Alabama's Shame
So, an adult woman now has control over her finances, her education, her choice of job, and her choice of domicile. One might say that modern woman finally has complete control over her life, after centuries of being practically the property of the men in her life, whether father, brother, husband, or son.
Not if she lives in Alabama.
This week, the Alabama legislature passed, and the governor signed into law, the most restrictive abortion law in the United States since Roe vs. Wade came into being back in 1973. Under this new law, Alabama women cannot have an abortion unless the fetus is so deformed that her life is threatened, or that it cannot survive. Any doctor performing an abortion, if convicted, can face up to 99 years in prison. In contrast, a rapist faces up to 20 years, and those charged with incest, up to 10. Alabama is now saying it's not as bad to rape a woman as it is to do an abortion.
I am not saying abortion is the best solution to the problem of an unwanted pregnancy, but sometimes it's the only solution. Before abortion became legal, hundreds of women died every year from botched, self-inflicted abortions, or clandestine abortions committed in sub-standard situations. Those who could pay would get on a plane and go elsewhere to get one. The poor had no choice.
Those who argue against abortion will call it murder. They will talk about the sanctity of life and how those poor, defenseless babies are being killed just because the mother doesn't want to take the trouble of raising a child. I'm not saying there aren't women who treat abortion as a form of birth control. There probably are; women who have had little or no sex education and who get strange ideas from gossip and little else. Other than those few, no woman wants to go through an abortion. They have one when there's no other choice for them.
Those pro-lifers that talk about the sanctity of life are mostly hypocrites that don't care about the sanctity of life outside the womb. Oh, yes, there are some that are pro-life from conception to death, but those are rare and they're not the ones creating the legislation. The hypocrites are mostly men (just like each and every legislator in Alabama that voted in the new law) who could care less about a child after it's born. So, a mother who has an unwanted child has just given birth. She's unprepared for being a mother, has no job, and is uncertain of where she will live after the birth. Those same hypocrites that have forced her to have the child have also defunded such programs that would have helped that woman find a job, find affordable daycare and housing, and helped the child begin its education under the same conditions as those from the rich suburbs. Ah, and if the woman can't support the child, it's taken from her, and she's punished for endangering the child's welfare, while the child is shuffled from foster home to foster home. And the hypocrites chide her for having a child if she can't take care of it. What's it to be, hypocrites?
The biggest reason for the anti-abortion laws (that's what they are, because they are not pro-life) is to keep women as second-class citizens. A woman who can control her life and her body, controls her sexuality. She decides when to have relations, with whom, and whether or not to have children. That puts her on the same level as most men, who also decide when to have relations, with whom, and whether or not to acknowledge and support any child that may come of their actions. Some men, mostly conservative, can't let that happen. To them, women are always subservient to the men because of their physical difference. Their patriarchy is threatened when women take on the same freedoms as men.
In Spain, abortion is allowed until the fourteenth week of gestation. Any woman can ask for an abortion for any reason. She must be told about any and all programs offered new mothers to help them out, and she must wait three days. Once she and the doctor have complied with that, the abortion can be carried out. After that, the exceptions are threats to the woman's life and health, and serious malformations of the fetus. In fact, if, after 22 weeks, malformations are such that the woman's life is threatened, doctors are obligated to induce birth, whether or not the fetus will survive outside the womb.
Before this law came into effect, there was another law that allowed only three reasons for an abortion. Those were, if the pregnancy was a result of rape, if the mother's physical or psychical health was threatened, or if the fetus had malformations. Critics of the new law argued that the number of abortions would grow. Actually, they haven't; they've gone down. In 2011, the year after the law came into effect, there were over 118,000 abortions. In 2017 there were 94,123. Every year, the number has been descending.
Safe and legal abortion is not a question of morality. It's a question of giving a woman a safe choice according to her morality and needs. Whenever a law has been enacted upon one group's moral grounds, people who think differently have always found a way around it. Prohibition became the law of the land in the 20's, but people still produced and drank alcohol, sometimes with deadly consequences because the production was not regulated. Abortion was illegal for many years, yet clandestine abortions were still made, and many women died from them.
Does life really begin at conception? Not so long ago, it didn't. The Catholic Church only began issuing excommunications for abortion committed at any stage of pregnancy in 1869. Before that, abortion was considered a crime after the woman began to feel the fetus move, around 16 weeks after conception. The Fathers of the Church considered that a child was not such until some time after conception. Saint Jerome said, "the seed gradually takes shape in the uterus, and it does not count as killing until the individual elements have acquired their external appearance and their limbs." Saint Thomas Aquinas said, "the vegetative soul, which comes first, when the embryo lives the life of a plant, is corrupted, and is succeeded by a more perfect soul, which is both nutritive and sensitive, and then the embryo lives an animal life; and when this is corrupted, it is succeeded by the rational soul introduced from without."
It is so easy to condemn and forbid. It is much easier to punish than to teach. Let abortion remain safe and legal. Teach women and men responsible sexuality. Fund programs for poor women to be able to raise their children well. Make sure every child is adequately fed, clothed, and well educated. After that, the abortion rates will make it unnecessary to even talk about it, much less make it into a national debate. Above all, let women decide what to do with their bodies and their lives.
Not if she lives in Alabama.
This week, the Alabama legislature passed, and the governor signed into law, the most restrictive abortion law in the United States since Roe vs. Wade came into being back in 1973. Under this new law, Alabama women cannot have an abortion unless the fetus is so deformed that her life is threatened, or that it cannot survive. Any doctor performing an abortion, if convicted, can face up to 99 years in prison. In contrast, a rapist faces up to 20 years, and those charged with incest, up to 10. Alabama is now saying it's not as bad to rape a woman as it is to do an abortion.
I am not saying abortion is the best solution to the problem of an unwanted pregnancy, but sometimes it's the only solution. Before abortion became legal, hundreds of women died every year from botched, self-inflicted abortions, or clandestine abortions committed in sub-standard situations. Those who could pay would get on a plane and go elsewhere to get one. The poor had no choice.
Those who argue against abortion will call it murder. They will talk about the sanctity of life and how those poor, defenseless babies are being killed just because the mother doesn't want to take the trouble of raising a child. I'm not saying there aren't women who treat abortion as a form of birth control. There probably are; women who have had little or no sex education and who get strange ideas from gossip and little else. Other than those few, no woman wants to go through an abortion. They have one when there's no other choice for them.
Those pro-lifers that talk about the sanctity of life are mostly hypocrites that don't care about the sanctity of life outside the womb. Oh, yes, there are some that are pro-life from conception to death, but those are rare and they're not the ones creating the legislation. The hypocrites are mostly men (just like each and every legislator in Alabama that voted in the new law) who could care less about a child after it's born. So, a mother who has an unwanted child has just given birth. She's unprepared for being a mother, has no job, and is uncertain of where she will live after the birth. Those same hypocrites that have forced her to have the child have also defunded such programs that would have helped that woman find a job, find affordable daycare and housing, and helped the child begin its education under the same conditions as those from the rich suburbs. Ah, and if the woman can't support the child, it's taken from her, and she's punished for endangering the child's welfare, while the child is shuffled from foster home to foster home. And the hypocrites chide her for having a child if she can't take care of it. What's it to be, hypocrites?
The biggest reason for the anti-abortion laws (that's what they are, because they are not pro-life) is to keep women as second-class citizens. A woman who can control her life and her body, controls her sexuality. She decides when to have relations, with whom, and whether or not to have children. That puts her on the same level as most men, who also decide when to have relations, with whom, and whether or not to acknowledge and support any child that may come of their actions. Some men, mostly conservative, can't let that happen. To them, women are always subservient to the men because of their physical difference. Their patriarchy is threatened when women take on the same freedoms as men.
In Spain, abortion is allowed until the fourteenth week of gestation. Any woman can ask for an abortion for any reason. She must be told about any and all programs offered new mothers to help them out, and she must wait three days. Once she and the doctor have complied with that, the abortion can be carried out. After that, the exceptions are threats to the woman's life and health, and serious malformations of the fetus. In fact, if, after 22 weeks, malformations are such that the woman's life is threatened, doctors are obligated to induce birth, whether or not the fetus will survive outside the womb.
Before this law came into effect, there was another law that allowed only three reasons for an abortion. Those were, if the pregnancy was a result of rape, if the mother's physical or psychical health was threatened, or if the fetus had malformations. Critics of the new law argued that the number of abortions would grow. Actually, they haven't; they've gone down. In 2011, the year after the law came into effect, there were over 118,000 abortions. In 2017 there were 94,123. Every year, the number has been descending.
Safe and legal abortion is not a question of morality. It's a question of giving a woman a safe choice according to her morality and needs. Whenever a law has been enacted upon one group's moral grounds, people who think differently have always found a way around it. Prohibition became the law of the land in the 20's, but people still produced and drank alcohol, sometimes with deadly consequences because the production was not regulated. Abortion was illegal for many years, yet clandestine abortions were still made, and many women died from them.
Does life really begin at conception? Not so long ago, it didn't. The Catholic Church only began issuing excommunications for abortion committed at any stage of pregnancy in 1869. Before that, abortion was considered a crime after the woman began to feel the fetus move, around 16 weeks after conception. The Fathers of the Church considered that a child was not such until some time after conception. Saint Jerome said, "the seed gradually takes shape in the uterus, and it does not count as killing until the individual elements have acquired their external appearance and their limbs." Saint Thomas Aquinas said, "the vegetative soul, which comes first, when the embryo lives the life of a plant, is corrupted, and is succeeded by a more perfect soul, which is both nutritive and sensitive, and then the embryo lives an animal life; and when this is corrupted, it is succeeded by the rational soul introduced from without."
It is so easy to condemn and forbid. It is much easier to punish than to teach. Let abortion remain safe and legal. Teach women and men responsible sexuality. Fund programs for poor women to be able to raise their children well. Make sure every child is adequately fed, clothed, and well educated. After that, the abortion rates will make it unnecessary to even talk about it, much less make it into a national debate. Above all, let women decide what to do with their bodies and their lives.
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