Educating ourselves

With all the news about South Dakota and the current legislation before the Supreme Court, I thought it high-time to write about the subject we're all not not talking about: abortion.

Pro-abortion lobbyists were quick to put forward how devastating it would be for a woman to have to give birth to the child of her rapist or incestuous family member and how that rapist or incestuous family member would be able to claim custody rights. The extreme singularity of this situation aside, my immediate reaction was: "couldn't we simply outlaw rapists and incestuous family members from claiming custody?" As an afterthought, I asked myself, "Isn't the doctor performing the abortion basically raping the woman for a second time?"

But then I revisited the thought that rape/incest is such an extremely extremely EXTREME case. And represents a statistically marginal reason for why women have abortions. Because of that extremity, I'm sure judges and lawmakers would exercise good old fashioned common sense when it came to creating laws that would account for those situations, which cause untold pain for women and should therefore be handled with the utmost care and sensitivity (not in bloody legal battles and not as buzzwords for lobbyists).

But the point remains that most women choose abortion because they find pregnancy inconvenient, usually for monetary or boyfriend/husband/father issues. As a feminist for Life, I see two solutions to that problem, and neither of them entail abortion. First, we should legislate incentives and protections for women facing unplanned pregnancy. Second, we should raise men with backbones and character who respect the dignity and vocation of women. In doing so, we will empower women to make choices freely and not at the cost of human lives.

Sadly, legalized abortion is costly to many human lives, including the mother's (and the human family). Consider this exceptional article written by Erika Bachiochi, "How Abortion Hurts Women: the Hard Proof". Erika also maintains her own website.