Rant #832

On abortion, now or later

This entry started as a comment on Demi's blog on abortion over at Pilgrim's Progress. She wrote about how the conservatives/creationists act as though they are the only ones who are pro-life. And get back strain patting themselves for their high moral ground, I might add.

Anyway, my comments got too long to be "comments," so I copy clipped them onto my own blog and left a short comment at Pilgrim's Progress.

I am opposed to abortion. My own belief is that nothing happens -- sperm and egg can bump into each other all they want -- until God puts a spark of life there.

If we don't want to be responsible for this spark of life for the next 18-20 years, we should be using good birth control or abstinence.

How about making abortion largely unnecessary, with better education about, and availability of, birth control, for males as well as females, and more and better counseling and alternatives for women who find themselves pregnant in terrible situations.

Maybe the male members of the population should get birth control implants until they are at least 25, then get a license to procreate when men can demonstrate they're mature enough and willing enough to take care of the offspring they produce. Take that, Jerry Falwell. That's less imposition on a male than forced childbirth is on a girl. That would cut down both the childbirth rate and the abortion rate by leaps and bounds. Not to mention the number of fatherless children.

The anti Roe-Wade hysteria, anti-women's choice, it's about controlling women.

My heart goes out to a woman who is in a dilemma, and where the only alternatives to abortion might be terrifying. I'm thankful I've never been in that situation.

I saw a saying not long ago, "Rights don't end at birth." If the holier-than-thou conservatives were ready to help those children and their mothers, I might have more respect for their position.

Abortion is a crying shame, though. I hate it.

Do you know what I think the ultracon version of abortion is? Delayed abortion. Like the Iraqi war. Let 'em grow up, then kill 'em.

End of this diatribe. It started coming on when I saw Jerry Falwell on TV this morning, defending his position that God approves of war, and God really is a Republican, who appointed Bushie for the job, so now Bushie can do anything he wants, 'cause God loves Bushie and Bushie loves the religious right, and let's get rid of Roe v. Wade, etc. It left me feeling ill.

p.s. -- didn't Falwell ever read Isaiah 2:1-5? It tells us God's perfect will for the human race is for our swords to be beaten into plowshares, and that we not learn war any more.

The passage from Isaiah was the Old Testament reading in the Episcopal Church today.

"O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!"

Editor's note Dec. 2: for more on Folwell and his infamous comments, go to BlondeSense and read postings since Sunday (11/28/04).
And, thanks, Demi!