A dark cloud hangs over Texas, starting a storm that could spread across the country. The governor there passed a cruel and ignorant law basically banning abortions. He is supposed to protect the people, but instead he is punishing them.
It’s time to pick up the protest signs and hit the streets. The battle to keep Roe v. Wade legal begins again. But wait, there is really no reason to fight, saving women’s lives by keeping abortions safe is a good thing. How could helping people be anything but good? If we view this law clearly we will see the benefits of it and why it is so greatly needed.
It is about one question, is it a bunch of cells or a person?
First is the “cell” argument, where people believe what is growing inside a woman is just a group of cells. If we accept this there is no problem removing cells from the body, it’s done in hospitals a thousand times a day. No problem there.
Then there’s the “person” argument, the belief that it is a person and it is wrong and illegal to kill a person even if it happens to be in the womb.
But there is really no problem because, legally speaking, our government already allows ending peoples’ lives, and for good reasons.
Doctors regularly perform euthanasia on terminal patients. Accidentally killing someone is also legal, so is taking a life in self-defense and for trespassing. These are fair and just laws that protect people, and legal abortion fits into this category. Like any similar law, it protects women from harm.
Society allows the ending of a life to protect its citizens. It weighs the killing of a person (or removing fetal cells) against the greater suffering this person or thing would cause to another. It was judged that the inevitable problems in dealing with this entity was a threat to the woman’s life. In fact it caused horrendous harm to millions of women. The solution was to have safe abortions. Roe v. Wade has saved more lives than any other law.
In those dark days before safeguards the limited solution to unwanted pregnancy was having an unsafe “backroom” procedure. It took its toll.
In the 1950s and ‘60s, about 62%, almost two-thirds, of married women in America had one or more unwanted pregnancies. Unmarried women faced the same problem. Many turned to backroom amateurs and were permanently damaged or worse. During this time 1.2 million backroom abortions were performed. Multitudes were lost. The sheer numbers override any self-righteous judging of these women. They were not fallen or foolish. They were intelligent people facing a life-threatening problem.
Roe v. Wade saved them from harm. This is the basic principle of the Constitution and of every law.
If you feel sad for ending an innocent “life” from abortion, you must also feel sad for ending an innocent life in a car accident or a mistaken trespassing. The same innocent soul is lost.
Don’t let religious zealots lead us on another idiotic crusade. We recently followed a trumpeting elephant down a path that led to confusion an chaos. Don’t let another pack of elephants trample womens’ rights.
We don’t have to come up with clever, legal excuses for abortion. All our banterings make us lose sight of the obvious truth.
And that is, not just women but every one of us is given a body with the sacred task of protecting it and controlling it. In most cases, only you can decide what goes in your body and what goes out of it.
It is the only natural-born right you have.
Dennis Gregory writes a bi-monthly column for West Hawaii Today and welcomes comments at makewavess@yahoo.com.