Most, if not all, people who know me are very surprised when they find out I am totally against abortion. My position is not based on theology. In most instances my philosophies bear no more resemblance to the Catholic Church than Taylor Swift does to “The Biggest Loser”.
I am usually ultra liberal. For example, I believe marijuana should be legalized. That way we can remove the criminal tag from 30 million otherwise law-abiding citizens, eliminate a major source of funding from the black market, and wipe out a significant amount of our national debt by taxes. It would also provide a great cash crop for America’s farmers.
I believe prostitution should be legalized so it can be taken off the streets. Prostitutes could receive proper medical assistance and again we’d have another source of taxes. I believe gambling should be legalized everywhere. I believe in gay marriage. I believe in equal rights for all…but I don’t believe in abortion.
I admit that when I was younger I didn’t really give the subject of abortion much thought. Nobody I knew in high school ever got pregnant to my knowledge. In college I was friends with a girl who used abortion as an apparent birth control alternative as she had three abortions in the three years we were in school together. I always thought of it as sad, but I didn’t put much thought into it at all. I thought it didn’t concern me what a woman did with her body.
Two things happened in my life which led to a change in my attitude. The first occurred in November 1971. I had been involved in a relationship with a girl from college which ended in September 1971. In November, while I was home in NY for Thanksgiving, she called me and hit me with this message, “You and me created a we…but don’t worry about it…I’ve already taken care of it”. Besides my resentment for telling me this when it was already too late for my voice to be heard, I felt a tremendous sense of loss. I’m realistic enough to know that I would not have been able to care for a baby at that point in my life. Yet there have been times throughout my life when I’ve stopped and wondered if it would have been a boy or a girl. I think of how old he/she would be. I miss the child they never got to be.
The second epiphany was when I found out my wife was pregnant with our first born. I watched as that little embryo evolved into a fetus evolved into a baby evolved into my daughter evolved into a woman and mother of her own. It was all part of the natural order of things. It told me that the embryo, from the moment of conception, has a life of its own.
Many women I know disagree with me totally on this subject. Some of these women are people whose opinion I greatly respect. I have been told by a few that as a man I have no right to have an opinion on this topic. They may be right, but I don’t see this as a women’s issue. I see it as a human rights issue. Someone has got to speak up for the silent voice inside the womb. This to me is not about a woman’s right to do whatever she wants with her body. Once conception has taken place, the womb is out on loan. No baby born has to be kept…it can be turned over via “safe haven laws” to hospitals, police stations, or churches. It must be allowed to live though. Life is the most precious thing in the world. Nobody should be allowed to end one…even one that hasn’t been born yet.
But that’s just my opinion.
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