Re: Nice Planet 5: Insert Catchy Title Here
I think we all agreed that most people think somewhere in the middle of the two extreme positions that you and I laid out.....
To me that would mean that there is nobody out there thinking "gee I sure hope there are a bunch of unwanted pregnancies this week so there will be lots of women having aboritions".
I would like to know as well... but it is interesting that both of the last two VP candidates that the Republican's offered us had this position...
Hmm... wasn't it really a Republican talk show host who turned her into a national figure by saying only a "slut" would want birth control (or something to that effect)?
As a result, this 30 year old co-ed, who could afford 64K tuition at Georgetown Law, but not the trifling amount for generic birth control pills, was elevated into the avatar of the "war on women." And she's still out there. Now referred to obsequiously as a women's health advocate (or some such shiza).
This comforting boiler plate about "nobody is pro abortion" is wearing a little thin, primarily because it's so illogical. Since abortion is generally legal, there would be no need for demonstrations in favor of abortion. However, how would you classify the people who show up outside of any state legislature considering any measure which would move the line on when abortions can be performed? Pro abortion?
IMHO, our culture has been coarsened and degraded, in part because of this issue. And pro abortion types have armed themselves with a quiver full of arrows that defend their position. But do nothing to help our society. They argue, correctly, that anti-abortion types don't offer much in the way of help for babies once they're born. I believe it was Don Lemon who said the other day (paraphrasing): "A black baby born out of wedlock has a one way ticket to prison." To me the answer is to try to reduce these unwanted pregnancies and for young men to hold off on starting families 'till they're married (this problem is acute among African Americans).
As the son of a surgeon, I have no use for social conservatives arguing against sex-ed because "it will make the kids think about having sex." Well, the boys (at least) are thinking about it all the time and watching Miss Plimsol put a condom on a banana isn't going to make them think about it any more. We live in a sex saturated society. I'm not arguing for a return to the '50's (even if it were possible) but we need to be able to send apparently conflicting messages: you should hold off on having sex, but if you can't, use a condom. I think we've developed attitudes which don't value life (and I'm not talking about fetuses) as much as we used to. We have tough moral questions to answer. In medicine, in far too many cases, we're not extending life, we're prolonging death. These are assuredly not easy questions to answer. The Terry Schiavo case raised these questions. And the only definitive conclusion we can draw from that cluster bleep is that we don't want politicians involved in these matters.
Candidly, I also find the terms "pro-abortion" and "anti-abortion" irritating to both sides, which is part of why I use them. Clearly they are accurate. Only in America could you have a knock down drag out culture war with both sides claiming to be "pro". The issue is abortion. Nothing else.
