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You see that thing right there?
That is a penis.
All week I've been reading #youknowme articles. Don't get me wrong, everyone has an opinion and the stories from the famous women I've read have spanned the spectrum from brave to immature to self-serving. I'm sorry, but championing your abortion(s) so you can have a better career in Hollywood or on Broadway shouldn't be the pro-choice rallying cry for young women.
And yes, Martha Plimpton is probably going to hell, BUT as a society you have to govern for all the people. In a democracy, specifically America, the abortion argument basically comes down to one simple question: Who has more rights, the woman or the unborn child?
According to Gallup, only 18% of Americans want abortion to be illegal in all circumstances. So this business in Alabama is unfathomable. Women are protected by the rights granted to them in the Constitution and then specifically delineated in 1973's landmark Roe v Wade decision.
If you are Pro-Life, then don't have an abortion. Simple, you can save that baby. At the end of the day, though, I am a man. There is something disingenuous about me controlling a woman's body, even if I personally think a woman's rationale is skewered. If you're arguing that a man is half of the equation to make a baby, I hate to have to explain the birds and the bees to y'all, but if you are a Pro-Life Man, there are places that you can put your Penis that doesn't result in pregnancy. (You're all adults, you know where those places are.)
Do I have a #youknowme story? Of course I don't. I. Am. A. Man. Which is the point. About a year year ago, I wrote an article about abortion and I am quite frankly stunned at how far right some state legislatures have moved in only a calendar year.
As a crotchety old man, I should be solidly in the Pro-Life Camp. Why? Because those who physically can't have children, and are less likely to accidentally impregnate a young woman (Men 50+), are the most likely to be Pro-Life. (Again, according to Gallup.) Old white men trying to buy their way into God's graces in the afterlife. "If I can stop a poor woman's abortion, God will certainly let ME into heaven..."
Without any consideration for the woman.
What does God say about abortion? Oh, he'e certainly against it.
3 Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court.
But because I'm a bum and don't feel like writing another long-winded, soul-crushing article, I am going to answer the question above in red as shortly and succinctly as possible.
A woman, whether she wants to or not, can exist without a man. A woman can exist on her own and is guaranteed rights by the United States Constitution. If you leave her alone, she has the physical capability to live. To be as graphic as possible, a fetus can't exist on it's own, without the help of medical science. You take that baby out of the womb at 12 weeks and that baby will die, no amount of technology can save that premie.
A baby cannot exist outside of the Mother until around 32 weeks. Don't give me this crap about premies as little as a pound have lived. Yes they have, with the assistance of $50,000 to $2,000,000 in medical coverage. [And then many still die.]
If you want to limit abortion to only the first 2 trimesters, I'll listen to that discussion. There are lots of gray areas in the abortion debate that no one seems to want to discuss. What you can't do is slap Draconian Laws on women on behalf of babies that may or may not come to term. People forget that a couple hundred years ago that a Mother's Mortality rate in childbirth was as high as 2%.
For those who say that neither the Mother or the Child has more rights, scriptures say-
I'm going to stop you right there, unfortunately real life is more complicated than platitudes.
Okay, I am going to tell you a short story after all.
My dear wife was around 15 weeks pregnant with our second child and she went to work like any other day. She called me from work around 9 a.m. and said she bled through her pad. I asked how quickly and she said in about 10 minutes. (If she was pregnant, why would she wear a pad? For sweat.) I told her to immediately drive to a hospital, I would meet her there as soon as possible, for I, too, was stuck at work.
About an hour later I arrived at the hospital and was not ready for what I was about to witness. As I walked in the room, the first thing I noticed was that the floor was covered in blood and my wife was laying on the table pale as a ghost. I didn't want to walk through the blood, it looked like a nurse had already slipped across the floor.
My wife said something about the bathroom, but in my state of shock, I didn't comprehend. I simply meandered to the bathroom. Once there, it looked like someone sprayed blood at the toilet with a pressure washer with tiny, tiny clumps around the front and inside of the toilet. I walked right back out of the small restroom and tiptoed to my wife's side. She spoke and I didn't hear her at all. As I looked up for guidance, I noticed 2 drops of fresh blood on the ceiling.
"How in the fuck did blood get on the ceiling?"
And with that realization I knew my unborn child was dead.
But I wasn't a doctor. What if there was something he could do? All I could think of was to save my wife. They could save her. They weren't saving that kid. There was blood everywhere. My wife talked, but all I heard was an infinite feedback loop.
The nurses rushed back in and ushered me out of the room, they had to prep my wife, the doctor would be there any second. In that quiet moment I had to make a decision, if the doctor asked if I needed to chose between my wife and the child, I would choose my wife. I would have to live with the consequences....
The doctor bolted by me, but never talked to me, the MAN. In hindsight, it was clearly a spontaneous miscarriage. Unbeknownst to us, an underlying thyroid condition may have been the culprit, my wife would be diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer a few short years later.
If you, as a woman, want to chose the unborn child over yourself. That should be your choice.
If you, as a woman, want to chose yourself over that unborn child. That should be your choice.
The State should not dictate your choices based on someone else's value system.
Why is this so hard? I'm not you, you are not me. I. Am. Not. A. Woman.
Next Article? Music or Sports, trust me.