A Pyro Plays With Fire...
So, this isn't what I intended for my next post, but I just spent valuable homework time savagely typing this out on Facebook, because a kid I used to know decided to challenge me to a debate on the topic of abortion. I've been questioned a lot recently about why I seem so obsessed with politics, and why I'm suddenly so active in the pro-choice arena. While this musing does make clear my opinion on much of the controversy surrounding choice, it doesn't fully encompass my reasons for being so active and vocal in the movement. My response in regards to that is, however, in the works. Along with many other things. Be forwarned, this is a very candid response to a very candid debate started by somebody I know personally, and it is very candidly uncensored. This is not in any way representative of how I engage with those with opposing views in public or on a professional level, if I engage with them at all.
Enjoy:
Anne X wonders if anybody else thinks it's a little Animal Farm-ish that Republicans are willing to give legal rights and protection to an unborn fetus, but not an undocumented immigrant.
Ok, first off, when I refer to the cheeseburger, I'm referring to the people who are against using the birth control pill which can prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg - something some people consider an abortion. I'm sorry, but an egg is not a human. That cow you're eating has more "person-hood" than a cluster of cells the size of my eyelash.
Second off, of course abortion is "distasteful" as you put it. It's not like women get together during a slumber party and are all, "Like, OMG, I totally wanna have an abortion tomorrow!" "Lol, Jenny! That's soo cool. I wanna have one too!" "Yeah, me too, coz like, babies suck and stuff and it'd totally ruin my cheerleading scholarship!" It's always framed like it's some drunken P&L slut who got knocked up and doesn't wanna forgoe Saturday night drinking binges to raise a kid. Truth is, those girls usually keep the baby anyway.
Abortion is what happens when you can't afford to raise a child because you just lost your job and have to pay health insurance out of pocket for your other child, when daddy skips town and leaves you alone while prego, when uncle joe diddles you when you're thirteen years old, when your boyfriend rapes you on Valentines day, when the CONDOM breaks, when the birth control fails, when the baby isn't going to live more than an hour and is going to suffer, when the mother's life is at risk.
As for your passive agressive reference to "socialist entitlement", it's not about entitlement. It's usually about helping people get a footing. Shit happens. You get pregnant and are forced to (or say, for the sake of argument, that you even chose to) give birth after your husband dies in a car accident with no life insurance. Boom, you don't have a car, you have to take a bus to work. An extra half hour there, and back. That's more time away from your kids. Plus, you have to pay child care costs. Funeral costs. Prenatal costs. Food and housing the kids you already have. Maybe you didn't have a job before hubby died. Maybe you lost it afterwards. Now you have health insurance to pay out of pocket too. Maybe you helped pay to get him through school so you could be a stay at home mother and raise his kids. SO there you are. You just lost a husband. You're pregnant, carless, already have kids to feed, no income, no degree- and you're going to sit there and tell me it's about ENTITLEMENT? No, I doubt that woman's sitting at her kitchen table saying , "Gee, how can I be lazy and still get paid?" She's probably sitting there thinking, "Oh fuck. My children just lost their father, and are relying on me to provide for them. What am I going to do now?" It's about looking out for each other if and when shit happens. I'm of the opinion that that's what Americans do. NO, I don't believe we should rely on the government to bail us out of every stupid decision we make as individuals or as companies (see recent auto/banking/housing crisis) I believe in ACCOUNTABILITY. But I do believe it has an obligation to protect it's people and work to keep them above the poverty line. If you have alot, give alot. If you have a little, give a little. Isn't that what most religions teach?
And yeah, sure, people abuse the system. But don't even TRY to tell me that the bailout wasn't abuse of the system. You want to talk about entitlement? Who's that asshole up on Wallstreet sitting on a gold toilet after driving his company into the ground and walking away with a few million bones in taxpayers money? Or our lovely congressmen who are "entitled" to tax-payer funded health care while people die daily due to being turned down for pre-existing conditions. You wanna talk about socialism buddy? Let's go....
And it's not as easy as "not doing it." Or even as easy as using even using contraception. Why? Because alot of people don't know how to USE contraception, or don't know what kind of contraception is available, or how to get it, or are prevented from having their legitimate prescription filled because their pharmacist is morally opposed to it. Condoms break. And you know what. Kids are having sex. I don't mean to let the cat out of the bag guys, but they are. I see them do it on 90210 all the time. They were hooking up back on Dawson's Creek some five to ten years ago. Sex is out there, and it's GONNA GET YOU! (eek!) So why doesn't Missouri teach sex ed in public schools? Here ya go kids, don't have sex. Also, instead of brushing your teeth to avoid cavities, just don't eat anything with sugar in it.
I have a friend from back when who had an abortion when she was 18 after getting pregnant by her abusive boyfriend at the time. She gave birth to a son about a year ago. She's 25 now. Single, but in a better situation. She wasn't ready to have a kid before then, and now she is. So yeah, there's a potential child that was never brought into the world. But if she hadn't had that abortion, she wouldn't have the son she has now. If we're just going off of potential lives here, which potential child gets to be born?
Being able to choose to give life to something is huge. Like, HUGE. You don't have ovaries so you're not going to quite understand this, but imagine being forced to shove a baseball out of the tip of your lil penis. Imagine accidentally getting pregnant, despite taking measures to avoid it, and having to drop out of law school your second year, after you're already some hundred thousand dollars in debt, with no degree, after you've worked your ass off to get into that school and get that degree, so that you can be the incubator for a fetus which is probably smaller than your pinky fingernail when you first find out that the morning after pill it took you three days to get ahold of didn't work. Then what? Oh yeah. Easy choice.
I'm not saying in any of these situations that abortion is the choice I would make. I don't think it is. I, personally, don't think I have the moral capability that would allow me to have an abortion. Maybe I do. I won't know unless I ever end up in a situation where I'd contemplate having one. But I do know that knowing I have an option would allow me to look at the situation with a bit more clarity, and a lot less fear, panic, and resentment so that I know that I've made a conscious decision to have a child, that I MADE THAT CHOICE. If every single child knew that their parent had a choice in bringing them into the world, if no child ever had to lay in bed at night wondering if their mother would have rather aborted them, if no child ever ended up in the system because rather than the mother surrendering "responsibility" before that baby came to be, she instead surrendered responsibility when the child is able to fully comprehend that their life wasn't intended, just imagine.
I don't think I want to live in the world you want to live in.
If you want to read a good argument for pro-choice from another male's perspective, I suggest checking out this article.
http://civilliberty.about.
Anne X
Yes, TJ, because land ownership is decided by the divine creator, not governments and legislation. The "right" to "be" anywhere is hypocritical. We have no "right" to be occupying land in the middle east, (which caused 9/11, and the deaths of far too many civilians and soldiers overseas), or anywhere else for that matter.
In regards to immigration: I'm not saying let everyone in, I'm saying they're people too and should be treated with respect and dignity, not like Mexico's pollution.