Reproductive Rights

At the conclusion of a very readable piece on abortion, The New Jerusalem considers

. . .the possibility that it might be a good idea to suggest some policies that would reduce the number of abortions by more than a fraction. Better access to contraception, more money and welfare services for vulnerable mothers and so on. But I suspect that’s too much to ask for.

Yes, it is too much to ask for.

In the USA, abortion has attained a much wider and more prominent status than the actual numbers of Americans affected. That's because it is used as a wedge issue by one end of our spectrum to polarize our politics. As such it has become a symbolic mountain in our political topography: whoever controls its heights establishes a relative hegemony. The battle has gone on so long between the anti-abortion clique and their pro-choice (notice I did not use the term, "pro-abortion") opponents that the mountain has been chiselled down such that conditions and stages of pregnancy have been added as caveats.

I feel (always) compelled to state my personal and unchanging position on women's reproductive rights. Bill Clinton was close when he said something like abortion should be legal, professionally performed and rare (or words to that effect). What I say is that is that I am unalterably opposed to abortion excepting in those instances when a woman determines, in absolute privacy with her physician, that she wishes one, for whatever reason.

Conclusion: Abortion vs. Choice is but one mountain in the American cultural civil war. If it weren't there, we would be contesting over the flag on some other summit. It's really that trivial: a metaphorical flag.

~ by Vigilante on November 15, 2006.