I live under a rock pretty much all the time and that's either a good thing or a bad thing. Probably a little bit of both. I am blissfully unaware of most of the atrocities going on in the world which on one hand is kind of nice not having that depressing negativity in my life but on the other it does make me a bit oblivious which is not particularly great.
Every once in awhile some news squeaks in under my rock and I find out about big issues in the world. 90% of the time I keep my mouth shut and quietly keep my opinions to myself unless asked for them specifically. This is one that just really gets my goat though and since this is my blog and I can share what I want I felt compelled to share my thoughts on this one. This issue that has floated into my cave this week is the abortion bill the House passed. Essentially the bill places a ban on abortions performed after 20 weeks. Unfortunately I don't see the Senate passing this bill and the White House has already stated President Obama is likely to issue a veto on it if it does pass, so I highly doubt this bill will become reality.
The fact that it is highly unlikely this bill, proposing it should be illegal for a fetus to be terminated after 20 weeks gestation, will pass just boggles my mind. I don't get it. Really...We as humans are arguing over whether it's OK to terminate an unborn human life. WHAT THE FRUITCAKE KIND OF WORLD ARE WE LIVING IN? Yeah...caps needed.
Let's look at the definition of fetus: the young of an animal in the womb or egg, especially in the later stages of development when the body structures are in the recognizable form of its kind, in humans after the end of the second month of gestation.
If somebody aborted their dogs puppies at 30 days gestation (halfway point for dogs) I have a feeling the collective pro-choice people out there would lose their minds and the person who did it would be figuratively hanged. Yet nobody bats an eye if a woman wants to abort a fetus because, well that's her choice right?
I'm willing to concede there is some room for debate when it comes to "where does life begin" and all that but that's not what this is about. For the record my answer to that is when the heart first beats. We are talking about a fetus after 20 weeks gestation here. TWENTY WEEKS. Halfway baked. Heart beating, kicking, thumb sucking, tiny human level.
Of course there are those that cry out about women's safety! Personal choice! Human rights violations!
BULL CRAP.
There are times when a mother's life is in danger from the continuation of a pregnancy. Absolutely those circumstances exist and those cases should be evaluated individually by medical professionals. There are instances of rape or incest, which is a whole different can of worms that I will keep sealed but again...it's a situation that necessitates individual case consideration.
Personal choice and human rights? What about the fetus...where is it's personal choice and human rights? Pretty darn sure if given the option and capable of comprehension the baby would want to live...just a hunch. Personal choice ends when it starts to involve another person. It's your personal choice to surgically alter yourself into a cat, or turn from a guy to a girl. It is NOT your personal choice to kill another human. When it's just your body, when there is just one heartbeat to your being, you can do with it what you want, knock yourself out. When there are two of you, two distinctly different heartbeats...now it's not entirely your body.
Many of those who oppose this bill cry out about how this will hinder women who were victims of rape or harm those whose health is in danger. Well, the top reasons for abortion are not rape/incest or health concerns.
The number one reason for abortion: birth control failure. Or I should say falling into the category of the 9% failure rate for typical use with oral hormonal birth control, or the 18% failure rate for typical male condom use. Gasp! So birth control like condoms or the pill isn't 100%?! Ahem...No shitake sherlock. It says so right on the packaging insert that nobody reads. 51% of women who have abortions used contraceptives in the month they became pregnant.
So those who cry this bill will hurt women's health or rape victims...your argument is invalid. In fact, three-fourths of women cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.
Yes, there is an issue here. NO it is not that women need easy/cheap/free/highly accessible abortions. That is not helpful. I get it, grown adults are going to have sex and even though they use a prevention method they fail. Then I hear the cries, "They shouldn't have to live with the life altering results of a baby just because their method failed! How dare you force that on another person's life!" Again...BULL CRAP. Life happens, there is a RISK to sex no matter what. It's a risk you take and by accepting the risk you accept the consequence. Grow up and put on your big girl panties. Just because the consequence is inconvenient to you or places you in a hardship doesn't mean you get to commit murder. Sorry, not sorry. I could risk my life savings in the stock market and when I lose it all and it causes me hardship in my life I don't get to force my broker to give me back all the money I lost just because I refuse to accept the consequence of the risk I took.
The issue is not a black and white one. It's not an easy fix and I don't have answers but I do know this much: killing a human being with a beating heart who feels pain is not the answer. How we ever thought it was is beyond my comprehension.
Do we need better eduction about pregnancy prevention? YES
Do we need better access to low cost and affordable birth control? YES
The solution is fixing HOW these women end up in this position in the first place, not simply wiping out the consequence. It is a freaking human life, not a boil to be lanced.
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