Because I'm uncomfortable with abortion?
Am I less of a Dem or a progressive because I DO think that "legal, safe, and rare" is a very, very, VERY good answer?
Do I have to celebrate abortion in order to be "pro choice?"
Why can't I abhor abortion and at the same time be 100% behind keeping it legal? Why DO these have to be mutually exclusive?
Any qualms about abortion, any questioning, is automatically, it seems, met with incredible hostility on the left.
I know exactly what Hilary was talking about.
I want there to be fewer abortions. I want it to be legal. But as a woman who carried three babies I also know that this is a very tough issue for a lot of people - me included.
I've been demonized for not accepting abortion as a 100% "good thing." It's NOT a "good thing" but choice IS. (On another board, that's exactly how abortion was described - a "good thing." No freakin' wonder we have trouble with our "message.")
Politicians and others (Harry Reid, etc.) who identify themselves as "pro life" are automatically assumed to be in favor of overturning Roe V. Wade. Hey, I'm "pro-life" but I'm not just "pro birth" and I do not want Roe V. Wade overturned and would defend it to the end. Could it be that, for lack of better terminology, there are some who say they are "pro life" when really their position has less to do with Roe V. Wade than it does with helping women avoid the situations that present abortion as the only viable alternative?
Howsabout we find out just what lib/progressives mean by "pro life" before dumping on them? There are a LOT of us who are uncomfortable with abortion, who see it as an issue that goes way, WAAAAY beyond the legality aspect. As I've said in a lot of comments - legality and overturning Roe V. Wade is the right's only answer. I'm a lib and a progressive because we are willing to preserve legalities, but go beyond them and offer alternatives that actually HELP women - pregnant or not. While we still preserving a woman's right to choose an abortion.
But I also get real tired of having to defend myself and the discomfort I feel about abortion from those who think that it is not enough to support Roe V. Wade in order to have true lib credentials. Or those who condescendingly say, in effect, that "okay, as long as you support that, you can stay in the club."
I DON'T think abortion is a "good thing." I think it's a "tough thing." I don't have a fucking clue "when life begins" and I'm not about to advocate any legislation that defines it.
And I do not think I'm alone. That's what we Dems need to address. It isn't turning "right" and it isn't ceding any ground on Roe V. Wade. It's accepting a REALITY - that abortion is a tough, uncomfortable issue for a lot of people. And that while we embrace choice, and defend Roe V. Wade, we must also open the tent to those who are uncomfortable with abortion and see it in terms that go beyond legality and "choice."
eileen from OH