In January, 1973, nearly 50 years ago, the US Supreme Court, in Roe vs Wade, ruled that women had the right to have an abortion; in other words, women are in charge of their own bodies. And almost immediately those who were opposed to abortion began a campaign to overturn Roe vs Wade; an effort that continues to this day.
Throughout history and even up to now, women have been oppressed, discriminated against and treated as less than equal to men. In past history, if a woman had a job, the husband could take her paycheck. Women did not get the ight to vote in the United States until after World War I. Women were not paid equal to men for doing the same job and some could argue that this still happens now. In some Islamic countries, women are no more than property of the father and their the husband. Women are to this day killed for “honor killings”; for dishonoring the family.
So, who are the anti-abortionists? Many of them are from the Christian Right and Republicans who count on their votes and of course the financial backing of the very rich. In states with a Republican governor and a Republican controlled congress, bills are constantly created and passed becoming law with the signing of the governor which most always happens. The most recent bill is the heartbeat bills and just recently two of them were overturned by the courts as being unconstitutional but this does not stop them from continuing to pass more and more of them. Some bills makes it very difficult if not impossible for abortion clinics to operate with the result that in several states just a handful or less clinics exist. For a person of humble means getting to a clinic is difficult. In one state a law required an invasive examination against the woman’s wishes before she could have an abortion. When it was pointed out that penetrating a person’s body against their wishes was rape, the law was repealed.
Deciding on abortion is a very difficult choice for a person to make. Fifty years ago two friends of mine were practicing the “rhythm method” of birth control. This is acceptable to the Catholic Church but not very effective–just look at the size of many Catholic families. So, she got pregnant and they had an abortion. After college they married and had two children and they married and had children. If hey did not have an abortion, their lives would have been completely different. Their children and grandchildren would have never been born and all the experiences of seeing their children and grandchildren grow up would have never happened. On the other hand the aborted embryo could have developed into a person and would be fifty years old with possibly children and grandchildren. So what is the answer? There is no good answer. But here is one idea. Wouldn’t it be better if we had easily and affordable (even free) access to birth control. Wouldn’t it be better to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Under the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) religious organizations did not want to include birth control in their health plan for employees and now the Supreme Court extended this to businesses (Hobby Lobby) whose owners opposed paying for employees to have birth control as part of their health care package. I don’t get it. They oppose abortion but oppose measures to prevent unwanted pregnancies. This makes no sense. Maybe you can figure this out; I can’t.
I will leave you with a quote from my favorite Republican, Alan Simpson, Senator, who has a lot of great quotes, but this is one about his view of abortion. “I consider abortion to be a deeply personal and intimate issue for women and I don’t believe male legislators should even vote on the issue.”
Ok, so what can we do about it? Support Planned Parenthood which provides reproductive care for people who are financially hurting. Very little of their money goes to abortion but Trump wants to de-fund Planned Parenthood as a favor for his base. Contact your state legislators and ask their view on birth control and abortion and maybe the morning after pill. If you don’t like their answer (if in fact they even give you an answer) tell them what your views are and tell them if they want your vote they need to consider your views. They know when someone contacts them, there are others who did not call or write who feel like you do. You can make a difference if you and others like you vote.
Book to read: The Coming Plague. It is old but talks about Ebola, Hunta Virus and others and how we are losing the battle against disease but what you can do about it yourself.
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. this is a novel about Lindbergh becoming president during the beginning of World War II and his friendship with Hitler. In many ways this is a wake up call about our present situation.
The Week Magazine has liberal and conservative editorials (remember the blog about liberal and conservative) The New York Times. Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, et al. It has humorous things like only in America and it must be true; I read it in the tabloids.