Driving home this afternoon after spending my time with Addison, I drove by the location of the proposed Planned Parenthood offices. Actually, I think they're more than proposed, I believe they're just waiting to start building.
Anyway, as always the usual group of Planned Parenthood protesters were out in force: Planned Parenthood Targets Blacks! Stop Killing Babies! You know, I'm sure, the usual placards they carry. Today, though, I saw a new sign: Pray For An End To Abortion. Now that's not a threatening idea. I think we would all like to end abortion. I really don't think anyone wakes up in the morning thinking Wow! I hope we can perform more abortions today than we did yesterday! I wonder if we'll pass last year's numbers? Truth be told, abortion rates in the US are at a 20-year low, not always because women are choosing not to have them, but frequently because they don't have access to them. (There are only two doctors in Wyoming who will perform abortions.) The rate is also falling disproportionately among Caucasian women, with African-Americans and Latinas now getting the most abortions.
People who know me will tell you that I am not an advocate of abortion, but I am an advocate of a woman's right to choose. And yes, I said "woman." If you're a man, and you got a woman pregnant and she chooses to have an abortion rather than bear your child, then you need to choose your women more carefully!
But I digress. I wish there was no need for abortions. I wish that every child could be the child of a committed relationship, or at least of a committed parent. I wish that no child or woman was ever impregnated through rape or incest. I wish that birth control was foolproof and universally available. I wish there were never any birth defects or problem pregnancies. I wish no child ever had to undergo the horrors that I read about this week. (CAUTION: This article is NOT for the faint of heart or those who are easily distressed!) In short, I wish every child was born healthy into the welcoming arms of family.
Perhaps that sign should read: Pray For Every Child To Be Wanted And Loved!
Now that's a prayer I could support!
I do think we are kindred spirits,cjc. While I am fervently for a woman's choice to chose, I hope that the need for them disappears. I wish the ant-abortionists would work to ending the need for abortions. To condemn women who chose abortion but not be there to help them when they keep the child and not heartily encourage adoption does not make sense.
ReplyDeleteThe Dani story is heartbreaking. Bernie and Diane are incredible people. I have little faith in social services having worked with them as a teacher and a paralegal. While horrific that parents like Michelle exist, social services is there to save children from such parents and they do a miserable job too many times.
Thank you for expressing my abortion opinion so eloquently.
Just this morning Wesley's Mom and I were discussing abortion and how people often intrepret my pro-choice stance to be one of pro-abortion when that couldn't be more inaccurate. I am not a fan of abortion and hope that I will never have to be effected by one personally but I also don't approve of other people and organization's deciding these things for a woman, hence my pro-choice stance.
ReplyDeleteWith that said I want to join in with you on that more optimistic and hopeful idea in a world where abortions aren't needed and that all children are the result of love and commitment.
"Pray For Every Child To Be Wanted And Loved!"
ReplyDeleteOh, if only! That would truly be a dream come true. :)