Pro-Choice vs Anti-Abortion Forces: A Consise Statement [View All]

[IsaiahTruman]

The Pro-Choice vs. Anti-Abortion Conflict

In a perfect world, the outcome of a woman getting pregnant would be that a baby would be born and raised in a loving, caring, comfortable family. I think we all can agree on that.

Unfortunately, we do not now live in a perfect world, and even though we certainly can make the world far better than it is now, it may never be perfect. Therefore, we must resolve the conflict between Pro-Choice advocates who feel that women should have the right to abortion services if needed, and Anti-Abortion advocates who feel that abortion is wrong.

We need to be rational, realistic and sane about this. The fact is that unwanted pregnancies do occur. So, the question is whether women who find themselves in that predicament should have a choice in the matter, or not.

We should all understand that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 law establishing a woman’s right to abortion, was established solely to protect women from being maimed or killed by botched illegal abortions. That’s because there was a high mortality rate for women resulting from such procedures prior to that, and many women were dying.

Additionally, child abuse and neglect was more prevalent prior to 1973, because most women felt they had no choice but to give birth when they got pregnant, even if they did not really want or could not afford to have a child.

All that would be the case again if abortion were to be made illegal. Those are facts we must face, and it should mitigate any other considerations.

We should also remember that the anti-abortion crusade by the Christian Right was begun in the late 1970s because they thought they had found a cause and a fight they would win. They thought they would stand on high moral ground with this issue, but the record clearly shows otherwise. After all, their words and actions have been bigoted and hypocritical, and they have caused a lot of conflict, division, anger, violence, death, grief, and suffering.

Fortunately, the most malicious and hypocritical of the so-called “Pro-Life” (Anti-Abortion) forces have stopped bombing medical clinics and killing health professionals to try to impose their will and force their beliefs on us. But most of us still feel their crusade is misguided, and wrong, especially since some of them still harass young pregnant women who have enough trouble as it is. Hard feelings still persist because of all that, and it is one of the main reasons people are so divided and polarized over this issue.

Of course, bigoted and hypocritical right-wing preachers like Pat Robertson are largely responsible for that. After all, he said things like this: “(Planned Parenthood) is teaching kids to fornicate, teaching people to have adultery, every kind of bestiality, homosexuality, lesbianism....”

Robertson tried to demonized the Pro-Choice movement, and the whole anti-abortion movement was fueled by such deceptive and inflammatory rhetoric, spouting from the mouths of people who loudly and proudly claimed to be Christians.

The murder and assassination of doctors and medical clinic staff, the bombing of medical clinics, and the harassment and intimidation of troubled pregnant women in crisis were a very predictable result. Not only were staff and doctors who perform clinical abortions murdered, many other clinic staff and doctors were harassed and intimidated in a variety of different ways. Many have been given good and ample reason to fear for their lives, because their names have been posted on “hit lists” on the Internet. Moreover, young, pregnant women in crisis have been intimidated and harassed mercilessly. In some cases, pregnant women who have desperately needed medically necessary abortions to protect their own lives have been so harassed and intimidated that they have been forced to flee to another state, and their lives have been jeopardized.

I believe we should face the fact that if abortion were to be illegal and against the law once again (as it was prior to Roe v. Wade), women would still need and seek abortions. Consequently, many women would be cheated and taken advantage of, and many would be maimed or killed by botched amateur abortion procedures. History clearly proves that, because that’s what happened when abortion was illegal. (You should watch the great movie starring Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen, Love With a Proper Stranger, which helped to make people aware of the problem).

Furthermore, the problem of child abuse and neglect of unwanted children would only grow worse if abortion were to be made illegal again. In fact, if we were to force women to bear children they don’t want or can’t care for properly, many problems would only grow worse.

A more sensible approach would be to start a crusade to ensure that all women of child-bearing age have ready access to safe and affordable birth control. And, in cases where birth control was not used or not effective and unwanted pregnancy is the result, women ought to have two easy options –– to either arrange for the baby to be adopted if they wish to carry the pregnancy to term, or to have the pregnancy terminated during the first trimester, before the fetus is viable.

Granted, not all those in the “Pro-Life” movement are self-righteous bigots and hypocrites. Some may be loving and caring, and I’m sure most truly believe they are doing the right thing. And they are right in one sense, because ideally abortion should not be necessary. And with proper use of safe and affordable birth control methods, and with adoption services more available and easy to utilize, it wouldn’t be.

Whatever the case, abortion should not be undertaken lightly. And it should only be in the first trimester during the first two or three months or pregnancy, unless it is absolutely necessary out of medical emergency. Furthermore, it should not be used by women (like some in India and China) who abort female fetuses just because they would prefer a male. That is a foolish, short-sighted practice that could have disastrous consequence for their whole society.

In the final analysis, the main issue here is a woman’s right to plan her family, and to choose and use whatever is currently available in God’s creation to prevent and avoid pregnancy if and when she chooses. And, if an unwanted pregnancy does occur, that right should extend naturally to using modern medical means to abort that pregnancy during the first trimester if she chooses. That should be a woman’s right and prerogative, and it should be her free choice.

To say otherwise would be to reduce a woman to the status of chattel and breeding stock. It would be telling her that her body is not her own, but the property of her father or husband or the state. It would be telling her that her body is meant solely to produce offspring, no matter what, even if and even when it would be against her wishes and against her will. It would be telling her that she has no rights and no choice in the matter. That is why the Christian Right is so wrong about this issue, just as it is wrong about so many other issues.

(Most of the above was quoted from the book, More Observations & Suggestions: The Followup to Real Prophecy Unveiled, by Joseph J. Adamson.)

Reposted from: http://reformationcomingsoon.bravehost.com/Abortion.html