manchicken here…

So many people very close to me–who I do call and love as family–are buying into a lot of this Republican nonsense of Roe-v-Wade, and what it means, and what their choice candidate John McCain and his talking heads say about it.  John McCain most recently stated–in contradiction to his previous statements–that Roe versus Wade was a nasty case of judges legislating from the bench.  This is a popular phrase in many conservative circles, as it demonizes “liberal judges” as having in some way usurped the power of lawmaking from the legislative branch.  My friends, this is a lie and a hoax.

Many people believe that the Roe-v-Wade decision is about abortion itself, but it’s surprising to most that it has just as much to do with privacy as it does with abortion.  The decision actually doesn’t address the question of whether or not abortion is legal at all.  The case has nothing to do with where life begins.  This case only addresses one thing: does a woman have a right to privacy in medical matters.

The court asserts–and I have seen some good arguments against this thinking–that until the baby is born it is not a citizen according to the constitution, so the mother’s rights trump any possible unborn child’s life.  I see a much bigger problem here though than who is and isn’t a citizen… I don’t think that it’s possible to have a law that forbids abortion without infringing on the freedom and privacy of those who aren’t having abortions.

Think about it… how does the State find out who is and isn’t having abortions if the patient and the doctor aren’t saying anything?  And how do you prosecute a case of abortion without forcing the woman or the doctor to break privilege?  I don’t think it can be done.  I think without Roe-v-Wade and other comparable legislation we would have a hard time keeping the government out of the decisions and discussions that we have with our doctors.

All of that aside, I am constantly frustrated by those who vote based on the abortion issue.  I know lots of people who stubbornly vote abortion as if it were the only issue.  I understand that many Christians–myself included–have problems with abortion.  I agree with many in seeing that it’s murder, but I believe privacy is a huge issue here.  Prosecuting possible murder–which I still don’t know whether or not it could be prosecuted as murder with laws currently on the books–could result in profound and far-reaching violations of privacy for tens of millions of Americans.  But even with all of that aside, I think abortion is the lesser of Christian causes on the ballot today.

I think that by time you get to the abortion question, you’re already too late.  I think that it’s great that Sarah Palin’s daughter is going to have the baby… but I think that Sarah Palin, her daughter, and society in general failed long before the question of whether to keep the baby–I suspect it was a short decision process for them, as it would be for me–came up.  I see the problem here as not enough teens being responsible with their bodies, and not enough parental involvement in the life of their kids.

I have a son who is near eight months, and while I’d love for him to wait until he’s married to get physical, I want my kid to understand that the decision to wait or go forward is his to decide, not mine.  And in order for him to make a wise decision I want to make sure my kid is educated.  I want him to know about sex, about bodies, about contraceptives, about STDs, about protecting himself, and I want to teach my kid what his sexual responsibilities are.  I want him to understand that it’s up to him to protect himself, it’s up to him to protect his partner.  It’s up to him to support any child that may come from his endeavors, and that regardless of any mistakes he may or may not have made, his mother and I only want what’s best for him.  I see a comprehensive sex education plan as a more important than laws forbidding abortion.

I also see healthcare as a crucial part in stopping abortion the right way.  I can’t help but wonder how many abortions happen because mothers cannot afford the healthcare involved, and don’t have access to the resources necessary to raise a child.  I’m not talking about super-poor women here, either.  WIC and other state programs nationwide help low-income mothers quite effectively.  I’m talking about women who don’t qualify for WIC or state programs.  For these women the realization that they may have to bear the full burden of having the baby may push them towards a decision to abort.

Then the final issue here is of genetics.  I hear many stories–not sure how true many of them are–about parents choosing to terminate pregnancies due to detected birth defects and abnormalities.  This is a grave concern to me, but I think it’s a decision that would be hard for me even in this case.  I don’t think there’s a simple solution to this case–or any of the other cases–but I do think that if we had more resources for parents, and resources for special needs children and parents of special needs children we’d see a whole lot less of this.

John McCain wants to solve the symptom of this problem, abortion.  I want to solve the causes of this problem, and so does Barack Obama.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 23:48 and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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