Obama and Abortion

Can someone who is pro-life vote for Obama?

Let's assume, for the purpose of this discussion, that abortion is the single most important issue facing our nation today. I personally disagree with that notion, but for some in the pro-life crowd, abortion is akin to genocide and mass-murder, and I can understand that being a "one issue" vote worth making.

Can you vote for someone who has, as I understand, the most liberal voting record on abortion in history? How do you get around that "one issue" when you're a one-issue voter?

Let's look at what voting for a pro-life candidate really means. There are really two paths toward furtherance of the pro-life cause: Supreme Court decisions, and actual federal legislation. For a President to influence Supreme Court decisions, there would first have to be openings. The general consensus is that there will probably be judges leaving the bench during this Presidential term. The President would then have to recommend for appointment only pro-life judges. There would then have to be an abortion case heard by the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court would have to make a majority decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

That overturning is, of course, only the first step. All that does is leave the law-making process to the states. Several states (seven, I believe) already have anti-abortion laws in place to go into effect if Roe v. Wade is overturned. And several more will have no laws banning abortion.

The effect of the overturning will have one main consequence, I believe: people will have to travel further for safe abortions.

It is already known that outlawing abortion does not make it stop. Certainly, there were fewer abortions when it was illegal, but no one can know definitively how many abortions were done in back alley clinics, at home with coat hangers, or across the country's borders. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, it seems there will be a few options for people:

(1) Carry and deliver the child.
(2) Travel to another state to obtain an abortion.
(3) Seek an illegal vendor in your own state.
(4) Perform your own abortion.

I would expect the next course of action for the pro-lifers would be to lobby for each individual state's banning of abortion. Let's suppose, for purpose of this argument, that they succeed (which will probably never happen), and all abortion becomes illegal in all states.

Or, alternatively, the federal government could draft and sign into law a bill outlawing abortion unilaterally in all states, perhaps allowing abortion in certain circumstances, perhaps not. If this happens, it seems there will be a few options for people:

(1) Carry and deliver the child.
(2) Travel to another country to obtain an abortion.
(3) Seek an illegal vendor in your own area.
(4) Perform your own abortion.

Abortions will not stop. They will become dangerous, they will become expensive, but they will not stop.

And we must ask, what will happen to the 1 million additional children who are likely to be born each year? Certainly they will not all be adopted. Can they be supported, both emotionally and financially? Can our society as a whole support such a large increase in population? Will child abuse rates increase? Will the number of families below the poverty level increase? Will that, in turn, increase the rates of crime? This is all speculative, of course, but I think it's an important consideration. If we are going to force a woman to carry and deliver a child she does not want, do we have a responsibility to that child after it is born? If so, what?

Are there ever situations in which an abortion is justified? What about instances in which a child would be born severely disabled or malformed into a life of only a few hours full of pain and suffering? Should that mother be able to choose to end her child's life before it begins? In instances where a mother's life is in danger, should she be required to put the life of the potential child above her own? When a woman is raped, should she be required to carry the child of her rapist, risking additional life-altering psychological damage?

If we are going to allow abortion under certain extreme circumstances, someone has to evaluate those circumstances. We would have to weigh, case-by-case, each woman's intentions and the potential damage to her physical and mental health. How many women would want to submit to that intense scrutiny?

There is also an argument among the pro-life movement that hormonal birth control acts as abortifacient. It is currently unknown in the scientific community whether this is true, but nevertheless, the US Dept. of Health and Human Services is taking action to define abortion to include hormonal birth control that may prevent fertilized eggs from implanting. How could a line be drawn between the expulsion of a fertilized egg - a life - through regular hormonal birth control, and abortion? If we decide that hormonal birth control is also abortion, it would also be illegal. Can the ramifications of ending access to hormonal birth control - the most commonly used form of birth control - even be quantified?

It certainly could be argued that those details are irrelevant and that the discomforts it may cause our society are no reason to continue the murder of millions of innocent human beings (if that's what you believe abortion to be). In fact, I've used that same exact argument against those who claim gay marriage would cause a legal nightmare, clogging the court system with tons of additional marriage license and divorce requests. But I think it is important, in this instance, to examine the results of the methodology used in reducing the number of abortions.

And, whether abortion is illegal or not, there will always be a group fighting for it to be otherwise. Unless we can find common ground and work together toward a common cause, this issue will continue to divide us.

Therefore, I ask: Is it possible to reduce the number of abortions to a number comparable to that which would be procured in the case of its illegality without rendering it illegal?

Doing so may have the same net effect on lives saved, but with the avoidance of all the potential issues raised above, without women feeling their rights have been violated, without causing dangerous, illegal abortions. Without continuing the same divisive arguments for and against abortion. Would that not be the ideal compromise between the two divergent viewpoints?

I believe this to be possible.

Abortions are caused most often by one thing: unwanted pregnancy. If we can reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, we can reduce the number of abortions AND the number of children subjected to abuse, forced to live in foster homes, or living in poverty. We can reduce the number of teenage parents. We can empower people to make positive decisions for themselves and their families before they get into the position of contemplating abortion.

That is Barack Obama's position: that the pro-life and pro-choice can work together to achieve the common goal of reducing unwanted pregnancy. That we can take this issue that has divided our country for years and turn it into something that unites us. A vote for Barack Obama is not a vote for "baby-killing" any more than a vote for John McCain is. They only have different methods for preventing abortion.

I guess I don't want to be a "Real American."

The new shiny tool in the McCain/Palin arsenal is ego-stroking small-town folks, telling them they are the "real" Americans, telling them they love being around people who are so "pro-America," and actually going as far as to say that liberals hate America.

I don't know what it is about a gun rack in your truck (you know, the one with the American flag decal that takes up the whole window), a beer in your hand, Nascar on the telly (oh, what a delightful inconsistency of speech that was!), country music on the radio, and, ironically, sometimes even a Confederate flag flying proudly in the yard that screams patriotism, but it apparently does. Understand, I am not saying that all people from small towns are as described here. But still, these are the people who seem to consider themselves the most patriotic. These are also the people who believe Barack Obama to be a secret Muslim part of a grand conspiracy theory to destroy our nation. Or, alternatively, that he is a black supremacist who is garnering for the position of power so he can lead the blacks in a revolution against non-black America and force whites into slavery. These are the people who decry intellectualism (well, they would decry, but I doubt most of them know what that means). These are the people who proudly sing along with Toby Keith..."We'll put a boot in yer ass, it's the Amurikin way!"

The McCain/Palin administration - much like the Bush administration - has an interesting definition of "patriotic:"

pa·tri·ot [pey-tree-uht] –noun
1. one with unquestioning faith in government.
2. one who elects government officials based on how well they can relate to them, and then believe they are doing the right thing or the thing they feel is in the best interest of the country regardless of any evidence to the contrary.
3. one who harbors loathsome hate of anyone who has or might in the future harm their country of origin, and also loathes anyone who has an appearance resembling someone who has or might in the future harm their country of origin.
4. one who not only never admits their country of origin is wrong or has any flaws, weaknesses or shortcomings, but does not even realize it does.

The irony is that these "real Americans" accuse liberals of elitism...and then blabber on about how America is the best country in the world, Americans are the best people in the world, America is a "force for good" or a "beacon of light" or a "moral compass" in the world, and so on and so forth. Golly, that sounds awful elitist to me. American exceptionalism makes me sick. And, of course, that means I'm anti-American.

That's OK with me. It's alright with me if some backwoods hillbilly morons think that they're more patriotic than me. Because while they're chugging their beer, shooting their guns and making the American flag into various items of clothing, I'll be out working to change the country into my "anti-American" liberal vision, complete with gays having butt sex on their wedding night, grade schoolers learning about the reproductive system as if it were any other system of the body, free college educations, and no tax shelters for the wealthy. In fact, here, have another beer - this one's on me.

Sarah Paling

Since Sarah Palin has clearly declared a war on the letter "g," I've decided that her name probably is really Paling, and she just drops the "g." So from now on, she's Sarah Paling.

My mystification of this woman seems endless. Not only am I mystified that she was chosen for the second highest office in the country - I am mystified that she was ever elected into political office at all. I am beginning to believe strongly in something I'm calling the Folksy Force.

I thought George W. was a perfect example of FF, but I'm being shown there are some with whom the F-Force is even stronger. Sarah Paling's hillbilly-midi-chlorian rates are through the roof. I do, however, sense much fear in her, so it's clear she's one with the Dark Side.

I truly cannot understand the appeal of a world leader that is "just like us." I cannot understand the desire to elect someone who cannot pronounce nuclear, someone who speaks colloquially even in the most formal of situations, and someone who has trouble forming a coherent sentence when asked anything with which there is not complete familiarity. And worst of all, someone who gives "shout outs" and winks at the camera during a Vice Presidential Debate as if it were the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. (And if it was, I don't think Sarah would be accepting an award. I can only assume other 6 year-olds share my son's extreme dislike of her. I'm so proud of him!)

I truly cannot understand either the appeal of a leader you could fart in front of without embarrassment or the resistance to an intellectual leader. Perhaps people aren't hiring a leader. Perhaps they are merely hiring a representative. Not someone to forge ahead, bringing innovation and inspiration to our country's government, but someone who can show the rest of the world what the "Average American" is most like. And sadly, I'm beginning to believe that the average American really is a beer-drinking, alphabet-belching, gun-toting, word-butchering hillbilly.

Of course, I'm just an elitist, so my opinion isn't worth much to the electorate, anyway.

I Thought my Security was Secure...

It's been very bizarre, this move to South Bend. I really like it here, both the area and my job. But I've undergone a strange emotional transformation with the relocation.

I'm insecure again.

After I left my husband, it was as though I shrugged off any self-doubt. I knew who I was, what I wanted, and that I could get it. I was secure, positive, happy. I was proud. I felt invincible, to an extent.

But now, I feel uncomfortable in my own skin again. I feel fat and ugly. This isn't entirely baseless - I'm grossly overweight right now. But still, I've been this overweight (if not more) for over a year, and this is the first time I've truly felt uncomfortable about it. I feel like all eyes must be on my big belly or saggy ass. I feel judged. I even feel remotely stupid, since I'm being given assignments to work on things that I haven't even thought about in four or more years. I'm doing alright...but I'm scared.

There's no good reason for this change. The people here have been nothing but polite, friendly, warm and appreciative. It might, in part, be the fact that I'm replacing two skinny, beautiful women, and working with another. It might be the fact that I'm the sole peon in the office, working under three attorneys - one of whom is my exact age, and one of whom is younger. It might be that I'm financially freaked out. I'm behind on bills and completely stressed out about it.

I just don't understand where this new-found insecurity has come from. I've gone through hardships before, and new situations, and I've generally been able to approach them with poise and confidence. Not this time. This time, I'm completely self-conscious.

I don't know how to work through it.