As a Christian, I am morally opposed to abortion; however, I also believe that the issue is a matter best
decided by the people involved, in contemplation of their own personal consciences and their own relationship
to God.
I believe that Christians should attempt to persuade others, GENTLY, but the use of force or usurption of
personal choice is wrong. One person should NEVER force the dictates of their own heart or beliefs on another.
Even with that said, I have always been highly suspicious of the motives of the so-called "Pro-Life" movement.
My suspicions were hatched when I discovered that they love to intervene in the private medical decisions of people
who have decided to go with one sort of treatment over another. My suspicions where further nourished when I
(in my former capacity as a state employee-) heard of a case where "pro-lifers" tried to prevent a husband from
getting cancer treatment for his pregnant wife.
My suspicions blossomed with the Shiavo case, where these strange and ininvolved persons attempted to immorally intervene in
the decisions of a husband over the fate of his own family.
I have always been suspicious that the "pro-lifers" had a bigger fish to fry; namely, an attempt to turn back the
clock and control the lives of individual women, no matter the cost to those women. Now I am sure.
I have just read a stunning book entitled "How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America," by Cristina Page
http://www.amazon.com/gp/sitbv3/reader/103-7634086-2818219?asin=0465054897&pageID=S01Y&checkSum=aznEmgVGaW4v0MV9GpZBKqFy/xIYklwJhLDG3ZRkW+s=I am so angry that I can barely write this post!
Here is an excerpt:
"Contraception, which for many is the era's most liberating technology, is to pro-lifers an evil just like abortion. In fact,
in the literature of the contemporary pro-life movement, often no distinction is made. The problem is that (favoring
birth control). . .means favoring the use of contraception, and, in effect, endorsing a way of life, and a view of sex, that
they oppose perhaps even more strongly than they oppose abortion. So wherease banning abortion gets the headlines, it's banning
contraception that is increasingly creeping into the pro-life agenda. To pro-lifers, they are, in fact two avenues to accomplish
one thing: end the lifestyle in which people have sex just for pleasure."
Pro-lifers should rightly favor any steps taken to PREVENT unplanned pregnancies, but in fact, they don't. It seems that large numbers of them actually believe that sex is only for procreation and that no one, married or single, should be having sex unless
it is solely for the purpose of having children. They actually belive that the ability to plan families has resulted in three
generations of women who are too "uppity" to "need men". They believe that it is wrong for women to want to do anything with their
lives other than reproduce. They actually believe that women should be seen and not heard and that the best place for a woman is
to be trapped in a home under control of a man, "barefoot and pregnant." They believe that women with unwanted pregancies should
be forced produce children for adoption (if they are white, due to the current shortage of white adoptable infants).
This sounds like some horror from "A Handmaids Tale, but it is true. If I hadn't read the proof, I would never have believed that anyone could favor such a medieval position, but this is true.
This is the reason why so many pharmacists and others are now refusing to
fill script for birth control. They believe that the only function of women on this earth is to have children, and that any
woman who refuses, questions or disputes this function must be "Chastised" and "led to see the error of her ways." Indeed,
pro-lifers believe that women who do not want to be "baby factories" are sick persons who deny their own nature.
No such allegations are made against men who don't want to be fathers. Oddly enough, "pro-lifers" favor the irresponsible use
of Viagra. No problem. They believe very strongly that the government and insurance companies should and MUST pay for Viagra,
but that the same entites should NEVER pay for any type of female birth control. Men should never be punished for being sexual, but women MUST be. All of the calumny is heaped on the heads of women.
In her book, Ms. Page fully exposes this ideology and rips the mask off of "pro-lifers" who claim to have womens' best interest
at heart, while in reality supporting a program that has contempt for women and their lives and medical realities. Science has been
abandoned while all birth control methods have been declared "abortifacient," and against the "intended purpose" of intercourse, which
is to have as many children as possible, whether or not one can take care of those children. "Pro-lifers have even attacked the
recent discovery of vaccines against the Human Papilloma Virus in the belief that without this additional "scare" young women
will have greater sexual freedom. Imagine this! Being actually against a cure for Cervical Cancer because someone, somewhere
might be having sex!
Ms. Page effectively uncovers the real purpose of the "Pro-life" groups, which is to end all sex for pleasure, especially where
women are concerned. "Pro-lifers" are against sex and the sex lives that the majority of Americans enjoy. She further examines the consequences should radical right-wingers succeed and the effects on other rights that we now enjoy, such as the right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures (4th Amendment) and the right to privacy and bodily integrity (9th Amendment). Her description of what life would be like under the "governance" of the wingnuts should Roe be repealed is horrifying.
I recommend this book for ALL thinking Americans. It will make you angry but it will make you think. This book makes it exceedingly clear that now, more than ever, we need to get the current Congress turned around and the current administration OUT OF OFFICE. Our individual rights are at stake.
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