Photo by Gayatri Malhotra
Recently, a political website I read had three forced-birthers expound upon there position. I submitted this as a response to their position. Curious what you think of it.
“Nothing pushes my buttons as quickly as the issue of restricting abortion. Having seen the amount of screen time you've devoted to people with whom I violently disagree, I thought it might be a catharsis for me to write this rebuttal.
First, let's start by playing on neutral ground. 'When does life begin?' is not the question forced-birthers are asking. They phrase it this way to hide what the question is, which is "When does a fetus gain a soul?". Consider their phrasing to be disingenuous. My toenail has life. A wart you remove has life. To argue on such slanted ground would be ridiculous, but it's what forced-birthers do - they cannot honestly come to the American people, the vast majority of whom believe abortion should be legal, and make their true argument.
And here's the crux of that argument, laid bare. When does a zygote, embryo or fetus gain a soul and become a unique person? When someone asks you when life begins, they are asking this. And the answer to this question is a religious one, as is the argument to prevent women from having a say in their very personal healthcare decisions. Those who argue for banning abortion are arguing about how to impose their view of religion on others who believe differently. Which is why they hide the question. Because it is obvious that no person should be attempting to force their view of religion on another. Now, notice I said "view". Because most of these anti-choice forces claim to be Christian. As a member of that faith, I can tell you that Jesus never mentioned abortion. In fact, in the old Testament there are instructions for how to cause a miscarry by hitting the woman. Now, before the howls (too late?) of Firm Believers (TM) grows too loud, I need to point out that in our religions we pick and choose what to follow. And that's fine. But any discussion of belief has to acknowledge that at the outset to be an honest discussion. And arguing about religion isn't really fair anyway, as all the major faiths have their strengths, and all have the potential to be used for harm. Inquisition, anyone? And this is before we get to the subject of different beliefs of other religions. Judaism, as you might have heard, holds a different view of a fetus that can be radically different from those of the forced-birth movement.
My point here is that any discussion of abortion rights is a conflict between religious beliefs, including even agnostics and atheists. And here is where my personal views become enraged. Because given that this is a religious debate, and not one based on science, one small group is attempting to impose their religious beliefs on the majority who believe differently. We are a country founded on the separation of Church and State. We hold in this country the freedom of religion - and equally, it's corollary, the freedom FROM religion.
The arrogance - the sheer arrogance of anyone to assume they know better than a woman, or girl, and her immediate family, doctor, and even clergy - the sheer arrogance of anyone to say they will decide for you, that they know better, for every American they do not know, have no information about, that all of us should follow their minority-held religious belief - it's the most anti-American and inhumane position one can have. It's against everything we know about the intentions of the founding fathers, most of whom were Deists. And this is why the majority of Americans know - even if it's an unnamed feeling in their gut - that forcing another person to follow your religious beliefs is not right. It is evil, absolute and utter evil. History is replete with examples of this, over and over again.
I apologize for the length of this - and I haven't yet addressed how these "pro-life" groups don't have any interest to demand gun control with the same fervor. The issue of gun violence, which is the number one killer of real, living, breathing children, they can't be bothered to fight. Which makes me question their true motives. I haven't gotten into talking about these forced-birthers' extreme views on 10 year old girls being made to carry a pregnancy to term, or to force a woman carrying a dead child and wait until she develops sepsis before a doctor can help her. I haven't pointed out that NO woman ever has a late abortion because they've made some callous, non-health related decision (oh, I've changed my mind....). And I haven't touched on the forced-birthers' inability to see a woman and a valuable living person, whose life they arrogantly want to control, or this groups utter ambivalence to the lives they ruin after imposing their beliefs.
No, I don't have the word count. But I cannot stress strongly enough how twisted and wrong it is to attempt to force another to live by one small group's singularly and cruel vision of their religion. And we shouldn't ever stop fighting them with all the passion we can direct.”
