The lucky gals in Minnesota got a special break from the state legislature last week. Now both they and Arkansan women will be offered anesthesia for their fetuses if they elect to have an abortion after 20 weeks gestation.
Nobody objected, once they removed the part about it being a felony for a doctor to fail to tell a woman that the fetus she was aborting could feel pain. Bad move. This is how we got into the mess we have now in so many other sectors of our society.
It affects a very few abortions, so it should be okay. Wrong. In the grand neo-con tradition of turning a given inch into a taken mile, the righteous wrong have gotten their collective foot in the door. They will continue to nibble, pick and scratch at women’s right to choose, until they have gotten rid of it completely.
It is not that I like abortion. Nobody thinks abortion is an ideal answer for anything. But in their crusade to mind everyone’s business but their own, the Right-to-Lifers have found a way to inflict some more anguish on a woman when she is already up to her eyeballs in the stuff. There’s some real compassionate conservatism.
“We do want people to know that these are unborn children, and they can feel pain,” says Jackie Moen, of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life. Someone should let Ms. Moen in on the secret: most women having abortions are feeling plenty of pain already. The fetal pain law only adds insult to injury.
The Unborn Child Pain Prevention Act is part of a larger law, the Women’s Right to Know Law. True to neo-con methods, this law is mis-named. Truth in advertising would require it to be called something like the “Our Right to Tell You Law.”
Those who do not think a woman should have the right to choose have never had to choose themselves.
The righteous wrong spend untold hours picketing family planning clinics and harassing women who come for check-ups, when they could be using their time and energies for preventing unwanted pregnancy. Not only do they not support women in what is probably the hardest decision of their lives, they will not even support women trying to keep themselves from getting into that spot. Sadly, women will continue to choose after abortion is outlawed completely, but it will kill a lot more of them than it does today.
© 2005
Good post. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI can't think of a single woman I know, including myself, that hasn't at some point had an abortion. Yes, truly. It's the Great Taboo. We've all been there and done that, and if ALL our souls burn in hell then that's tough. Somehow I don't think so.
:-) Happy blogging, from one guilt-free 'heratic' (it means 'freedom to choose', in Greek)..
the abortion problem is sticky.
ReplyDeletei had a friend in galveston who was a fervent pro-choice advocate. she
used to invade the picket lines outside of planned parenthood and tell
the people that they ought to be adopting unwanted children instead of
wasting their time walking around.
she practiced what she preached. she and her husband adopted two non- white hard-to-place children. . . if the pro-lifers are going to keep these unwanted children alive, they
should put in motion some way to care for them. notice that they don't
do that at all!!!
I once saw a site that included many tales from abortion clinic nurses and doctors who treated many pro-lifers, showing the true hypocrisy some of these people have. Even while getting their own fetuses aborted they railed against the doctors and the procedure that they were willingly choosing.
ReplyDeleteShows their true colors, I think.
Nice post.
I 2.nd. 3rd. or whatever number that.
ReplyDeleteKen Grandlund: I think the site you are refering to is http://abortionclinicdays.blogspot.com . It is well worth reading.
ReplyDeleteI personally do not want the government or anyone telling me what I should do with my body should I choose to have an abortion. I feel its a personal choice. I do however think that a person under 18 should have parental consent, and if they dont have parental consent they should not be allowed to have an abortion. As a parent its my job to care for the kid. Granted, there is the arguement that many kids dont have a parent to trust, well in that curcumstance thats too bad, but I do NOT want my kid to be able to walk into just anywhere and get an abortion..
Keep abortion legal so that we have the choice. It means being able to have the procedure in a safe environement instead of a backroom somewhere. (what would happen if made illegal (sp?) in the usa)