Yesterday, I began what I hope will be a journey of thought as I hammer out some political convictions I've been mulling for several months. Be sure to read my post from yesterday before going further into this one...I figured I'd hit the biggest nail on the head right away today.
One of the most common reactions I get when I mention supporting Obama is "what about abortion?" Let me first start out by saying that this is certainly still a thought in formation and I welcome any and all thoughts and comments. Let me also start by assuring you that I firmly hate abortion and wish it were not even an option. However, having said that, I don't think it is the cut and dry issue that many people make it out to be.
Sure, Republicans are typically pro-life and use this strongly moral issue against their opponents to drum up support from the Christian community. But let me ask a question. Has the number of abortions decreased in the past 8 years of a Republican's presidency? What about the 12 years of Republican leadership in the 80s and 90s? My understanding is that the number of abortions is on the rise. What was done to address abortion recently when the Republicans had control of the White House, the Congress, and had a conservative Supreme Court for two years? So Republicans are pro-life. It seems to me that many Republicans use the abortion issue to get elected, but do little about it once they get in office. It's sort of like a trophy issue that collects dust on the shelf after its won.
To seriously address this issue, I think we really have to look at all the factors that affect abortion and not just protest for the overturn of Roe v. Wade (which in my mind will probably never happen). An article by Tony Campolo I read recently cited a study that said 200,000 abortions could be avoided every year if the government would provide contraception to low-income Medicaid families. Health care and minimum wage issues arise here as well. What does an 18 year old girl do when she finds out she is pregnant? She's working for a whopping $7.50/hr with no health care and no way of taking time off for prenatal appointments, and she can forget asking for 3 months of paid leave for after the baby is born. And then, what about child care? These are all things that I think we middle class Americans take for granted, and yet these are the factors that are pushing many women towards abortion.
I think that in order to truly fix the abortion issue, we have to provide support for people in this situation, not just make it illegal. I feel like the Republicans have by and large left the care of the poor and sick to "Bleeding Heart Liberals." Now do I think that we should use tax dollars to pay for these types of programs? I'm still divided on that issue, but I do believe that a lot of the problems we face in our world today (violence, crime, terrorism, abortion, etc) could be helped, if not fixed, by eradicating the horrific poverty that exists in our world.
If this topic interests you, check out the 95-10 Initiative. I haven't read that much about it, but the basic idea is to reduce 95% of the abortions in 10 years. I plan on reading more about it in the near future, but in the mean time, let me know what you think!
before you read any further...
If you're trying to find my photography site, click here for peterdavisphotography.com.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
what about abortion?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comments:
I hope I don't get too heated here, but I have an opposite point of view and would like to share some facts that I've learned in the past year or so regarding abortion.
First of all, World magazine had a great article on abortion, which shows that abortion rates have been steadily decreasing in the US since 1981. I couldn't find the World magazine article, but here are the statistics for another source: http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/
policy/abortion/graphusabrate.html
As far as Bush's actions on abortion, he has supported a ban on partial-birth abortion, has appointed strict constructionist judges to the supreme court, and has maintained laws to withhold government funding for abortions.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/
releases/2003/11/20031105-1.html
http://www.reproductiverights.org/
pub_fac_ggrbush.html
(this second article talks about Bush's actions on abortion funding from a very pro-abortion standpoint, which I don't agree with - but it does say that Bush has acted in an anti-abortion way in this instance)
With regard to having a pro-life stance in all matters, I would argue that the most criminal taking of a life is the taking of a completely innocent, helpless life. In addition, the number of deaths due to abortion in the US is about 1.2 million per year, or 3000 per day as you said. The number of abortions worldwide per day is 126,000 (46 million per year). http://www.abortiontv.com/Misc/
AbortionStatistics.htm
A total of 21 million people have died worldwide from AIDS and there are an additional 36 million people living with the disease. http://www.whitehouse.gov/onap/facts.html
Not only is AIDS a less significant issue numerically, but the deaths are less tragic in my mind because the lives can be extended for about 10 years with medication and because the spread of the disease can be stopped with abstinence and fidelity.
Similarly, the mother who is pregnant at 18 with no health care and a low-paying job has already made her choice to have sex. 95% of abortions are for birth control purposes, not because of rape or incest or health reasons. There are thousands of Americans who want to have babies and would be willing to adopt these children. Let's face the facts - these babies are being killed because it is inconvenient for the mother emotionally and/or physically to bear the child and endure labor.
Also, with regard to your supposition that Republicans are leaving the care of the poor and sick to "bleeding heart liberals", statistics actually show that conservatives give more to charitable organizations than liberals do. http://newsbusters.org/node/9323
In my mind, the difference between liberal and conservative thought regarding the poor is that liberals think it is the government's job to even out everyone's income. Conservatives think that such a "leveling of the playing field" will encourage laziness (as seen in failed socialist and communist countries) and that it will discourage competition, which drives us to better products and services. If the pay were the same to work at McDonald's or be an architect, who would spend the time and effort to educate themselves to do the architect's job?
Republicans give more personal money to charitable organizations because they feel it is the individual's responsibility to help the poor, not the government. The government is too beaurocratic and lacks the individual attention and love that can help the poor individual to better themselves and their situation.
On top of this, I would submit that the state of our poor in the US is fine living compared to the state of the poor in Africa.
I agree that there is no perfect candidate, and I agree that respect for life is a core issue that the perfect candidate would espouse with his whole mind, body, soul, and character.
As I said earlier, I feel the attitude towards abortion is the most key indicator of this value, since it is the naked destruction of innocent life and because it kills the highest number of people per annum worldwide. I cannot with good conscience support any candidate who seeks to increase government protection or support for abortion and infanticide (partial-birth abortion).
A few additional facts that I have learned about Obama are that he has a rating of 0 out of 100 from the National Right to Life Coalition and that he is rated the most liberal senator in the US Senate by National Journal magazine. This illustrates to me that he is not in any way a moderate candidate.
Post a Comment