawed in this country, poor people will have a back street or self abortion, putting women's health at risk. Rich people will fly off to a free country and have their abortion anyway. And women will suffer. That's all you achieve. You create suffering in women.
I've already written several posts about the horrible infant mortality rate in America, so I won't bore you with that argument all over again. But suffice to say if you are 'pro-life' why don't you campaign to protect the children we have already given birth to? Demand free and unconditional health care for all children, so that maybe we can get into the top 25 countries in the world for infant mortality rate. Thousands of babies die each year in America, because we don't give them proper health care. That's the true scandal and issue here. Being angry about abortion doesn't help society, protecting the rights of children on the other hand could really make a positive difference.
5 comments:
your blog is well well well......
The writer of this blog has a warped idea of "women suffering". Also he tries to justify the murder of 1.5 million aborted babies, because 2,000 children died from lack of medical care.
No one is exploiting these women who regret their abortion. They choose to make their statements voluntarily. Admitting they did wrong,is the first step on the path to healing and receiving God's forgiveness for their sin.
I am not justifying murder. An abortion is the removal of a FETUS from the womb. It is a decision made by a woman, and whomever she wishes to discuss this decision with. A fetus is not a baby.
A baby is a living breathing human being, and we are in America allowing thousands of them to die because our unChristian evil for profit health care system doesn't give a shit about poor people.
My argument is very simple. When we are doing everything in our power to care for babies, and prevent their unnecessary and untimely deaths, and when our international figures for infant mortality are not so embarrassing, then maybe I'll give a shit about the abortion issue.
The problem here is that you believe that a magic invisible man in the sky sparks a soul into a zygote and according to your religious definition, at the moment of conception that cluster of cells is a human baby. You then want to bring your religious dogma to bear on their personal situation, and to that I say, how dare you? Who are you to dictate to some stranger you've never met how they should live their life?
Your name claims you are Pro-woman, so how about you stop trying to curtail their reproductive rights?
Finally, you have to face the reality that even if the entire USA went batshit crazy, outlawed abortion, it would not stop at all. Rich women would go to Canada and get the abortion there. Poor women would get backstreet abortions putting themselves in great danger.
Making something illegal, does not stop it from happening, it just pushes it underground.
When our nation cares about babies properly, I'll consider caring about fetuses. Until that time, I reject your arguments.
Sir, you just contradicted yourself in saying that you are not justifying murder. But the reality is a fetus IS a living human being, person. In fact, the word fetus (which comes from the Latin word 'foetus' - which means an unborn human baby more than eight weeks after conception".) Despite the fact that there are some medical and scientific experts who will deny this, the reality is the same and can't be denied. Even the abortionists admit that when they "remove the fetus", they are killing it. If it weren't already a human being and living, there would be no need to kill it? And as medical evidence shows, it clearly is a human being inside a woman's womb. Women who feel that they need to kill their babies (i.e - abortion) don't always take into consideration the lives of their unborn child and as a woman myself, I can't imagine a more gross violation of human life. If a woman is unable or unwilling to love her unborn baby, instead of killing the child - why not allow for the option for the child to be adopted to a loving, stable husband and wife - who may not be able to have children of their own and who would give their right arm to love such a child. As a woman, I feel that the problem with abortion is that women have a skewed view of how life is conceived or they are in denial about it. Even though there may be some women, who will take it upon themselves who want to kill their unborn children, it doesn't remove the reality that for even these women - they have basically killed another innocent human being. Although you do not care about unborn babies (or as you want to use the term "foetus" - which still means an unborn living baby), there are both men and women out there who DO care about babies and the women properly and who will continue to advocate to protect the rights those unborn babies (i.e - "foetuses").
Emily, I appreciate your thoughtful pro-life argument and thank you for posting it.
I guess what I have a hard time with from a person living in the US perspective, is that we live in a country where children are not well cared for. There are some three million children under five who do not have sufficient food while sixteen million children are food insecure (USDA via feedingamerica.org).
I have also repeatedly blogged about the horrific infant mortality rate in the US (not even in the top 40 nations on the planet).
And when it comes to care of children, we remain one of the few industrialized countries where it is still legal to beat children in schools with a plank of wood (about 20 states still allows paddling of children).
We also allow children to be tried and punished as adults if they commit certain crimes, despite not being adults.
Then there is our substandard education, childhood obesity, soaring teen pregnancy, and horrific food in schools.
All of these disturbing facts show a complete lack of compassion for the welfare of our children.
Republican/Conservative policies love to push for the rights of a fetus, but once a baby is born the care seems to instantly vanish. There's a distinct lack of financial support for the health care, nutrition and education of children.
And if the baby is black, it has a substantially higher chance of dying by the age of five in America.
Given these facts, I find the fetus obsession a little bit hard to swallow. Perhaps if we were in the top 10 for infant mortality, ensured proper medical care, nutrition, education and care of our nation's children, I'd be a bit more interested in the pro-life argument.
There is also another issue we should realistically consider too, and I've mentioned this before. Even if we as a nation outlawed all abortion tomorrow, all it would do is criminalize a behavior that would still go on. Rich women would go on an abortion vacation to a free country, poor women would get a backstreet abortion, putting themselves at risk. And those babies that were born as a result of changing the law in this manner would be born into a country where their health care, nutrition and education needs would not be met. In fact given our appalling record of keeping our wanted babies alive, one can only imagine our success rate with unwanted accident babies.
Finally, I guess I should address your attempt to use the English dictionary as justification for your argument. The origin of the word fetus is as follows, distinctly different from the definition and origin that you made up:
"1350–1400; Middle English < Latin fētus bringing forth of young, hence that which is born, offspring, young still in the womb, equivalent to fē- (v. base attested in L only in noun derivatives, as fēmina woman, fēcundus fecund, etc.; compare Greek thēsthai to suck, milk, Old High German tāan to suck, Old Irish denid (he) sucks) + -tus suffix of v. action" - Dictionary.com
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