I've decided that with all of the animosity between different groups in our country (Republicans vs. Democrats, Conservatives vs. Liberals, Tea Party vs. OFA, etc) it is time to try to find out if we are really as far apart as the noise would make it appear.
Since all of us share the common background of being Americans and probably believe in pretty similar Core Values (Democracy, Freedom, Independence) it doesn't make sense to me that we can all read or hear about something and come away with such different interpretations. I thik some of it is caused by marketing from one side or the other and some of it is caused by us not collectively taking the time to read for ourselves what is going on and then making a decision about how we feel about it.
I'll give you the most current example. It will be the subject of a series of blogs later. Health Care Reform. Now, I have friends, people I like, who I get along with, who have similar backgrounds to me but who have a view of HCR that is 180 degrees from mine. So, I ask myself, if we are all intelligent people and we all read the same information and we all come from similar backgrounds, how do we come up with such different readings of the same bill? I think the answer is that either we all have not read it or we are all interpreting it differently. So, what I want this blog to do is to be a place where people can offer comments either based on facts, opinions or gut feelings so we can all understand each other's perspective to see if there is a common ground that we just have not found yet.
The reason I can this the A-Z Blog is because I am going to try to go through the alphabet of issues that we face to see if this process can help me understand the issues from different perspectives and maybe help someone else do the same. One thing I know - if this country cannot get past the hate and mistrust caused by being split 50-50 on virtually every issue, if we can't find a way to work together to solve these issues in a way that we can support as a majority, then our country is going to start down the slippery slope to become irrelevant to the world. If we are unable to agree on how to run our country then we surely cannot tell the world how to solve the probelms that effect us all.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
A: Abortion Rights
I might as well jump in with a big one! Abortion Rights has been a flashpoint in our country for so long that I cannot remeber a time when were not discussing this issue.
Here are the two extremes as far as I can tell:
1. A woman has the absolute right, without restriction, to choose what happens with her body. That includes the right to availability of safe abortion procedures on demand.
2. Life begins at conception and the act of abortion is no different than commiting a murder and should be illegal and banned.
People on both sides of this issue have lots to say on the subject. For example, some people in favor of unrestricted abortion rights beleive that any attempt to deny those rights is a ploy by men to keep women subjugated by reproduction. It means that poor women who cannot afford an abortion continue to live in poverty and it promotes child abuse of unwanted children. They may also say it is an effort by the Christian Right to impose their morality on us all.
The other side says that if you don't want the responsibility of dealing with a pregnancy, don't engage in the act that creates the responsibility. They also say that by killing an unwanted fetus we may be ending the life of a person who could be the one that cures cancer or finds the path to world peace.
Now, I'm not even talking about funding and whether or not tax dollars should be used to pay for the procedure. Just whether or not the procedure should be available. So what is the middle ground here?
Thankfully, this is not a choice that I will ever have to make. Honestly, I don't know how a woman does it. Not the actual abortion, but the thought process they must go through to even decide. I'm not sure I am satisfied that abortion is a "right" but I know that I am not satisfied with the alternatives our society offers to women.
For example, instead of telling men and women to abstain from sex, why not provide more education and access to birth control devices that might reduce the number of these unwanted pregnancies in the first place? For our children who are engaging in sex at an earlier age than ever (I was talking to a middle school teacher friend just recently and found out that over Spring break a number of the 8th grade girls decided to have sex for the first time) we need to make sure that there is more supervision by parents to not give them the opportunity to experiment with something that might impact their lives forever.
If, despite our best efforts, an unwanted pregnancy occurs, we need to, as a society, offer support to this soon to be mother so that she recieves the best pre-natel care and then help with the adoption process so that the mother knows that her baby will be taken care of if she carries it to term. If we are unwilling to do this, then as a society we cannot say with any moral standing that an abortion is not an option.
I think, and I hope that some women will respond, if as a society we provided the eduction and preventive support and if we provided the pre-natel care and adoption support, then abortion would become a much less utilized procedure. I think it should still be available to those who are unable to have a satisfactory result from the alternatives, but if by providing these capabilities we can reduce the number of abortions don't we all win?
My guess is that in the long run, this type of support will cost society less than either the continuation of abortions at current levels or the banning of abortion with the resulting increase in children who are unwanted or abused, and the mothers and families that struggle financially to deal with a decision made by others and imposed on them.
What do you think?
Here are the two extremes as far as I can tell:
1. A woman has the absolute right, without restriction, to choose what happens with her body. That includes the right to availability of safe abortion procedures on demand.
2. Life begins at conception and the act of abortion is no different than commiting a murder and should be illegal and banned.
People on both sides of this issue have lots to say on the subject. For example, some people in favor of unrestricted abortion rights beleive that any attempt to deny those rights is a ploy by men to keep women subjugated by reproduction. It means that poor women who cannot afford an abortion continue to live in poverty and it promotes child abuse of unwanted children. They may also say it is an effort by the Christian Right to impose their morality on us all.
The other side says that if you don't want the responsibility of dealing with a pregnancy, don't engage in the act that creates the responsibility. They also say that by killing an unwanted fetus we may be ending the life of a person who could be the one that cures cancer or finds the path to world peace.
Now, I'm not even talking about funding and whether or not tax dollars should be used to pay for the procedure. Just whether or not the procedure should be available. So what is the middle ground here?
Thankfully, this is not a choice that I will ever have to make. Honestly, I don't know how a woman does it. Not the actual abortion, but the thought process they must go through to even decide. I'm not sure I am satisfied that abortion is a "right" but I know that I am not satisfied with the alternatives our society offers to women.
For example, instead of telling men and women to abstain from sex, why not provide more education and access to birth control devices that might reduce the number of these unwanted pregnancies in the first place? For our children who are engaging in sex at an earlier age than ever (I was talking to a middle school teacher friend just recently and found out that over Spring break a number of the 8th grade girls decided to have sex for the first time) we need to make sure that there is more supervision by parents to not give them the opportunity to experiment with something that might impact their lives forever.
If, despite our best efforts, an unwanted pregnancy occurs, we need to, as a society, offer support to this soon to be mother so that she recieves the best pre-natel care and then help with the adoption process so that the mother knows that her baby will be taken care of if she carries it to term. If we are unwilling to do this, then as a society we cannot say with any moral standing that an abortion is not an option.
I think, and I hope that some women will respond, if as a society we provided the eduction and preventive support and if we provided the pre-natel care and adoption support, then abortion would become a much less utilized procedure. I think it should still be available to those who are unable to have a satisfactory result from the alternatives, but if by providing these capabilities we can reduce the number of abortions don't we all win?
My guess is that in the long run, this type of support will cost society less than either the continuation of abortions at current levels or the banning of abortion with the resulting increase in children who are unwanted or abused, and the mothers and families that struggle financially to deal with a decision made by others and imposed on them.
What do you think?
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