I wasn't gonna post...I tend to avoid abortion if and at all possible, because the topic only brings out the worst in people. I do think if you could actually get both sides to sit down and talk to each other (Yeah I dream), then they'd find some sort of common ground.
I've come to refer to myself as neither pro-life or pro-choice. I really, really, really dislike the concept of abortion. I don't think I could ever have one. I do think life is sacred, and I really don't know when that starts. In my mind, it's better to hedge my bets. That having been said, back alleys scare the hell out of me, and I'm thankful that there's a safe alternative for women who don't have a problem with abortion.
I don't think the answer is as simple as "just don't have sex," like some of the pro-lifers claim. Abstinence only education doesn't work, but poverty reduction does. (As does access to adequate birth control, education and actually having rapes be prosecuted as opposed to the farce that is prosecution now.)
I also think if a person is going to put forth the idea that life is sacred, it's got to apply to all human life--including terrorists and people on death row. It urks me to no end when people claim to be pro-life and then try to weasel their logic around being pro-death penalty, justify torture, and are against basic social services. (We're one of the wealthiest nations on the planet and people starve on the streets? I don't even want to hear why someone thinks that a person shouldn't have access to adequate food.)
So you're for punishing POOR women.
goes back to the bullshit fundie Protestant notion of the prosperity Gospel. If you're good, God rewards you. If you aren't, then you're poor and bad. It's the same bullshit behind the healthcare debate--if you can't afford health insurance, then there's something morally deficient in you. It's so easy to demonize someone down on their luck. It's another form of victim blaming, you know? Only in the US is it a crime to be poor.
And, yes, I'm going back to the LISP compiler before you yell at me.
no subject
I've come to refer to myself as neither pro-life or pro-choice. I really, really, really dislike the concept of abortion. I don't think I could ever have one. I do think life is sacred, and I really don't know when that starts. In my mind, it's better to hedge my bets. That having been said, back alleys scare the hell out of me, and I'm thankful that there's a safe alternative for women who don't have a problem with abortion.
I don't think the answer is as simple as "just don't have sex," like some of the pro-lifers claim. Abstinence only education doesn't work, but poverty reduction does. (As does access to adequate birth control, education and actually having rapes be prosecuted as opposed to the farce that is prosecution now.)
I also think if a person is going to put forth the idea that life is sacred, it's got to apply to all human life--including terrorists and people on death row. It urks me to no end when people claim to be pro-life and then try to weasel their logic around being pro-death penalty, justify torture, and are against basic social services. (We're one of the wealthiest nations on the planet and people starve on the streets? I don't even want to hear why someone thinks that a person shouldn't have access to adequate food.)
So you're for punishing POOR women.
goes back to the bullshit fundie Protestant notion of the prosperity Gospel. If you're good, God rewards you. If you aren't, then you're poor and bad. It's the same bullshit behind the healthcare debate--if you can't afford health insurance, then there's something morally deficient in you. It's so easy to demonize someone down on their luck. It's another form of victim blaming, you know? Only in the US is it a crime to be poor.
And, yes, I'm going back to the LISP compiler before you yell at me.