I didn’t watch Obama yesterday at Notre Dame. Didn’t listen to him. There was no way I was going to ruin my Sunday listening to a speech I could’ve writen every cliche of myself including “dialogue” and “working together to reduce the number of abortions.”
So, instead my children and I went to the library and then played on the swingset in the backyard. I wasn’t thinking much about it until a friend of mine called and asked what I thought of Obama’s speech. Now, mind you this friend is a very pro-choice liberal and was just calling to needle me.
He said I should’ve watched because the speech was really great and he thinks it would’ve changed my perception of Obama. I told him that I’m not concerned with what Obama says, it’s what he does that bothers me.
My friend assured me it was a “middle of the road” speech and I would’ve liked it because Obama talked about something we can all agree on and that is reducing unwanted pregnancies.
I was a little tired and instead of going into what that actually means, I decided on a different tactic. I asked a simple question. Why? Why do you and Obama want to reduce abortions?
My friend for a few moments stuttered and finally just said, “What do you mean, why?”
I mean, why is it so important for abortion to be so rare that it warrants the President of the United States talking about it? If the fetus in the womb is just a blobby little choice and not a child at all, what do we care if abortion happens a thousand times a day and twice that on Sundays.
Isn’t it up to the woman to do what she wants to do? If the creature in the womb is deemed not to be a baby by its “mother” who are we to question her and prefer that she not do it often. Isn’t it a legitimate choice? Why is one abortion cool but eight…not in good taste?
Isn’t the President forcing his morality on women by saying he wants to reduce abortion?
I mean, it’s not like abortion has some kind of medical risk associated with it, does it? If so, I haven’t read about it in the mainstream media?
My friend said I shouldn’t make fun because it’s a very difficult decision for women but all he was doing was refusing to answer. He hastily added that he thinks Obama really means that we have to watch out for the future implications of abortion. He said he read recently about gender based abortions and that we can all agree that is not a good idea.
Why, I laughed. You’re saying it’s not OK to kill based on gender a fetus that you’re willing to deny its very humanity? How can you worry about it’s male-ness or female-ness and not about its humanity?
My friend quickly retreated and asked about the NBA Playoffs. I let him because I could tell he was uncomfortable. I hoped that maybe I gave him something to think about. Probably not. But maybe.
But I think the question needs answering. Obama speaks endlessly about reducing unwanted pregnancies. He did so at Notre Dame:
“Let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions. Let’s reduce unintended pregnancies. Let’s make adoption more available. Let’s provide care and support for women who do carry their child to term.”
My question is why?
Much like Bill Clinton saying he wants abortion to be “safe, legal and rare” and essentially every pro-choicer picked up on it. My question is “why?”
So next time someone defends their pro-choice-ness and says we can all agree that we want to reduce abortions, just ask them why.
And don’t let them start talking about the NBA Playoffs like I did.
Update: Aggie Catholics have more on this very topic in their Notre Dame wrapup.
May 20, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Kit,
I am a mother of many, one of those “baby machines” you deride so mercilessly.
Never mind that most probably also would stipulate that being a mother or a father is one of the hardest and most important jobs in the world.
I would argue that Men must have a say in this debate, for they are also radically effected by abortion. It is their sons and daughters too, that are killed, and whom they cannot by law defend from a woman’s wrath. One year of a woman’s life is worth a lifetime, or countless lifetimes. That’s what your reasoning demands.
I’ve had nine children, including one with Downs Syndrome, and two children I lost in utero. I did not chose to be a baby machine, nor am I brainless about how the gift of sexuality works. It is precisely because I know that sex creates children, that I know abortion is wrong, EVEN IF, it is a hardship on the woman who decides to have sex.
Making a person a person simply because we wish it to be so is not possible. They always were humans, they were never a fish or a dog or a plant. They were only smaller. Each person starts at conception, this is scientific fact, not faith. Each person only becomes an adult by going through every state of being to get there without stopping, this is also scientific fact, not faith.
Denying a person to be a person because it is convenient to another, is what Hitler, Southern slave holders, and oppressive governments and people throughout history, have always done. 3/5 of a person, property, “Subhuman.” The retarded and the weak were thrown off cliffs by the Spartans to keep the people strong.
Law may allow you to make an immoral choice –in Nevada, women can degrade themselves for money. But having the legal “right” to do something, does not make it morally right, whatever someone’s feelings are about the issue. Law in its best form, is designed to help curb our human impulses to act on feeling alone, (fear, anger, despair, frustration, rage, unwillingness)when such acts would result in a grave injustice towards another. The unborn were once us.
May 28, 2009 at 6:01 am
Kit,
you said: An unwanted pregnancy IS a cancer
I say: No it isn’t… it is a blessing…even if it takes the mother years to figure it out.. nobody has ever come to the end of their life and regretted having a child.
you said: Pregnancy ruins a woman’s body, causes enormous financial hardship, and demands at the very least ten months’ commitment
I say: Say what… I got thinner and stronger after each child I gave birth to… financial hardship? Since when does sharing a life cause you to go without your basic human needs (in this country)? I have been poor, unemployed and raising multiple children on my own (not by choice) and I assure you, we had food, shelter, and clothing. In this country there are people and agencies and Churches more than willing to help with necessities… in fact, we ate better, my kids went to private schools, and we were constantly given clothing during that time. Demands 10 months…that is actually sad… it really is a lifetime of joys and sorrows, pain and worry, and overwhelming satisfaction and love.
you asked: Are any of you willing to give up a year of your life?
I answer: emphatically YES! Over and over again if it meant more children to love!
you said: I believe women are worth something in and of themselves, not just as baby machines to produce sons.
I say: Me too… but the greatest joy I have ever known is raising children. I am not a baby machine, I am a woman. I am even an educated woman, I have been so many things to so many people in my lifetime, military member, blue collar worker, executive director of a corporation, wife, mother, friend…and so on.. again, the most rewarding and the greatest of these titles is mom.
you asked: do you people have any idea what pregnancy is like?
I answer: Yes, I do! I have 3 living children, one die at birth, and 4 miscarriages at various stages of pregnancy. I think that qualifies me to know that I love being pregnant, I love giving birth, I grieved and I cried at the loss of life, and I would do it all again.
you say you want to reduce unwanted pregnancy and the suffering that goes along with it right? So if we know what causes pregnancy and we don’t want to be pregnant, we avoid the cause right? Isn’t that what you do with cancer, or illness? So if you don’t want a baby or the financial obligation it is easy… DON’T have sex right? Simple solution.. sex causes babies so avoid sex! OK.. So when you think about your choices and everybody’s rights… the only logical time to make the choice not to have a baby is when you decide to have sex or not, after you have a positive pregnancy test is too late. By the time you find out you are pregnant, your baby (or blob of cells) has his or her own unique DNA and by that measure makes them a unique individual. They also have a gender and heck, they even have a beating heart and blood by the time the woman has been in to see a doctor for the first time after the positive pregnancy test.
Kit, I know you have it in you to recognize the truth in all these comments from all these women here. Don’t be fooled by rhetoric about rights. The truth is that babies are babies, they are humans with rights too, not cancer or blobs. They are parasitic in that they need a womb to grow in.. but that is not to say that even out of the womb, after birth babies aren’t dependent on others to sustain life.. they are. So should infanticide be ok? As I see it, kids are dependent on others for support often well into their 20’s anymore… would it be ok to kill them then up to let’s say 24?