I re-read the piece I wrote the other day on the abortion issue and how it’s becoming a big thing in the debate over the ‘public option’/'ObamaCare’, and while I was not necessarily disappointed in it, I don’t think I rounded it out properly.  So, instead of making a huge edit and then trying to drag people back to the re-finished and remastered product, I’m just going to add this addendum– there may be more in the future, as this is a complex issue that can’t just be addressed in a single post (no matter how long).

Let me first say that  despite being as adamantly pro-choice as I am, I am not without sympathy to the other side of the equation.  Many of my friends take up that side and it’s extremely honorable when someone does with integrity and without hypocrisy.  The kinds of people I’m talking about in this camp are the ones who do listen to what I say, and respond in a level tone, never losing that friendliness that we are to have.  I have many friends who oppose abortion choice, and despite how I feel about the implications of that position, I don’t let it color my feelings for them.  I love my friends, especially the ones with passionate beliefs which they are willing to defend.

I admire the pro-life person who doesn’t just oppose abortion, but also stands against the death penalty and against needless wars of choice (or even all wars in general).  The consistency shown there is respectable, because it makes it known that the person really does have a true reverence for life and its potential.  That’s the ability to see even in the convict or the enemy, the potential for good that exists in all human beings, and really, that’s beautiful.

Likewise, I can totally understand the idea of seeing an unborn fetus as a child.  At even the earliest stages of pregnancy, a fetus can look like a little baby.  I personally love babies, a lot.  They’re just so cute and full of potential– being around a baby while they explore and examine the world is like rediscovering everything all over again along with them as they experience everything for the first time.  They provide beautiful insight into the world we live in by reminding us that (despite The Book of Ecclesiastes’ assertion that nothing is new under the sun– yes, everything that is and shall be once was and will be again; but if I’ve not seen it, it’s new to me) there’s still so much more to see out there.  Yeah, a baby can stink and puke and do all sorts of other things– so can a college student, but we don’t scorn them when they do their own ‘explorations’ and boundary-testing as much as our society seems to for babies.

I also dislike the concept and practice of late-term abortions.  I think everyone can agree that if we can avoid doing them, it’s best overall– there’s a disagreement over whether we can do them when it’s necessary, and even more disagreement over what defines ‘necessary’, but I think we can all safely say that if we could do away without the procedure without harming a single woman’s life or a single ancephalic baby, we’d do so in an instant.  The procedure is extremely horrid in its practice, I will grant that; there’s a reason so few doctors will perform it, besides the obvious danger posed by anti-abortion extremists.  Seriously, as pro-choice as I am, I do have a limit, and there are just some procedures that I’d like to know are being done only under the most extreme and grave circumstances.

I feel for the people who really do want to help women deal with the difficulties of pregnancy and prevent abortion through counseling them about their options.  I don’t like the people who try to give misleading information about abortion, but the people who are open and honest with women (and don’t treat them like little children who need to be lied to in order to act right) are good folks– I can imagine being young and pregnant can be a scary experience, since it has so much potential to change your life, and letting women know there’s nothing to fear and there’s so many safe roads to walk and that it’s not the end of the world is a great thing.

When people are outraged about the idea of casual abortion, I can definitely understand it.  It seems ridiculous.  We all hear the “I knew a guy/girl…” stories, we all hear about the woman who had three abortions a year every year, instead of buying birth control pills, IUD or condoms.  I doubt most of these tales, though I do know of two women through close associations who have had more than one or two in their life.  One case was a woman who wanted children but things always seemed to go wrong with the baby’s development (that would endanger her life and the fetus wouldn’t survive anyway), and she eventually had to give up after the third try.  The other was the stereotype, but not as severe as it gets made out to be; she had about four abortions in her life, all while she was too poor to take care of them but I definitely would’ve preferred she offer them for adoption (ultimately, though, I understand that it was her choice to make).

So, yeah, I can see the other side of things and appreciate where they’re coming from.  I’m not a hard partisan who refuses to even entertain the other point of view.  Despite what I said about “we can all agree about late-term abortion”, there are a few pro-choice folks out there who are seriously hard-line enough to argue that such abortions should be utterly unrestricted.  I disagree with this notion, but I understand the reasoning– if a woman’s life is in danger, with little time to act, the restrictions we place on the procedure that might save her life will actually kill her.  These folks aren’t arguing that women SHOULD get late-term abortions all the time, willy-nilly, but that safety of the mother must be the first priority, since she is already a fully living, breathing and thinking human being, where as the fetus is still a being of potential.  Policy, they may say, must be formulated first on preserving the rights of people whom can think, make decisions and communicate their intentions.

Further, many of the folks who argue against abortion choice are actually rational and decent people.  They have their beliefs, but they don’t feel a need to be forceful in their advancement of those beliefs– they use their words to further their goals and positions, and accept when the law goes against them (even if they don’t like it).  The only problem I have, and the only reason I ever get upset while talking to someone on this issue, is the level of misinformation out there and the hefty implications of anti-choice policy.

So, understanding this, why do I prefer to use terms like “anti-choice” when talking about these people?  Why do I perceive so many of them as having less-than-noble motivations for their policy preferences?  Why get so involved and emotional about something like this, when I’ll never have to face the issue myself (because I can’t get pregnant)?  What exactly IS my stake in the issue?  As the Joker put it, “Why so serious?”

Well, first, I use the term “anti-choice” only when talking about people who oppose abortion choice, but love to talk about invading every country that looks at us funny and love the death penalty.  These people don’t have a thing about life, they just want to lock down women’s choices.  This leads me to the next question; I see these people as having less-than-noble intentions because so many of their statements boil down to the idea of using forced birth as a punishment for promiscuous women.  They love to make statements about, “She should’ve kept her legs closed,” and “She should take personal responsibility for her actions,” or refer to abortion as an easy cop-out– I’ve never heard of a woman having easy abortions, even the one who’d had four wasn’t proud of herself and certainly didn’t talk about it in casual (let alone positive) terms.  They make it to be an issue of a lazy slut who deserves her comeuppance, and the best way to do it is to make her give birth.  Seriously, I ask this question again: if you don’t trust her to make a choice about her reproductive rights, why would you trust her to raise a child?  As well, there are many women out there who wish they could have children, many more than are out having abortions, to be sure– I’d rather see more efforts to allow more women to become capable of giving birth, including trans women, than see all this money pouring in to force women to give birth to babies they do not want.

I’m emotional about this, despite my inability to give birth, because reproductive rights is a core issue of women’s rights in general.  If a woman doesn’t have control over her body and her medical decisions, then what else really matters?  If women can be made to become unwilling baby birthers, there’s really no freedom that matters– oh, you can own property and vote, great, but if you can’t control your own body, what does it matter if you can control your property or put a ballot in a box?  You’re a prisoner in yourself, a slave to a state that intends to keep another being inside you regardless of how you feel about that– you’re a prisoner to the effects of pregnancy, including a requirement to be in a hospital or other place of medical care for several days in order to finally birth it.  Imagine if such a requirement were placed on men– have sex and carry a steadily increasing load around his waist for nine months and be subject to massive hormonal changes, then at the end of the nine months, he’s required to be confined to a room for several days while the load is removed and his body recovers– it would be an unheard of and unacceptable outrage; just imagine if you tried to take away men’s viagra whenever they were determined to be ‘irresponsible’.

My stake in the issue is basic human rights for women, nothing less.  I couldn’t care less about economic freedom if women are expected to be held down by the arbitrary constraints of religiously-based legislation (and nearly all the arguments I’ve ever heard against reproductive freedom are based some way on religion).  Not everyone shares your religion, and if you have to rely on it to justify your politics, then perhaps your politics could use some fresh consideration– we all have to live here, regardless of our spiritual views, and its no more right for a Baptist to force his faith through legislation on to an atheist, than it would be for a Muslim to force Sharia on that Baptist.  Majority rule is a matter of practicality, but not a justification of morality; no one can argue they are right only because they have enough people who agree with them, it’s a tautology– people believe they are right because other people agree with them that they are right because other people agree with them that they are right and so on.

Women must be allowed to have that minimal level of control over their bodies– they must be allowed to choose when and how they will give birth, and they must choose this before anyone else.  It is surprising to see so many conservatives, who argue constantly that no man has the right to demand that others work and provide to support his existence, but then argue that every fetus has the right to demand a woman do so for nine months.  It would be outrageous to imagine a man forced to have another man handcuffed to him for nine months and share all his food and drink with him, all while the other man can futz up his body chemistry and other things.  We would never allow this; but because it involves women bearing children, the thought is actually entertained and the policy to go with it is actually actively advanced through lots of funding.

Why am I so serious about it?  Because, it’s a serious matter; life and death, in some cases.  You see, as much as folks who like to portray abortion as something that women engage in casually (the “baby-killing feminist harpy” myth), it’s actually rare to find a woman who has had more than one, and even rarer to find one who doesn’t regret that she felt it was necessary.  For that woman, it was necessary; pregnancy has the power to change one’s life in no small way– these are radical changes that have long term health-related, economic and social effects.  We don’t really seem to think about it all that much, because it is a natural process.  However, even if it is natural doesn’t make it easy– viral and bacterial infection are natural processes, too, we take steps to manage them, because some can be beneficial and others can be harmful.

We have to break it down to a question of rights first, then we can also look at the practical measures necessary to balance the rights of women against the demands of society.  A pragmatic approach is necessary, and unfortunately for the side against reproductive freedom, few measures to restrict abortion choice are all that pragmatic while respecting women as human beings.  That’s why I am pro-choice.

(P.S.:  No disrespect meant by the title, I just label everything that’s “Part 2″ as “Electric Boogaloo”.  It just works too darn well.)