Fetus? It nearly killed us!
In response to David Blanchard's commentary, "Fasting for Peace," I am writing to you about a war - a war taking place at abortion clinics.
The Rev. Blanchard wrote that he had been fasting for 26 days and in that time, 60 Americans soldiers had died, which is a terrible loss of life. During that same period, the war at the abortion clinics has cost 96,200 children's lives.
Every 23 seconds a child is murdered in the womb. That is 8,700 every day, 25,900 every week, 112,542 every month, 1,350,000 a year. In the last 32 years, 43,200,000 babies have been murdered. This is more than all of our deaths in all the wars since the American Revolution!
What can you do? Pray, fast, become active in pro-life causes. Then and only then, when people say enough is enough, will the killings be stopped.
Hank
Since it was a slow weekend, I'll do two today. What can I say? The nut jobs were in full force today.
Okay, okay, I don't really think Hank here is a total nut job. I definitely do question his numbers, however. The actual numbers are significantly lower. For instance, according to the CDC, there were 884,273 abortions performed in 1998, 861,789 abortions performed in 1999, and 857,475 performed in the year 2000; all of these figures are much lower than Mr. Donahue's estimate of 1,350,000 per year. So, okay, if you're going to use numbers, don't just take some activist website's estimates when hard numbers are available. It makes you look like a reactionary zealot, which you probably are, but you should try harder not to make it so obvious.
Besides the faulty numbers, equating abortions to war deaths is completely irresponsible. First of all, the death of a soldier is a sacrifice, and really shouldn't be compared to much of anything. Using it to boost you personal pet political agenda is completely innapropriate. The only issue that soldier deaths should have an impact on is the war itself. Second, let's be honest here for a minute, 'kay? It is the same group of fascist social conservative neo-con assholes responsible for continued troop death that is the most vocal about the issue of abortion. Are you coming out against the war? It doesn't really sound like it. It sounds like you're another brainwashed sheep marching in lock step with the Focus of the Fascists crowd who say it's immoral to kill a nonsentient lump of cells that might one day become a human, but getting fully sentient, honorable Americans killed for dubious reasons is just peachy so long as we paste enough $1.25 flag stickers on our cars. Pro life my ass.
This is another really difficult issue made to look like black and white. Look, I am really uncomfortable with the concept of abortion. I don't believe, however, that it comes close to murder. A first trimester fetus has the potential to become a human, but it is not a functional human yet. And let's think here for one damned second. If these pricks were really interested in stopping abortions, wouldn't you think they would be all about increased sex education and birth control use to PREVENT those abortions? Fat fucking chance. What they really want to do is control the bodies of women and force them to have children. This may sound crazy, but religion can make people think all sorts of crazy shit. These people take the concept of children as a gift from God one step further... they really believe children are a demand from God, and you've gotta accept them, like it or not. Which is fine, for them, but stops being fine when they want to impose that shit on everyone else.
Let's look back on Mr. Donahue's numbers for a moment. He claims (though I argue against) that over 42 million abortions have been performed since Roe Vs. Wade. Now, what is the one thing that all aborted pregnancies have in common? They are UNWANTED. So he's talking about 42 million unwanted children. Who does Hank here propose should be raising these 42 million people? How many unwanted children has Hank adopted? Probably not his share, given these kind of numbers. It's all pretty and happy and nice, until you realize that unwanted children tend less to grow up to be neurosurgeons and more to grow up into criminals. These aren't fetuses who would have grown into babies who would have grown up in loving Christian homes. These are children who were NOT WANTED. Do you wish a childhood of neglect on them, Hank? Do you wish the ramifications on society? Maybe you do, and maybe you don't, but it's something to think about before you go on talking about this like it's a simple matter of right and wrong.
Finally, I want to point out those numbers from the CDC again. Do you notice a trend? It's not a coincidence. During the Clinton administration, the number of abortions dropped every year. Now, I'm no Clinton fan, but maybe that can tell us something about effective ways to influence people versus ham-fisted bible thumping. You don't think so? Well, maybe you should consider that abortion numbers have begun to rise again since the Bush administration took office. That's some crazy shit. One could say that Bush is responsible for causing more abortions than his Democratic predecessor. Of course, he's responsible for a shitload of American soldier deaths too. So maybe those figures do have something in common after all.
posted by Zafrod at 4:47 PM
2 Comments:
Whooa.
I am religious, but not for a second do I want to control women's bodies, nor force them to have children. And no matter what the number of abortions there are, it is too high. Don't you agree. A fetus, unborn child, whatever you want to call it, it is what we once were. I strongly disagree with the concept that abortion is a convinient birth-control method. I just think abortion is morally wrong, with few exceptions, because it is the non-essential death of a living creature, regardless of wherein it lies. I will agree that with the current situation, abortions are feasable, but hardly acceptable. Sad, when we have to have it this way when abortion could have been prevented.
I disagree, Stan, and I think it's an emotional level we disagree on. Look, I know it's easy to get wrapped up in the concept of a fetus being a very, very small human, but it's not. What makes us human is our sentience, and a fetus just doesn't have that. Yes, if given the correct environment it will develop it, but it hasn't yet. I agree with the concept that abortions should be safe, legal, and rare. They should not be used as "convenient" birth-control, but they never are or will be. Ask any woman who's gone through one. They are HORRIBLE. As men, I think we get a little too callous, but think about the mothering instinct, and how difficult it must be for a woman to break through that. I've seen the results... it can be devastating.
I'm with you, in general, in thinking that abortion is wrong, in the sense that the much better option is to not get pregnant at all. I do not believe it is less moral than bringing an unwated child to term, and either foisting him on the already choked adoption system or rasing a child in an environment where he is unwanted. That's why I say safe, legal, and rare. Don't fight to prevent abortion, fight to prevent unwanted pregnancy.
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