Part 2: Pro-Choice

I have to roll my eyes whenever I hear a pro-choice person exaggeratedly refer to a pro-life person as "anti-choice," which I specifically heard on a radio interview the other day and it was so obnoxious to me. (Also... Pardon my irreverence but my favorite abortion joke... Really the only abortion joke I know... is "I'm only NOT pro-life when I want the pro-life people to go jump off a cliff." Hey, I didn't make it up, I just laughed at it.) Anyway, there's a high level of sanctimony going on with EVERY vocal person in this debate. Including me. "Anti-choice" though. It bugs me and it is not productive to the conversation.

Anywho, the pro-choice stance might include the argument or belief that abortion should be legal no matter what--the pregnant woman ultimately decides and does not have to provide any reason. It might also include the argument or belief that abortion should be legal AND covered by insurance AND available at federally funded clinics. It might also include the argument or belief that a fetus is not a person. Or it might include the argument or belief that a fetus is a person but that while it is dependent on its mother, it does not have the same rights as a person who can breathe and live out in the open air without its mother's lungs or placenta.

Some pro-choice arguments I am familiar with:

-A woman should have all autonomy in her own pregnancy, which she along with her partner has made possible: she may choose where she delivers (at which hospital or perhaps at which home); how she delivers (i.e., vaginally or by C-section); who will attend her birth; what drugs or medical apparatus she will or will not use. She may accept or reject advice from her doctor but ultimately makes and is responsible for all decisions. This autonomy extends to whether she decides to terminate the pregnancy at any point (or perhaps only in the first trimester or before viability).

-The "slippery slope" argument where if you restrict abortions, you may also someday restrict emergency contraception, may also restrict all contraception, may also restrict access to ob-gyn health care. And/or if you involve the state at all in monitoring abortions, you may risk the slope in a different direction where government could conceivably mandate an abortion, a la China's (now phasing-out) one-child policy.

-The feminist argument--male justices, congress, lobbyists etc. are deciding what women may do with their bodies, which is unacceptable.

-The "case by case" argument: say the law provides for abortion but only under predetermined circumstances. Health of the mother, fetus, rape, etc. How are these proven? In a court of law? Does the pregnant woman sign a legal document affirming that "X" is the reason for her chosen abortion? Where does it end? Who draws the line?

-And who decides whether the fetus's medical conditions are severe enough to warrant an abortion? How is that calculated? Won't some mothers have a higher or lower threshold for any given birth defects? What about the physician looking at the ultrasound or delivering the blood test results? Are these particular waters too gray to wade into?

-Adoption is not always an option. Foster children or permanent wards of the state who need homes are already in every city and town. Besides, new mothers swamped with hormones (the ones that are meant to attach them to their biological baby) are not always able to go through with an adoption, despite prior intentions.

-The institution of Planned Parenthood belongs in the category of Medicare and Medicaid: services for a needy population. Abortion is only one part of that. Rape kits, contraception, routine gyn care, all needed too in an affordable clinical setting.

Again, I don't agree with all of this, I'm just putting out there what I think represents the movement. What am I missing? I hope that if you have rebuttals to these (rather than something similar to add in the pro-choice vein) you'll put them with the pro-life post. I'm really trying to look at both arguments with open and honest eyes. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose... Except if you're trying to come to a consensus on abortion in America. Then you always lose.

Tomorrow: Pro-Families. Go ahead, roll your eyes at me. But it's not Anti-Choice. It's not Anti-Life. It's Pro-Families. You'll see...