Our Babies

 Last Wednesday, I shared my opinion on gun violence and gun control. Those of you who shared your thoughts were in alignment with me. You might argue with my ponderings from today.  

I believe, without a doubt, that abortion at any stage of conception is murder. From the time that sperm embeds in that egg, there is a human life form snuggling inside Mom.

And yet, I have a hard time getting behind a ban on all abortions. There’s more to consider than just killing unborn babies. What about those little ones born addicted to the drugs their mother has been using the entire pregnancy? Or the babies abandoned in alleys because their mother just couldn’t cope, thought she could raise the little one on her own and just doesn’t know where to turn when she can’t. What about the babes killed by mothers or fathers because they just wouldn’t stop crying? Those are all sins too.

Adoption isn’t always the perfect answer; kids raised in those families can still run into pain and suffering. No family is perfect. But then, neither is anything in this world. Also, with in-vitro fertilization and other medical advances in fertility, the number of families trying to adopt isn't as high as it used to be.  

In my naive brain, I feel the best answer is to prevent these girls and women from getting pregnant in the first place. No fertilized egg, no pregnancy. Duh.

Effective birth control is pretty readily available to anyone who takes the time and effort to get it and use it. Better yet, and here I am being super naïve – don’t have sex unless you are willing to pay for the consequences. Of course, I get it – what about rape? (Everyone always refers to “rape and incest”, but really? Those cases where incest is not rape? Makes my stomach turn.)

But here’s the real deal as I see it. Abortion is not in the news right now because of babies living or dying or women having the right to do what they want with their bodies. Right now, abortion is in the news because it is one more knife to drive the right and the left farther apart.

Many, if not most, Americans were able to say that abortion was one answer to a difficult question, as long as it was done early enough in the pregnancy. And in some circumstances, it should remain legal, which would make it safer for the mother instead of her seeking illegal, backwoods methods.

Then the folks over on the liberal left decided it was okay to abort babies at 40 weeks gestation, when the baby would be able to live outside the womb, if someone would just love them. But instead, it was okay to leave them to die.

Of course, you all realize that even though these were the cases that grabbed our attention, they really were pretty rare. I don’t have statistics, but I am sure that the vast majority of abortions taking place in this country are ones where the baby is way less than twenty weeks gestation and unlikely to live outside the womb.

Anyway, after the left-wingers pushed that whole agenda and led us to believe that all these women would agree to abortions far into their pregnancy, the conservatives on the right decided to push back and limit abortions in any way they could.

Or maybe it all started when our previous president made sure there was a “moral majority” on the Supreme Court.

Whichever end started it, in my opinion, the whole abortion issue, isn’t about babies living and dying; it’s about the Republicans and the Democrats moving farther apart on one more issue. No matter what your opinion is, I hope you believe that they need to start moving closer together for anything good to come out of this country.  

(And please don’t think that I am making light of the issue. Abortion is a serious subject; it still is murder. But I’m afraid that the people running our country see it as just another item on their agenda.)