An incredibly well-written and thought provoking open letter to Barack Obama can be found here. It addresses Senator’s Obama’s views on abortion. Due to the nature of our political system Mr. Obama will probably never acknowledge this letter’s existence or address the questions it raises. Despite this I can only pray that he will. Go take a look – it is worth the three minutes of your time.
Touchy subject. Abortion, however, the writer failed to show all sides. It’s soooo easy to show the victim side, the unborn child who needs a protector. But Abortion is about so much more than that. Let me begin by stating that I oppose Abortion. If I found out my wife aborted, I’d leave her without hesitation.
That being said, the subject is about more than the unborn life. And to be fair, Obama is just as against Abortion as I am. The subject is about how to stop Abortions. There are 2 ways. Laws that prohibit and punish. Designs that give so many other and better options that the mother just wouldn’t consider abortion to begin with.
Obama’s abortion plan is the 2nd. Make all forms of birth control easier to get. Provide research funds on ways to save lives when it’s a “mother or child” scenario. Tax benefits to single mothers. Unanimity to mothers who consider giving their child up for adoption. The list goes on and on.
Obama isn’t about prohibitive laws. All of his solutions from Health Care to Abortion are to set things up in such a way that there’s only 1 real choice to people. The right choice.
Sphynx -
First I must say that I cannot distinguish between a personal belief about abortion and a political one. If Mr. Obama personally believes that abortion is murder he has been (and continues to be) in a position to stop it. To not do is, to me, reprehensible and horrifying. If abortion is the murder of a human child something must be done legally to prevent that murder from taking place. You cannot have it both ways.
I also must disagree with your final statement – as long as abortion is legal, there will always be two real choices. While the subject is indeed how to end abortion, I do not in any way agree that creating other options will lead women to make “the right choice”. Here’s why:
I believe that all humanity has fallen from God and given themselves to sin. Any number of programs could be created to offer appealing alternatives to abortion. At the end of the day, however, an abortion is still more convenient than any other option. As creatures apart from God, we love wickedness and will continue to choose darkness when it is the easiest path. No amount of birth control, tax benefits, research programs or adoption services will change that.
first i will just introduce myself; I am Char’s sister-in-law.
okay, so, I want to say that Obama’s plans to create more appealing options to mothers with unwanted pregnancies is fantastic! Abortion is NOT the easier solution. it is expensive, and a lot of the times painful. I have known quite a few women in my life who have had abortions. Why? Because they didn’t want to baby and there was no other OPTION for them. It is not the pregnancy that women shy away from, it is the stigma attached to unwed mothers and the money involved in raising a child alone and the cost of a lot of private adoption agencies is outrageous. Not everyone can find the perfect family for their baby in the Penny Saver like Juno did. I am against abortion in so many ways, but to say that the ONLY option is to treat these helpless mothers like murders is just illogical. Give them a choice and most unwanted children WILL get their chance to live.
First, it’s nice to meet you Steff. You make some interesting points – I just disagree with them. I do think abortion alternatives will save the lives of some children – I don’t at all believe it will save most nor do I believe that abortion should be legal regardless of other available options. Murder is murder no matter how many other options you provide to try to prevent it. Why not make abortion illegal like the rest of all murder and still provide tax breaks and programs to support pregnant women? Why does abortion have to be legal for these things to happen?
I also take issue with calling pregnant women helpless mothers. At the end of the day, if you’re not in a position to have a child you shouldn’t have sex. Once you have sex you no longer get to fall into the helpless category. You made a choice and now you must deal with the consequences. If dealing with those consequences means you have an abortion, then yes, logically and practically you are a mother who is killing her child. But my no means do you get to hide under the shield of helpless.
I am just going to disagree.
Bravo, Lauren! I was reading through the comments thinking, what about consequences of actions? And there you brought it in.
Steffane, suppose you were driving along and a cop pulls in behind you. You check your speed and you are going 25 mi/hr over the limit. You pull over, your mind races. You know the speed limit on that stretch of road. You know that speeding can get you a ticket. Further, you know that driving that much over the speed limit can get your license suspended and your car impounded. You knew all of this, yet you were speeding anyway.
As your mind flashes through all of these things, as you think about how stupid you were, you get more and more desperate. NOt only do you not have the money to pay the ticket, but forget about getting the car out of impound. Even worse, if you lose your license you will lose your job. No job, no money…how will you live? Even if you can get a nothing job so that you can eat and pay rent, your career will be derailed. Oh, and no more fun–no more nice restaurants, no more trips, no more drinks at the bar with your friends…. To cap it all off, the embarassment is more than you can face.
But, wait, there is a way out, you have another choice! It is one that you never thought you would use. It is one that you do not wish was necessary. You have a gun in your purse, given to you for self-defense. This is self-defense, right? You are defending your right to live your life as you want, your right to pursue happiness. All you have to do is shoot the cop and the whole thing goes away….
Ridiculous? No more so to me than killing an unborn human being.
Stef -
This came from another blog. It’s just opinion, but it doesn’t bode well for Obama.
“Obama has never expressed any support for the “Pregnant Women Support Act” (i.e., the 95-10 bill introduced in Congress in 2007; it has languished ever since – neither Pelosi, nor Reid (nor any committee chair) have brought it forward for a hearing, etc.). In fact, Obama recently voted against one of its key provisions, namely, (re)inclusion of coverage for unborn children under SCHIP (the Allard Amendment). More damningly, he is a co-sponsor of the radically pro-abortion “Freedom of Choice Act.” Indeed, he told a gathering at a Planned Parenthood event that “his first act” as President would be to sign it.”