Neither Pro-Life nor Pro-Choice: Merely for noncriminalization

Posted on May 4, 2004 in Abortion

It’s politics Tuesday!

I am neither Pro-Choice nor Pro-“Life”. I am not pro-Choice because I do not condone every reason for having an abortion. For example: the idea of aborting a fetus because it is not a male is decidedly repugnant to me.

I also do not condone putting children second.

I am not Pro-“Life” because I believe I don’t see human life as originating at conception and I don’t believe in forcing women to carry to term pregnancies which are the result of rape, incest, or poor birth planning.

I do not see adoption as a superior alternative to allowing the woman to be mother to her own child.

I support the Woman above both ideologies.

Simply stated: I oppose the criminalization of abortion, of turning desperate women and the doctors who in good faith attempt to help them into objects for prosecution.

I reserve the right to criticize the abuse of abortion just as I reserve the right to excoriate the abuse of alcohol, cigarettes, and other legal drugs. Just because I consider the use of alcohol to be immoral and dangerous does not make it necessary for me to champion a law against these things. Their being legal does not compel me to celebrate them as good and untainted. We have more important matters to enforce. It deserves to be treated as a public health problem.

I feel the same about abortion: we should concentrate on bettering the world for the children to come so that women who do face the awful choice might be moved to choose single motherhood as a viable option.