Tuesday, August 21, 2012

In which I continue this month's theme of sighing in despair in reaction to today's news

The Republican party wants to add a plank to the 2012 platform outlawing abortion in all cases. All cases: rape, incest and life of the mother included. Just...just gimme a break.

Look, I get it: abortion is controversial. Plenty of people, good honest people, have deep reservations against terminating a pregnancy---I get that. There are people who use abortion as a form of birth control, and I don't think thats right. In a perfect world abortion wouldn't exist; it would be inconcievable. But we do no live in an ideal world.

Leaving the decision to have an abortion should be left to the individual, because that is the only way that abortion can be handled. Trying to legalize it out of existence only creates more loopholes and complications. Its not perfect, its not always used responsibly, but only the individual can make the decision to have an abortion.

This is horribly unrealistic. It is the exact opposite to both realistic policy, and it is not as pro life as its proponents would think.

There are situations where an abortion is essential to save the life of a woman. No, its not fair, but, again, the world is not a perfect place. Maybe in five hundred years all medical conditions requiring abortion will be solved, and that will be a great day. Until that day, however, we have to accept the fact that women's needs to have an abortion must be guaranteed. Not just in preserving a woman's freedom but also their lives.

Asking a woman who has been raped (yes, Todd Akin, I am looking at you) to bear her rapist's child is utterly disrespectful. Someone who has had their body violated once now has to live with the consequences, endure the pain of childbirth and cope with a child they do not want (yes, they can adopt, but still). The rapist practically gets off scot free. Don't even get me started on incest. You completley will lose me if you try to argue that incest is not grounds for abortion.

There are situations where abortion is the lesser of two evils. Maybe they can be handled better. Hindsight is 20/20 and a maze is easier to solve from above. I think its condescending to judge someone for having an abortion: they've done the agonizing for you.

The sole consolation is that women (who Republicans will discover can vote in America), I believe, will overwhelmingly reject the Republican party, growing the demographic group wedded to the Democrats: what I would like to call, the League of Everyone Else. By 2016 I'm hopeful, however irrationally, that reality will sink in and the Republicans will begin to get their act together. I doubt it, and I will await to see the level the Republicans will sink to if the lessons of 2012 are not learned.

I need to do some blogging about science fiction, history, rock climbing or SCUBA diving...anything to take my mind off of all the misguided bullshit Republicans and conservatives have been spewing. Granted, I'm Canadian, I shouldn't be as concerned as those poor Americans, but I can't help but feel sorry for them. I feel sorry they have to live with such crap.

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