Abortion has again become an issue in the election cycle. Hard-right conservatives see this as an opportunity to regain ground on social issues.
Everyone has an opinion on abortion; that is a good thing. The problems begin when one group that would never have an abortion decides everyone else must live by their ideas and make the same decision. And because they cannot rationally make that happen, they project their feelings onto an invisible Super-Dude, and then claim him as their authority, as if “Super-Dude Rules” is the game changer.
I am truly and honestly puzzled about why some very religious people oppose abortions. Most of them believe that the purpose of our life is to live in a manner so that when dead our souls go to heaven. In that paradigm the innocent, including the unborn, get free admission. They also seem to believe there are types of situations and reasons where God is okay with them killing other people, and it is okay solely because God told them it was; in many cases actually told them to do it. It appears to me to be an issue of keeping women tied to their bodies during the prime years while men can have sex and walk away. That makes it easier for even weak men to subjugate a broader section of women. This is about women making their own choices. We need to move this debate away from baby killing and back to the real core of what is at stake.
Life does not begin at conception. The egg and the sperm were alive before they met. If we follow the life starts at conception logic, “wasting your seed” could also be a crime. Miscarriages outnumber abortions; does that make God the number one abortionist? Is it more criminal when God uses a doctor’s hands? If so, then we need to end modern medical practice and let God do all the healing he wants.
This election may be about making the right choices; one of those might be about the right to choose.
