13 February 2006

Row vs wade

It was hilarious when that was a joke about George Bush's puzzlement over Mexican immigration techniques, but it's not so funny when he appoints someone to the Supreme Court whom, the Right fervently hopes, will help overturn Roe v Wade.

Was Roe v Wade a great decision? Probably not. Supreme Court decisions rarely are. (Remember the definition of The Absolute Truth: a five-to-four decision by the Supreme Court...)

Was it better than the alternative? Absolutely.

I've known several women (friends and lovers) who had abortions. (None of them because of me, I'm happy to report.) None of them did it by choice, but were driven to it by the circumstances of their lives. Would their lives have been different if they hadn't? Absolutely. Would their lives have been better? Probably not.
Is abortion a good thing? No. Especially for the fetus, though the murdered or abandoned or abused children of parents who probably should have had an abortion may need to weigh in on the subject.

But the solution to abortion is not outlawing it. (Remember: when abortions are outlawed, only outlaws will have abortions.)
It's making it unnecessary.

When every pubescent girl is offered free contraception (the implantable kind, my mother always says, that way they don't 'forget' to take it) and every pregnant woman is offered free prenatal care, a free delivery, and assistance in placing her child with childless parents who'll care for it (not foster care, not a state home, a real family), then we can think about making abortion a bad thing.
On the flip side, of course, girls shouldn't get on welfare just by getting pregnant, and they shouldn't be allowed to stay on it without turning in the male parent (I refuse to classify them as the father; that implies responsibility and caring), at the risk of losing their child if they don't; the 'father' should be required to pay or go to jail. Underage girls who turn up pregnant should be induced (by anything shy of torture, I think) to turn in the male parent, who should go to jail.
But I don't see the Christofascists adopting little crack babies at a great rate, or contributing to foundations for unwed mothers, or much of anything else besides determining that millisecond-old embryoes are 'human beings' (whom they're just as happy to see die if they're homosexual or heathen or even just 'different') and trying to deny young people access to and knowledge about contraceptives on the grounds that they promote "promiscuity". No, morons, testosterone promotes promiscuity. Try outlawing that...

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