Matt “Jubal” Cunningham has been commenting lately, on this blog, that he is amazed at how I evolved from being pro-life to being pro-choice. In truth, I still don’t like abortion – the difference is two-fold. First, I have come to believe that if we were to ban abortion, some women might get hurt seeking back alley procedures. Second, I don’t think we ought to be legislating morality.
What makes all of this interesting is the “news that the abortion rate has fallen to its lowest level in 30 years,” according to a column by Steven Chapman. He writes that folks have figured out on their own, without legislation, that they don’t like abortion. Here is an excerpt:
In 1992, a Gallup/Newsweek poll found 34 percent of Americans thought abortion “should be legal under any circumstances,” with 13 percent saying it should always be illegal. Last year, only 26 percent said it should always be allowed, with 18 percent saying it should never be permitted.
And Hollywood has figured this out. The movies “Knocked Up” and “Juno” both featured heroines that kept their babies even though they were unwed mothers. One ended up living with the baby’s father, the other gave up her child for adoption.
So there are legal avenues for folks to deal with unwanted pregnancies, without resorting to abortion. And for those who want the latter, they can go to a legal, licensed clinic.
So why are right wingers still trying to make abortion illegal? They are already winning the hearts and minds of Americans, with the exception of Latino teens, the one demographic where abortions have increased.
We have so many other issued to contend with as a nation. Why waste so much time on abortion? Clearly, we don’t need to outlaw abortion. I think however that there is room to outlaw partial birth abortion, and to do a better job of inspecting abortion clinics and forcing them to comply with existing laws that govern medical facilities.
It is discouraging to me that only one Republican presidential candidate is pro-choice. The GOP is clearly out of step with most Americans on this issue. Consider one of the candidates, Mike Huckabee. The guy is a former Baptist minister. He obviously intends to legislate morality. But his record on fiscal prudence is terribly shaky. We don’t need another Bush in the White House. God knows it will take years to recover from what Bush did to our national budget and to pay off the debt he so freely incurred.
I am going to have to deal with this in November. I am hopeful Barack Obama will win the Democratic presidential nomination. Will I vote for him against a Republican, in the general election? You bet – if the GOP nominee is Mitt Romney, John McCain or Mike Huckabee.
I didn’t say I was “amazed” at the rapidity of your flip to the pro-choice side.
This is what I said:
“Anti-choice”?
Wow, Art. You’ve sure completed a rapid slide away from being pro-life. You’ve even adopted the “don’t ever use the word ‘abortion'” lingo of the other side.
I was pointing out how you’ve embraced the nomenclature of the pro-choice crowd, including the meaningless code word “anti-choice.” That word just highlights how the pro-choice crowd bends over backwards to avoid using the word “abortion.”
I’m curious: do you no longer think unborn babies are human beings? Or is just that you now think it is OK to kill them?
We legistlate morality all the time, stealing, murder, rape, etc.., so why not abortion?
I’m sure you will make the argument, that those sorts of things violate and do harm to others, which is certainly the case. Abortion does harm to the unborn baby. No person nor science can say at exactly what point that unborn life is a human being with a soul.
It’s pretty amusing to me that the whole “pro-choice” crowd is so in favor of personal freedom when is comes to abortion, but not when is comes to smoking, drugs, trans fat and whatever else offends them on that day.
#2,
And it’s pretty amusing to me that Republicans want small government that stays out of people’s lives, yet they want to legislate on perhaps the most intimate and personal choice a woman can make.
Your headline is exactly right: we don’t need to outlaw abortion. What we need to do is find better methods of birth control for both men and women, make access to these methods easy and inexpensive, and provide good comprehensive sex education to young people.
If we did that, unwanted pregnancies — and therefore, abortions — would drop dramatically.
I simply don’t understand why so many pro-lifers don’t comprehend that the problem is unwanted or unintended pregnancies. Those are what we need to stop in order to stop (most) abortions.
Matt/Jubal,
As I wrote, I don’t like abortion. But making it illegal would only end up hurting women.
Society, all on its own, is figuring out that abortion is not a good thing. Ergo, we don’t need to outlaw abortion.
BTW, isn’t there a rich abortion doctor out there who funds a lot of your GOP buddies, such as Dana Rohrabacher? I forget his name, but I think you know who I am referring to. Do those Reeps who take his money get a free pass Matt?
sbennies99 stole my thunder. Laws sometimes will overlap with God’s law. Particularly egregious acts like murder, which some believe abortion is.