Local Republican legislators in 43 States are desperately trying to make abortion more onerous. By the end March this year they had introduced 791 provisions related to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Nearly 42% of these provisions (332 provisions) seek to restrict access to abortion services; fifty-three abortion restrictions had been approved by a legislative chamber, and nine had been enacted. Meanwhile, Republicans are assaulting Planned Parenthood in the US Congress.
Why the urgency? Because half of all Americans now consider themselves “pro-choice” on abortion, surpassing the 44% who identify as “pro-life.” This is the first time since 2008 that the pro-choice position has had a statistically significant lead in Americans’ abortion views. Gallup reports the increase has occurred almost equally among men and women. The biggest change by age since 2001 is that middle-aged and older Americans are more likely to be pro-choice today, while the percentage of young adults who identify with the term is about the same. This could be the last chance to make the lot of women, unable or unwilling to bring up an unwanted child, even more miserable.
Strange, isn’t it? These people get very exercised when the constitutional right to carry a weapon is criticised or attacked, but they are quite happy to undermine the constitutional right of every woman to determine whether she has a child or not and what she does with her body. There are arguably too many human beings on this planet as it us; we shouldn’t be deliberately bringing into the world those who are unwanted and unloved.
Christians assert that life is sacred. But what they mean is that human life is sacred. Many are indifferent, it seems, to the steadily growing extinction (or near extinction) of a wide variety of non- human life, owing to their own activities on Earth. I thought God made all things on Earth? Then shouldn’t Conservatives be conserving everything from polar bears to rhinoceroses? Apparently, according to them, God doesn’t rate elephants as highly as humans. He has a pecking order. Ludicrous. Support Epicureanism – the rational, humanist belief that, among other things, avoids raging hypocrisy.
I’m not sure whether an unborn fetus is a human life. I think abortions are a sometimes necessary evil: necessary, to save the mother’s life or to prevent a children from being brought up in intolerable conditions. But evil, because it can be very psychologically damaging for the mother and violence is generally a bad thing.
Having said that, there are more effective and fairer ways of reducing the number of abortions- education, widely available contraception, a better adoption system that guauntees any unwanted child a good upbringing, or simply persuading people not to have abortions. What the Republicans are proposing means that rich women will be able to get abortions easily because they can afford to take time off work to travel to the nearest clinic. But poorer women do not have that option, and so often can’t get an abortion because the nearest provider is too far.
I wouldn’t get complacent about public opinion inevitably moving in a pro choice direction. Abortion has always been a controversial issue in America, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. There is evidence to suggest that young people are more pro life. http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/2/ken-blackwell-americans-becoming-more-pro-life/ I also think its important to recognise the fact that Republicans are now dominant in state and local politics. Unless the Democrats do something to reverse this, we will be seeing far more abortion restrictions, even if public opinion does not favour them.
I would always view with suspicion anything coming from the Washington Times, a very small outfit paid for by a Far Eastern cult leader. I used to read it to see what the extreme right was saying, but there were one too many distortions and fabrications for me. It is not really a newspaper and its credibility is, to be polite, low. That’s not to say that other polls etc are necessarily reliable , especially on this fraught subject
At least the trend is moving in the right direction. Yes, Owen, I agree: the Democrats have to improve their numbers in state legislatures. P.S. I owe you a note on Plato’s “Republic.” It will come. Thanks for your patience.