Here is my journey:
Years Ago
I once wrote a paper for the school in favor of the right using Amendment IX of the Constitution:
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
My commentary in the paper:
A key, yet under-applied, amendment. The fact is that abortion was a known practice when the framers created the document known as the U.S. Constitution.
Abortion was practiced, either by the use of drugs or by surgical instruments by the early Romans in the third century. The practice fell in line with common birth control methods before and during this time in many cultures and societies, including other alternatives such as infanticide and contraception.
Condemnation of abortion in Western thought began in the ninth-century under the direction of the Catholic Church. The church strongly condemned abortion, although its prohibitions failed to stop the practice. Various herbal potions, whose formulas appear in writings from Roman and Byzantine doctors were available to cause abortions.
With the formation of most Western European/Christian thought at this time, it begins to become clear why abortion is such a hot-button issue in America. Deep-rooted and deep-seeded historical feelings are at stake, and as the Founding Fathers made clear in the First Amendment, religious interference in personal decisions was an issue they took seriously; however, the story does not end there.
After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, a woman named Alexandra Kollontai became Minister of Social Welfare and pushed a program for women's rights and social welfare reforms that made marriage a civil act, legalized divorce, decreed the equality of men and women, and permitted abortions.
One can now see why the animus toward the Soviet Union these many years: Communists were atheists who were against property rights. What goes unrecognized by anti-abortion advocates is that the progressive Bolshevik social legislation of the 1920s was rolled back by Stalin in the 1930s. Due to declining birth rates, abortion was outlawed, fines instituted for repeated divorces, and homosexuality was declared a criminal activity.
Another unrecognized ally of the anti-abortion movement is Adolph Hitler, who said in Mein Kampf: "I'll put an end to the idea that a woman's body belongs to her... Nazi ideals demand that the practice of abortion shall be exterminated with a strong hand.
The point of this historical perspective is that the framers were well aware of the issue of abortion, and that the argument continued well afterward. With the issue unaddressed in the Constitution, and the separation of church and state precedent, this amendment most clearly defines a right to privacy and to choose: a right that should not be denied or disparaged simply because it passes unmentioned.
In other words, the right to choose is "retained" by the affected woman.
Please consider where I come from (Massachusetts) and that I was a brainwashed lefty at the time (report got an A, too).
Oh, how things have changed.
Last year, I still stood with the last sentence as a pro-choice advocate, but not in the way you would think.
Last Year (Memory Hole: June 29, 2007)
I am for FAMILIES DECIDING on the issue.
I am OPPOSED to INSTITUTIONALIZED ABORTIONS!!
Is it not interesting that it was the COMMUNISTS who were the ones to INSTITUTIONALIZE the practice? WHY was abortion turned into a "medical" procedure ($$) when "various herbal potions, whose formulas appear in writings from Roman and Byzantine doctors were available to cause abortions?"
Is it not ODD that the "FEMALE LIBERATION" movement has done more to DESTROY FAMILIES than any other movement in history?
Is it not ODD that we are warring with Muslims to bring them our "secular democracy" with its "civil rights," and at the same time DESTROYING a CULTURE based very much on FAMILY?
And how about the POISONING and EXPERIMENTING being done on our "liberated" mothers, daughters, and sisters here?
But I am lining up with Hitler and Stalin, you say!
No, dear reader, that is one more proof of the Zionist-controlled media slander intended to divide people.
I never hear the slander directed at the pro-abortion groups for lining up with Communist China.
Think about it.
The Framers of the Constitution knew about abortions, and some were practiced.
By NOT MENTIONING the issue in the Constitution, the right is a PRIVATE ONE!!!
KILLING GOVERNMENTS have NO BUSINESS!!!
Now I've heard all the scare tactics, and know about the past "coat hanger" stories, etc, and yet WHY WAS ABORTION turned into an INDUSTRY if we are NOT a CULTURE of DEATH?
Think about it.
WHY do we NOT have the RESOURCES to treat ALL PREGNANT WOMEN with the LOVE and RESPECT they deserve?
We are the RICHEST COUNTRY on the PLANET, but rather than CARE for WOMEN and CHILDREN, we would rather POISON and KILL THEM!!!
And INSTITUTIONALIZE it as a RIGHT!!!
I realize this is a convoluted answer to a difficult question, but at base level I am FOR LIFE!!!
So WHY does OUR SOCIETY promote a CULTURE of DEATH?!
And now, what do I think, one year later?
Today
On April 15 of this year I wrote:
"I am very much a pro-life person these days!
Wasn't always so; up until a year or so ago I was one of those it's a right, it's a woman's choice, etc.
But no longer, and here is why:
It is not based on any legal standing. It is not based on what you would call "facts." It is a pure moral response to this hell of a world. What turned me into a pro-life person was the UNENDING WARS and KILLING!!!! Since that seems to be the way of the world, HAVE ALL THE BABIES YOU CAN!!!!
It's not like we can't take care of them: We have TRILLIONS for WARS and OCCUPATIONS, we have BILLIONS for BANKS and ISRAEL, so WHY CAN'T WE TAKE CARE of ALL the KIDS?
Yeah, I'm tired of the KILLING and MURDER!!! I LOVE LIFE!!!!
I've also always wondered why AmeriKa would adopt a regime like that of the Communists such as China and Russia -- both HUGE abortion states!!!!
Never mind the American society and its agenda-pushing, pro-abortion media which seems to delight in death.
So when it comes to babies and mommies and weddings, et al, I say WHO CARES?!
LOVE and CARE for ALL the CHILDREN, no matter who they are because they are all God's gift to us!!!!"
Now, when I REALLY stop and THINK about the issue, I believe it is best handled in this way:
"Ron Paul Revolution Excerpts, Continued"
"One of the most contentious issues in our public life over the past three and a half decades has been abortion....
Dr. Paul then relays some of his personal experiences before continuing:
"I have heard the arguments in favor of abortion many times, and they have always disturbed me deeply....
Whether it is war or abortion, we conceal the reality of violent acts through linguistic contrivances meant to devalue human lives we find inconvenient. Dead civilians become "collateral damage," are ignored altogether, or are rationalized away.... People ask an expectant mother how her baby is doing. They do not ask how her fetus is doing, or her blob of tissue.... But that is what her baby becomes as soon as the child is declared unwanted. In both cases, we try to make human life into something less than human, simply according to our will....
Dr. Paul gets controversial here, as he states in his book that the federal government should play no role in abortion issue, and suggest that the Congress strip the courts of their jurisdiction over the issue (per Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution).
Now I can understand the aversion to him by people on that side of the issue. I guess you can say I'm an absolutist; however, I recognize (as Dr. Paul also does) that I will have to settle for a less-than-perfect world.
By a simple majority, Congress could strip the federal courts of jurisdiction over abortion, thereby overturning the obviously unconstitutional Roe. At that point, the issue would revert to the states, where it constitutionally belongs....
To those who argue that we cannot allow the states to make decisions on abortion since some will make the wrong ones, I reply that that is an excellent argument for world government -- for how can we allow individual countries to decide on abortion or other moral issues, if some may make the wrong decisions? Yet the dangers of a world government surely speak for themselves.
Let us therefore adopt the constitutional position, one that is achievable and can yield good results but that shuns the utopian idea that all evil can be eradicated.... anyone expecting perfection in this world is going to be consistently disappointed....
Think what you want of the good Dr's argument and logic, but you cannot claim he is being unreasonable or realistic.
Unless you can point to something perfect in this world, readers?
In any case, I'm willing to live with the solution Dr. Paul proposes.
It is really the only one!
Also see: The Role of Feminism in the New World Order
