On the 30th Anniversary of Roe v Wade:
Like most people in America, I am ambivalent about the issue of abortion. I am always willing to hear the opinions and concerns of others, but I must confess that I have grown tired of the abstinence argument. When are people going to acknowledge that it is unnatural to our species? We dominate the world as a result of our unusually strong reproductive drives, and short of standard-issue chastity belts, abstinence will not occur on a large enough scale to prevent unwanted children. Another tiresome suggestion: No sex
before marriage. A century ago we were marrying our daughters off at age 13, and in some societies, a girl wasn't married until she was pregnant, to be sure she would 'breed'. Women then were old and tired before they were of an age to attend college today, and it was scandalous in anything but the upper-classes for a young woman to be unmarried at age 18.
I am all too aware that most people have forgotten where we come from, and without that knowledge and understanding, how can anyone presume to direct where we are going? Historically speaking, humans have exercised the choice of life and death for infants for thousands of years. How many societies exposed their children to the elements when they were born untimely? How
many societies required the old and invalid to remain behind when the food ran out and it was time to look for more? For millenia women have quietly exercized the right to choose life or death for their offspring. I do not think it was a choice made lightly then, and do not think it is a choice made lightly now.
To those who work to make that choice illegal, I say, Why not work to make it unnecessary, instead? Work to guarantee the quality of
life first, then guarantee the right to life. Work to increase funding for WIC, for health care, child-abuse prevention, Head Start, and education! Fund programs teaching young girls and boys about self-esteem, self-control, and self-realization. Talk to your children about sex, about history, about how humans used to do things because it seem the best, the only, way to do things at the time.
Lets work to make this country an ideal place, one in which every child is a wanted child because no child is conceived to parents who are not ready physically, emotionally, or economically.
In my opinion, to fight for the right to life without fighting to ensure the quality of life is an excercise in hypocrisy and disrespect.
Like most people in America, I am ambivalent about the issue of abortion. I am always willing to hear the opinions and concerns of others, but I must confess that I have grown tired of the abstinence argument. When are people going to acknowledge that it is unnatural to our species? We dominate the world as a result of our unusually strong reproductive drives, and short of standard-issue chastity belts, abstinence will not occur on a large enough scale to prevent unwanted children. Another tiresome suggestion: No sex
before marriage. A century ago we were marrying our daughters off at age 13, and in some societies, a girl wasn't married until she was pregnant, to be sure she would 'breed'. Women then were old and tired before they were of an age to attend college today, and it was scandalous in anything but the upper-classes for a young woman to be unmarried at age 18.
I am all too aware that most people have forgotten where we come from, and without that knowledge and understanding, how can anyone presume to direct where we are going? Historically speaking, humans have exercised the choice of life and death for infants for thousands of years. How many societies exposed their children to the elements when they were born untimely? How
many societies required the old and invalid to remain behind when the food ran out and it was time to look for more? For millenia women have quietly exercized the right to choose life or death for their offspring. I do not think it was a choice made lightly then, and do not think it is a choice made lightly now.
To those who work to make that choice illegal, I say, Why not work to make it unnecessary, instead? Work to guarantee the quality of
life first, then guarantee the right to life. Work to increase funding for WIC, for health care, child-abuse prevention, Head Start, and education! Fund programs teaching young girls and boys about self-esteem, self-control, and self-realization. Talk to your children about sex, about history, about how humans used to do things because it seem the best, the only, way to do things at the time.
Lets work to make this country an ideal place, one in which every child is a wanted child because no child is conceived to parents who are not ready physically, emotionally, or economically.
In my opinion, to fight for the right to life without fighting to ensure the quality of life is an excercise in hypocrisy and disrespect.
posted by KR | 1/26/2003 12:42:00 PM
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