The Weird and The Wacky Meet

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What is the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Really About?

In late October, Congress passed a “partial birth” abortion ban, and on November 5, 2003, President Bush signed the bill into law. Whether you’re for or against abortion, you should be outraged because this blanket ban gives no protection for the woman’s life. People often forget that abortions are performed out of medical necessity.  This is an egregious error on the part of Congress and our President because it shows a complete disregard for the well-being of American women.  Divided as this country may be, no one wants a woman to have to die.

                 The fraction of the nation that this bill capitulates to are people who are dangerous to the health and well being of women because they just don’t care about anything but their own agenda.  This bill that was passed has confusing and unspecific language.  In fact, “partial birth” is not a precise medical term, just a scare phrase invented to make people react emotionally to an issue that requires us to be clear-headed and objective.  So now any doctor who performs abortions twelve weeks into the unwanted pregnancy, when the embryo has just technically become a fetus, is at risk of prosecution.  This is intended to have a chilling effect on abortion. This ambiguity is no accident, but an intentional attempt to create a legal basis for granting embryos and fetuses the same rights as you and I have.  In short, the main purpose behind banning “partial birth” abortions is not to eliminate late term abortions, but to lay the groundwork for banning all abortions.

The reason for this back-door approach is because the front door is locked.  There is no reason for us to even begin to reconsider a woman’s right to choose to have a responsible, early abortion.  This issue was settled with Roe v. Wade years ago, so if you’re seriously against a woman having an abortion, you should go out into the streets and start passing out condoms and birth control pills.

                 We have to look at the real motives behind the people who are completely against the woman’s right to choose an abortion.  If they were really against abortion, they would be pro-birth control and pro-sex education, since both of these things are statistically proven to prevent abortions.  However, a careful unpacking of their rhetoric and policies show that it’s not abortion that is their main target, but the woman’s right to control her own reproductive organs.  What it really comes down to is that these people want to punish women for having sex by forcing them to carry any pregnancy – no matter how forced, unsafe, or unwanted – to term.. 

                 Now, this may shock some of you, but we all come from a long line of people who had sex.  It’s normal and natural for us to have a sex drive.  Repressing the libido only leads to irresponsible behavior because people will still give in to it but won’t do it carefully and responsibly. They won’t plan ahead and look at birth control as an option.  This is just what the people who banned “partial birth” abortions want, for women to feel guilty about sex.  Why?  Because guilt is a fine mechanism for controlling people, and guilt over sex is a wonderful tool for keeping women in their place, which is a secondary role where they are limited to wife and mother instead of equal.

                 According to Planned Parenthood, 99% of abortions take place in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, with 88% in the first 12 weeks.  Abortions performed in the first 20 weeks are relatively simple procedures.  An abortion that occurs after that is one that takes place because there is a medical need.  Medical ethics regarding these procedures should be based on the patient's right to preserve their health and happiness, not on the potential rights of potential people.  Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Organization for Women, and NARAL Pro-Choice America have already filed several lawsuits challenging this bill.

                 It’s important to keep the real issues in focus and avoid the misleading, emotionalized language that seeks to throw us off balance by tricking us into reacting on our gut feelings alone.  Calling a fetus an unborn baby is like calling an adult an unkilled corpse.  When they speak of a woman with an unwanted pregnancy as a “mother” whose unborn “baby” is about to be “murdered”, they’re just trying to stop us from thinking clearly.  For that matter, calling it a “partial birth” abortion makes is sound gruesome, which it is, but if we’re honest with ourselves then we’ll admit that many medical procedures leave us squeamish, if not utterly disgusted.  But we don’t make medical decisions on the basis of what’s icky.  We have to follow the code of medical ethics, which puts the patient’s needs above our comfort.

                 In an ideal world, condoms would never fail, birth control would be 100% reliable, no woman would ever be raped, and having a child would be as easy as trimming your fingernails.  However, none of us live in that ideal world, and that’s why abortions are necessary.  Instead of working to eliminate abortions, let’s all work on eliminating the reasons women get them.  Let's offer comprehensive sexual education and make contraception available to all.  Then abortions would be safe, legal, and rare.

Copyright 2003

Not the original graphic, but doesn’t the idea of back alley abortions make you glib?

By Amanda Evans

Original Publishing Date: 11/20/03