Republicans Hate Abortion? Say it Ain't So.

I found it fairly intriguing that today, when I skimmed the news headlines on Yahoo, I found an article about the Republican party's hardline approach to abortion rights. Um, is that really news anymore?

I think there are three grave misperceptions that the public holds in general that have driven the anti-abortion frenzy:

1. Life begins at conception.

This is stupid. Like all animals, life for humans begins at birth. On my next birthday, I will not say, "Today I am 25 years and 9 months old!" I will say, "Today I am 25 years old!" because that's how long I've been alive.

It is a scientific fact that many pregnancies terminate themselves naturally; in fact, 31% of all conceptions end in miscarriages. If life begins at conception, then shouldn't we force women to keep track of all their vaginal juices and discharges, so we can check them for unimplanted fertilized eggs? I mean, if a fertilized egg is a person, then we'd need to have a funeral any time an egg was naturally aborted, right

I don't care to analyze my cooch juices. So let's drop this silly hysteria and think logically. Did you really become a person when your dad and mom did the mattress mambo? No.

2. Abortion and family planning/contraception/sex ed are in the same camp. If I oppose one, I must oppose the other.

This is so silly I can't even think where to begin. If you oppose abortion, why wouldn't you support more sex ed in the schools, more condom distribution, and better access to family planning services? If you don't want people to have abortions, then you need to keep them from needing those abortions in the first place.

I liked what a friend of mine wrote the other day: "telling people they shouldn't have sex unless they're willing to get pregnant is like telling people not to drive unless they're willing to die in a car accident." Too true. If you don't want people to have abortions, then help them to not conceive babies. Not all of us believe that God wants us to be frigid and sexless, so don't make assumptions. I believe that repressing your sexuality because of something that someone told you is WRONG, and I think my God, the loving and caring and understanding God I know, wouldn't mind my thinking so. He'd also want us to do it safely, so let's open up access to contraception!

3. Everyone wants a baby at some point in his or her life.

This drives me nuts. Almost every post on every anti-choice message board or discussion brings this up somehow, and it's stupid stupid STUPID. I've seen things like, "Why abort a baby? Babies are so cute!!!1!!" and "If you have an abortion now, won't you feel bad when you have a kid later and you think about the baby you didn't have?!!!1!!!" and "Just give the baby to someone else, because lots of people love babies and want to have one!!!!11!!" I've paraphrased those, of course. In their original form, they were barely legible, and clearly written by fourteen-year-olds who failed the state reading exams last year.

Not everyone wants to procreate. Not everyone has that drive. Not everyone will have a baby sometime in their life. Some people are perfectly happy their whole lives without children. Not every baby put up for adoption gets a happy ending. In fact, there are far too many children in foster care and in homes already— shouldn't we take care of them before we bring more into the world?

In conclusion, abortion is not only a right, it is a necessity.

Dissenting opinions are welcomed, but ONLY if they 1) operate on a logical basis (no appeals to cute baby pictures or often-abused Bible quotes...I've read the Bible straight through about eight times, and I guarantee you are misusing that quote), 2) are not rude or insulting, and 3) make use of proper grammar, spelling, and syntax (a few mistakes here and there are fine, but try to keep it coherent). Any comment that violates these rules will be eliminated, because I can't stand it when people misspell "pragnansy".