A little unclear on the concept
posted in Issues |Today, the 34th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, is "Blogging for Choice" day.
Since it’s the 34th anniversary, we also were treated to a local newspaper’s OpEd from a community member who is against "forced abortions".
Well, whoop-de-do. Guess what? So am I!
This OpEd writer, in her discussion, decided to write up five murders where guys killed their pregnant girlfriends because they wouldn’t get an abortion.
I felt a certain amount of cognitive dissonance in that litany of brutality.
Because, y’see, murder isn’t choice. And "pro-choice" means–of all outre notions–that the woman who is pregnant gets to choose whether she stays pregnant or not. Legally. The last I heard, murdering someone so that you get out of child-support payments for an unborn baby isn’t an abortion, nor was it legal. The last I heard, murdering someone for any reason was pretty much illegal. In other words, I found this lady’s arguments to be…somewhat irrelevant to the question of the legality or lack thereof of abortions.
I’ve never had an abortion; I certainly don’t expect to need one in the future. But I have a dotter, and that dotter might find herself unexpectedly pregnant at a time when she’s not ready to be. I don’t want her to have to drive five hundred miles to be able to get an abortion–legally. I don’t want her to have to go to a backstreet doc to do it–illegally. I don’t want to make her have an abortion, nor do I want to make her carry a child to term. Because it won’t be my body, it won’t be my life–it’ll be hers.
I want her to be able to do it without some prurient conservatives saying that the only way she can get one is if she is a pure virgin set upon and raped.
I want her to be able to sit down, think it through, talk it over with boyfriend, friends, and–maybe–family, and decide–on her own–what she wants to do with her life, her future, her possible child.
And that’s why I’ll keep supporting choice.
Check out other bloggers who have "blogged for choice".
