Letters to the Editor
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For the anti-South people:
I'm really happy that America didn't just say "screw the South" during the Civil Rights Movement. Where would we be now? So now it's okay to abandon poor women and their children just because in some of your opinions the South sucks?
Like it or not, until further notice by the Bush regime, the United States of America is still one country, and what happens to the least of us affects all of us. And please do not believe that the kinds of tactics used in Mississippi and South Dakota cannot touch abortion rights in your "safe" blue state. This is a war for women's independence, and it IS being waged nation-wide. Either fight for all women or get out of the way.
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Pro-lifers
I get sick of hearing gestation talked about as if it's no sweat off the mother's back. These proclamations that "only time" separates a fetus from fully realized humanity completely negates the woman's contribution, her sacrifice, to the process. The assertion that a fetus, if just "left alone," will reach personhood erases the mother's very real, sometimes tortuous, experience of hosting and expelling, in the case of a thwarted abortion, an unwanted creature.
I especially get tired of hearing such sentiment from men, who will never find themselves in the position of allowing a fetus the "time" to do anything to their bodies. It's fantastic that men like to imagine what selfless martyrs they'd be if they had had the misfortune of being born into a female body (though, of course, since they're male, selflessness and concern for their offspring aren't required), it really is. But when real, live women, some of whom have actually given birth and raised children, declare that abortion is a necessity, shouldn't that mean something? For these self-righteous men to look these women in the face and scoff at their experiences, experiences from which they are eternally safe, is just the very definition of callousness, hubris even.
This sort of thing makes me wish I could believe in some sort of god. Then maybe I could at least be at ease knowing that when these compassionless people stood before the pearly gate, the spiritual weight of the children they so carelessly consigned to poverty, hunger, and parental resentment would keep them from passing through.
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thanks, J. Famin
I've been saying this and saying it and saying it...it's not just about the south and you're right, we should be helping that clinic in MS with all of our collective might.
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like a rapidly growing cancer....
> there is always a way to choose life.
The interesting thing is that, due to overpopulation and attendant global warming, the best way to choose life is to not have children.
The only way we're going to survive as a species -- and save the host body (Earth) that we're killing because of our reproductive success -- is to thin out.
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Don't be fooled, this is always and only about hatred of women
I can't help but notice that the multiple posters here (Foreman, Hunt, etc.) appear to be MEN, and hence entirely not affected by the issue of abortion themselves personally. I have noticed that it is almost alway so, that the majority of anti-abortionists are MEN, men who hate women and have issues with female power and female sexuality, and who like to twist the facts of biology to suit their agenda. Yes, there are certainly women in the anti-abortion movement, but I wonder, statistically, how many are simply married to the men mentioned above and are "going along to keep to the peace".
It also speaks volumes that Mr. Hunt says that "unwanted babies" of all races are wanted by "prosperous" adoptive parents. What a laugh! The cruelest joke of the anti-abortion movement is the laughable idea that all these (one million per year) aborted fetuses could potentially grow into adoptable babies....oh, for PROSPEROUS parents only, not you loser single moms. Yet, as stated many times, most anti-abortionists have no idea whatsoever of adopting ANY unwanted babies and statistics prove this. Every US state is swamped with unwanted kids in foster care from poor families....you know, those UNDESIRABKLE children of "color", kids with heath problems, mental illness, physical deformity, low IQ, fetal alcohol syndrome, etc.
You have no moral right to dictate ANYTHING to women wanting abortions until you pony up and agree to adopt any baby, in any healh, UNCONDITIONALLY...that's right, you don't get to cherry pick the healthy white infants (already in demand). You get stuck with the kid who has lifelong health and emotional problems, and the big medical bills (and no insurance!) that that entales.
As far as the ridiculous issue of "what if your mom aborted you?", well for ME, it is not a rhetorical question because my mother almost had to have a therapeutic abortion back in the 1950s. I was very aware all my life that I was very nearly aborted, and I can assure you that even as a small child I entirely accepted the idea that -- as a barely formed fetus -- my life was subject to my mother's health and well-being. This has never lost me one second of sleep. Furthermore, I am Jewish and it is an intrinsic teaching of the Jewish faith that a mother's life entirely outweighs the life of her unborn child (at ANY stage of development), because the life of sentient, fully formed conscious human always is more important than that of an undeveloped, not-yet-conscous fetus....additionally because the life and well-being of a woman also impacts her family, her husband and any other children she is raising.
Pandering to the selfish bigotry of a few, limited religious extremists in this arena -- who are often tainted by their hatred of women and their hatred of sexuality -- ignores the majority of Americans and majority in the entire world whose religious/personal/spiritual beliefs place the value of a woman's life above that of a mutli-celled blastocyte. In particular, this issue only impacts women's bodies and it is disheartening to see this vocal minority of hate-filled, sex-hating males --- WHO WILL NEVER EVER GESTATE A CHILD IN A MILLION YEARS -- try to determine the future of others.
I can only hope that the ignorant, misogynistic views expressed on this forum are a call to action for decent, caring human beings everywhere to speak out with their VOTES in November.