Justifying Abortion

Let me begin by saying, none of your business.  We need to remember this.  Our right to a medical procedure is nobody's business.  And yet because we are constantly under attack for the freedom to decide to have an abortion, we have found it necessary to tell private, personal stories and to attempt to provide a justification for those decisions that are palatable to religious radicals in this country that are no better than the Taliban.

Here's another point:  we allowed the insurance industry to increase premiums on those who smoke.  At some point, we will allow them to increase premiums on the obese.  With DNA testing, it will become possible to increase premiums for those who are high-risk for genetic factors.  Forcing women to pay a rider for abortion coverage is really another component of the country's intolerance and willingness to let industry profit from it.  Which does not excuse or minimize this new attack; I am merely saying we should step back and look at the atmosphere that allows it to happen.

Under the heading of, "I Can't Believe They Can Do This," Michigan Right to Life gathered sufficient numbers of signatures on a petition to require women to pay for an insurance rider on any insurance policy, even those held privately, if they want abortion services to be covered.  So, once again, the voice of the fanatic holds sway over individual rights.   Of course, this did require that the Michigan legislature do the group's bidding.

Most of us are not fighting for reproductive freedoms because we are not wrong.  We are engaging in the freedom that we take for granted in a democracy.  We have fought hard for equality, and assume it is our due.  But just as if we were a country under attack, our attacker has no justification, only the desire to control us.  They have not ever needed to prove that they are right, only that they are more powerful.  And that they have, because they are louder and they don't give up.  Ever.

And this has been going on for a very long time.

So we need to fight back, and as ferociously as they fight, and as though we are a country at war defending our liberty.

And there are others that should be joining the fight, for a variety of reasons.

Men should be interested in defending the right to reproductive privacy and equality, because after abortion comes birth control, already under attack.  A woman who does not have reproductive freedom makes the entire family structure more vulnerable, emotionally and economically.

Employers should want to assure that women are in control of their reproductive health, for the stability of the workplace.

The insurance industry certainly must know that it makes sense financially to cover birth control and abortion.

And finally, as a community we should all recognize that those who are seeking to prevent women from determining their reproductive paths are by no means pro-life.  In fact, they oppose funding better health care and nutrition for pregnant women and children.  The women most affected will be the poor, but it will also be the middle class who in 2014 will be struggling to provide the best for their families.  The additional costs for preventive care, and even more the  burden of being forced to carry a pregnancy, can be enough to push that woman or that family over the brink into undue emotional stress, and financial hardship.  It can end the possibility of college, even high school, and put an end to a promising career and hope for the future.

And here's something else.  A woman who is able to make her own reproductive decisions is more likely later to have wanted, healthy and happy children.

God did not create a world in which a woman has an abortion and is then banned from having children.  That's the case whether the abortion is the result of a rape, a medical complication, or an error in judgment.  Those who seek to punish women for their sexuality would have us believe that abortions reduce the numbers of children.  In fact, being able to wait until a woman feels ready to have a child is something that many of us might consider a blessing.  That God may have given us the option of ending a pregnancy because this is not about punishment but about growth.  And there are a lot of women who have had that opportunity, and wonderful, wanted children were the result.

I am one of them.  Not that it's anybody's business.

So instead of wondering why the anti-abortion, anti-life, anti-freedom people are attacking us, I think we need to see the attacks as irrational acts committed by tyrants, and do what we need to do to control our bodies and our lives.