Abortion’s Many Aspects
There are two sides to the coin. That adage is normally followed with, you are considering only one side.
Limiting the discussion to only one side is definitely true in the raging debate to defund Planned Parenthood. Looking at that one side is particularly frustrating in this case because the abortion coin is four-sided.
Abortion involves a mother, a father, a fetus in the womb, and a new born outside the womb. Pro-lifers are concerned only with the fetus. Or that is the only face they discuss. There seems to be no concern for the mother, father, or life outside the womb.
Consider, for example, a girl who has been the victim of long term incestuous abuse. At age 14 she becomes pregnant at the hands of a father, step-father, or brother.
Avid pro-lifers simply say, “Sorry, young lady. You will just have to give up your teenage years and become a mother to that life inside of you.” There seems to be no concern for the mother, father, or circumstances of the fetus when it becomes a boy or girl outside the womb.
Should the father be sent off to prison so there will be no father figure around? Or should he be required to provide one half of his earnings to support the child? What about the life of the child in that environment?
Then consider a university freshman who goes to a party, is gang raped, and becomes pregnant. (Yes, contrary to that idiotic statement of a Republican candidate for the Senate, rape can result in pregnancy.)
All four sides of the pregnancy/abortion coin discussed in relation to incest apply here.
What about a family with five kids barely scraping by on the meager salary of an unskilled father who loses his job. The only diversion from the now dire circumstances of the family that the parents can afford is a little loving, tender relation in bed. Then there is an accident. The prophylactic breaks and number six child is on the way.
What kind of life will that child be born into? What will be its quality of life or that of its siblings and parents?
This list of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies could go on and on. They do not result from a female knowingly, willingly, or negligently saying, “Hey! Let’s have a baby.”
So here’s the perspective.
Pro-life is the worst misnomer in today’s lexicon. The only “life” these agitators are interested in is what exists in a womb.
What happens to a newborn seems of no concern.
Will he be born with physical and mental problems from being incubated in the womb of a drug or alcohol addicted mother? How will he be reared by such a mother?
Where and who is the father? Will the baby girl be raised in poverty in a one parent family?
Without answering any of the myriad of questions like these, Republicans in Congress are threatening to shut down the government if Planned Parenthood is not defunded.
The Congressmen and their supporters are trying to blame the shutdown on the disclosure that some of the fetuses aborted in Planned Parenthood are being sold for medical research. Imagine that, an aborted fetus that would normally have been thrown in an incinerator is going to be used for medical research instead. Shame! Shame!
Actually, there is some shame here. This shame, however, is on pro-lifers and the Congressmen who try to use research as an excuse to ban all abortions.
When so called pro-lifers begin using their real name, begin opposing capital punishment under which many innocent adults have been killed by the state, offer understanding and help to the affected mothers and fathers, and establish organizations that guarantee immediate adoption of unwanted babies (regardless of physical and mental condition) by solid, respectable families, I might join the cause.
Until then, be honest. Call yourselves what you really are: anti-abortionists and return to the days of coat hanger abortions in back alleys.
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