Since Wednesday, a virtual civil war has erupted in Baghdad. Two hundred were killed, and many more injured. Last week in the United States, the landscape was no less explosive, as politicians across the nation turned their focus toward abortion.
The South Dakota Senate and House both passed a measure that would make it a felony to perform an abortion in the state. If Governor Mike Rounds approves the bill, there is little doubt that the legality of abortion will be questioned not just by South Dakota, but by the U.S. Supreme Court. The national organization Planned Parenthood has already promised that if Rounds declares abortion a felony, it will take the matter to court. If lower courts declare that the bill is unconstitutional in its violation of the Roe v. Wade precedent, South Dakota will have no choice but to convince the Supreme Court that Roe v. Wade should be overturned. And if Roe v. Wade is indeed overturned, the effects of such judicial action will be felt around the country, as states for the first time in more than a quarter of a century are permitted to declare abortion illegal.
The debate between the pro-lifers and the pro-choicers is nothing new, because both sides have been duking it out with their well-worn intellectual weapons (conveniently stated within their abortion stances) since before “Jane Roe” was even born: Babies are people and should therefore not be killed; women are people and should therefore be free to determine their bodily future. The problem with the abortion question, however, is that neither side wants to drop hard-line stances and occasionally admit that the other guy has a point. And with an issue such as abortion, looking at the other side of the argument is key to finding a policy that will sit well with the entire nation.
As a proponent of abortion, I want my opponents to remember this: I am not completely confident in my position as pro-choice. I suspect that many college age liberal women are not as steadfast in their pro-choice stance as political rallies and feminist classes would make our demographic out to be. I often consider the fact that many of my friends who were adopted might not be alive had their mothers chosen the route of abortion. I understand too that abortion can be an easy way to get over the mistake of not using birth control, and it scares me that some young women (and certainly men) don’t plan ahead because in the back of their minds they know, if worse comes to worst, abortion is a possibility. I believe that if a pregnant woman is attacked and her baby dies, that criminal should be prosecuted for murder, no matter the age of the fetus. I realize that this is in opposition to my belief that embryos of up to three months should not be considered people in terms of a mother’s right to abortion. I see this hypocrisy, and I shakily defend both of these contradictory beliefs in terms of the right of a woman to privacy. Shakily.
However critical I may be of my own value systems, the end result is a belief that because there can be no one right answer, the only choice is to look for the best answer. As far as I am concerned, the current U.S. policy on abortion is that answer (minus parental or spousal notification laws, waiting periods, etc.). Women have a right to family planning, and are more qualified than any government agency to determine what they do with their bodies. This right is mitigated by the right of an unborn fetus; therefore, the three-month policy is the best compromise for each party involved in the pregnancy. The mother does not have the ultimate power, and neither does the fetus. Most importantly, with the current status of abortion, legislation penned by primarily men cannot be granted decision-making power that trumps that of both the mother and the fetus.
I hope critics of the recent Roe v. Wade hysteria will be proved correct in their assertion that the right to abortion is safe, and all the pro-choice fuss is over nothing. I hope the governor of South Dakota will respect the constitution and not sign a bill that expressly violates that document. I hope if the case does reach the Supreme Court, newly elected justices Roberts and Alito will not let their conservative viewpoints influence what should be an intellectual rather than an emotional decision. I hope in the ensuing debate before and after the potential Supreme Court ruling, both sides of the abortion debate will let go of their rigid notions concerning Right and Wrong , and instead concentrate upon compromise-based policy making.
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