Pro-life?

[jianantonic]

I posted this note on Facebook in response to a comment I saw on a friend's wall about Barack Obama.  I think it belongs here, too:

There are some folks out there who are calling Senator Obama the "pro-abortion" candidate. These alleged "pro-lifers" urge you to vote for John McCain because he is the candidate that will protect life. Let's examine that claim.

First of all, very few people in this world are "pro-abortion," and certainly Senator Obama is not one of them. "Pro-choice" is not "pro-abortion." Those of us who support a person's right to choose do not rejoice every time a car pulls into Planned Parenthood. But we also respect what a tremendously difficult decision it is for anyone, and the fact that it is a legal right.

I am a pro-choice voter who believes that we should work to eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) the abortion issue. We don't do this by outlawing it; we do it by educating. Enough of this abstinence only "education." Teenagers fuck. Even daughters of evangelical anti-choice politicians fuck their gun-wielding f-bomb-dropping douchebag boyfriends who don't want kids but don't wear condoms, either. So tell these little fuckers how to protect their bodies. That would be a start.

Next up would be finding a way to make contraceptives available to anyone who wants them. It's not always easy for a girl to get birth control, and often insurance policies won't cover it. Condoms aren't expensive, but they should never be a first, last, and only line of defense against insemination, because they're not 100% effective. Nothing is. But people don't always get this. Because no one is educating them about risks or statistics or facts anymore.

Barack Obama supports comprehensive sex education, and health care plans that make it easier for people who want contraceptives to get them. That's responsible governing. John McCain doesn't want to teach kids how to avoid pregnancy, and then wants to force them to have babies they don't want and frankly, aren't ready for. That's just punishing someone for an ignorance you created. Not responsible.

Lastly, how can a person call themselves pro-life when their crusade to protect life ends at birth? Most "pro-life" politicians don't support health care or government assistance for families that can't afford their most basic needs. They're against stem-cell research that could save millions of lives -- lives that are already being lived! They are pro-gun, pro-death penalty, and pro-war. John McCain thinks we might keep sending troops to Iraq for a hundred years -- to fight, to kill, and to die.

This is not responsible governing. THIS IS NOT PRO-LIFE.

I am not pro-abortion, but I am pro-choice. And I am also pro-life. But to me, that has to include lives that are already being lived. I think the real pro-life candidate is Barack Obama, and I'll be voting for him in November. I hope you will, too.

Peace.

Comments

[photomonk2.livejournal.com]

This is terrific and right on. One thought I would pass along... some years ago when I was a young thing just out of college, I was talking about this topic with a co-worker (another liberal). When I used the word pro-life to talk about those conservatives, she corrected me. They are anti-choice. The term pro-life attempts to further taint the conversation against pro-choicers by making it sound like, as you say, we all cheer when someone drives up to PP. You can be pro-choice and still be all for life!

[flamingophoenix.livejournal.com]

Good post!