By now everyone knows about the new Alabama law that just effectively banned abortion.
I don’t often comment on the issue of abortion because, for me, it’s complex and I don’t feel at all qualified. I’ve always called myself ‘pro-choice’ but I also understand some of the arguments made against it—particularly that in the early weeks of pregnancy it is the ‘potential’ for life. That I don’t write about it doesn’t mean I don’t defend it, or discuss it when it comes up in conversation… Simply that I’ve always felt there are people way more qualified than I to discuss it. However, this new brand of extremist, shariah-laws coming out of Alabama and Ohio (and other states) worries me. Not for myself, as there’s no way I’m ever going to get pregnant (not for lack of trying). But I happen to like (and even love) women. My mom’s a woman. My sister’s a woman. A lot of my friends are women. And I was taught growing up that women are people, with people emotions, people skills, people intelligence, people bodies, and people’s ability to make decisions for their own lives—and that nobody, not even the American Taliban has the right to usurp those abilities.
Last Saturday morning, after watching Overtime with Bill Maher on Friday night, I went over to YouTube to watch Overtime with Bill Maher. A question was asked of one of the Conservative guests, Matt Lewis (whom I confess I do not know), about whether he would vote for Trump in 2020. The conversation went something like this:
Bill: Will you vote for Trump in 2020.
Matt: No.
Bill: Then will you vote for the Democrat. Cause if you don’t vote for the Democrat then you’re just jerking off. If you’re going write in John McCain, he’s dead, he’s not going to be president.
Matt: Some day they’re going to bring him back […].
I added that part because I thought it was a clever retort. Later in the conversation Bill went on to ask him about Biden:
Bill: If it was a choice between Biden and Trump, would you vote for Biden.
Matt: See I’m pro-life! It’s a life or death issue…
That argument pissed me offer. Really pissed me off. Pretty much everybody I know is pro-life. Even pro-choice is pro-life. We all value life. The term is really meant to poison the well, suggesting that if you support abortion then you support “death.” I really wish Bill—or somebody at the table would have suggested that. I say this not as hyperbole, but I feel very strongly that we need to get rid of that term (pro-life). Whenever someone says to me, “I’m pro-life…” my response is, “we’re all pro-life.” This one of the terms I don’t let people use around me without challenging.
A friend posted on Facebook how upset he was with this new law, and one of his Conservative friends replied by saying how comical he thought it was that Democrats were “becoming unhinged” by the passage of this bill. That was another comment that pissed me off. The glee, the pure elation—at “Democrats” response to this bill. But what are Democrats really mad at? (And it’s not just democrats. Even Conservative and extremist Pat Robertson says the abortion bill has gone too far).
What really pissed me off about this comment was that the author seemed blissfully unaware (or he didn’t care) that this bill doesn’t necessarily hurt Democrats. Alabama is a deep-red state. It’s not Democrats per se that are in trouble here. It’s women who are going to suffer. Particularly young women, or women with health issues. “Democrats” understand this. THAT’s why they’re angry. That Conservatives love making Democrats mad is interesting, especially since they have to harm Conservatives to do it. Conservatives love Donald Trump because he makes Liberals mad. Liberals hate Donald Trump because he makes Conservatives suffer.
The term “pro-life” should mean just that… PRO life, which would also include the life of the mother (not to mention the life of the child once it’s born). Ironically, though, the term pro-life doesn’t necessarily apply to God/Nature. Only a century ago, before science stepped in, the death toll for mothers was about twelve hundred per one-hundred-thousand live births. Even with science, between ten and twenty percent of babies are miscarried, and that number would be much higher if science wasn’t trying to make pregnancies safer. In other words, God is clearly okay with abortion, and it’s science that’s been trying to bring those numbers down.
Getting pregnant is one of the most dangerous things a woman can undertake. Almost anything can happen, even after the child is born. Even now, with science trying to make up for God’s carelessness, the WHO suggests that three-hundred thousand mothers still die during pregnancy. Before science the problem was much worse.
The truth is, everyone here is “pro-life.” Even those who are pro-choice. We understand that pregnancy and reproduction are complicated—sometimes dangerous—and sometimes even fatal. And the irony of “life” is that it demands we make life-and-death decisions ‘in the name of life.’ Life throws some profoundly difficult choices our way and doesn’t seem to care which outcome proceeds from that dilemma—but we have to make choices, because we care. We’re not allowed to sit back and let God (or the state of Alabama) make those choices for us.
The agony and the irony of this new bill out of Alabama and Ohio (and all other anti-abortion bills) is that they have nothing to do with life. This bill is about punishment. Punishing women for having sex (and worse, enjoying it). If a woman has sex, she should be punished. (I wonder what men would think about that if they were the ones who had to carry the baby.) If a woman—or a girl—is raped, she should be punished by having the rapist’s baby (especially if it’s a legitimate rape). Meanwhile the rapist gets off easy because he’s a pastor and because… Jesus.
Which makes me ask people like my friend’s commenter: “I wonder, if you were to reach down to where your heart should be, and look at this issue as a HUMAN issue from a human perspective, and take away the politics and ideology (and misogyny), if you might realize that there’s nothing funny at all about the suffering this bill is determined to bring upon women and those who love them.”
I’m pro-choice BECAUSE I’m pro-life. And it’s time to call Conservatives what they are: Pro-fetus (or anti-abortion). It takes a soul to value life, and these people have sold their souls.