Found this article on The Daily Beast about the Stupak amendment. (you should read it before reading my post. it’s written by a doctor [a Christian!] whose views on abortion will make you think.)
My first inspiration for this post came from, what else, The Daily Show (which I recently heard described as “niche news for cynics”).
A montage of funny moments from healthcare debate on the House floor included one Republican defending the Stupak amendment. His argument is that tax payers who find abortion morally reprehensible should not have their tax dollars go toward insurance coverage of the procedure (though I’m fairly certain it’s already covered by MedicAid, legal medical procedure that it is).
I wonder, then, what about those of us who think war is morally reprehensible? Do we get a right to choose where our tax dollars go? (Cost of war in Iraq: $700 billion and counting.)
Talk about right to choose. Huh? Am I right?!
*rim shot*
In all seriousness, I understand the polarizing nature of this issue. If you think “life” (soul, etc) begin at conception, it changes things. Even as a pro-choice voter I think the issue’s complicated. I don’t think abortions should just be an easy fix and replace birth control, caution, and good ol’ fashioned virtue.
I’ve just come to think as I’ve grown up that if we’re going to talk about “right to life” there are far more important ways to go there than with unwanted pregnancies.
What about the 1 million people who die from malaria worldwide?
The 3.5 million people who die because they don’t have access to clean water?
Don’t these people have “right to life” too?
Why don’t we have more billboards or bumper stickers about poverty? health? sanitation?
I know my little blog isn’t going to convince anyone. (hell, I used to be a pro-life little kid, standing in “Life Chains,” holding posters where baby seals said “save the humans.” But I was a KID. No one had told me the myriad reasons—physical, financial, relational, social—why a woman might choose not to have a baby.)
My point: abortion is currently a legal medical procedure. All arguments of whether it should be aside, let’s all think twice before we make it difficult for those on government aid to afford one. Let’s ask ourselves, can these people afford to have a baby? Raise a baby? Nurture a baby? Educate a baby?
