Posted on 02/15/2005 1:53:14 PM PST by Lorianne
Dear Reader, Already I'm disappointed with the tone and approach of the current debate on the abortion issue. I get the feeling that what we have is a "jockeying" for who is right on the matter - the church on one side, and the medical profession on the other, but with very little wisdom and sensitivity in-between for the magnitude and depth of this very difficult problem.
The abortion issue is not simply a case of legislation versus morality, neither is it merely about pro-life versus pro-choice. It's also not a "women's only" issue. The abortion issue is a deep, painful and mostly silent matter that affects women more than we know.
Contrary to what we believe, it is also an issue that deeply affects our men. This beating over the head with a big stick by the church is counterproductive. More and more surveys show that women who undergo abortions do know that they are terminating a life, and the after-effects are almost always traumatic.
The church needs to make a distinction between victims and advocates, and understand that they are not always one and the same. Instead of engaging in a debate in the media, the church should focus its attention on how to convey, at the earliest age, the teachings of the Bible on the beauty and sanctity of life, and model the nature of Christ in every aspect of its work.
One of the criticisms I have had of the churches is that they just do not take the children's ministry very seriously. Often, Sunday School is treated as an "aside"; a way of "getting rid" of the children so that the adults will be undisturbed.
The issue of who we are, that we are "fearfully and wonderfully" made in the image and likeness of God, must be conveyed and instilled in our small children at the earliest age.
The issues of unsafe, unplanned, and unprotected sex are directly related to an understanding of who we are and God's purpose for our lives and the lives of our offspring. One of the meaningful things that the church can do is to provide confidential and "non-judgemental" counselling services for women who have undergone abortions.
The fact is that many women who have had abortions are sitting in churches, and are dutiful and sincere Christians. The wonderful thing is that they know that God in an instant and at the simplest request, will forgive the action and wipe away the guilt and the pain.
The problem with sexual intercourse and conception is that it can happen so easily, often in an unexpected heat of sexual passion or a moment of temporary indiscretion. I'm not surprised that Jamaica's abortion rate is so high, because sex is so easily available and accessible.
I'm also not surprised that it's largely the same age cohort that is being affected by HIV/AIDS. What we need is a massive public education campaign with a strong spiritual message. Our children must be taught about how special and precious they and their bodies are.
There is not one woman I know who has not suffered deep psychological pain from having an abortion, and the pain is usually long and lingering.
There are married women living with husbands who have no idea that their wives have had abortions. There are women who are not able to share the abortion experience with anyone at all. It is indeed the "silent pain". The women's stories speak for themselves: "I had an abortion at the age of 16.
Many people believe abortion is something women need and freely choose, but it is actually an experience many of us come to regret. After 32 years it's time for us to be silent no more about the problems we've dealt with after having abortions."
"I was only a teenager, and I became pregnant for a 21-year-old man. He refused to marry me, and my mother urged me to have an abortion. My mother had virtually convinced my father that for me to have this baby would be the ruination of my life. In retrospect, my not having the baby was the ruination of my life.
I was 17, confused, and severely emotionally traumatised. I passively accepted their solution. We now reach the point of no return. The night my pregnancy was terminated. I know for my boyfriend the horror of that night has left him and only remains a distant memory.
To an extent that is true of my mother as well. However, for me, the night lives in my memory and dreams, causing distress almost regularly and it's now six years since the event."
"There is something really quite strange about actively seeking to have a new life scraped and vacuumed from your uterus. I couldn't work for the first six months after the abortion. I couldn't know, from one hour to the next, whether I would be crying hysterically, immobile in depression, or tentatively daring to function as a human being.
I would sometimes be depressed for three weeks at a time, dressing and preparing meals was as much as I could do." As tempting as it may be, the abortion issue cannot be used as a political football. I believe that an opportunity is offered, instead, for all of us to provide thoughtful insights and sound solutions, with the people affected leading the way.
There is a lot that the medical profession can do. Abortions are being performed by a host of doctors all around Jamaica, many of whom, I suspect, are members of the medical association. It's clear then, that the association, if it chooses, can find ways to monitor, regulate and sanction its own membership.
As for the future, the words of a young woman are extremely heartening. "Young people across the world are coming to recognise the double standards of abortion rhetoric, and that all of the promises of the so-called "sexual revolution" are coming up empty. Young people are renewing the pro-life movement with an unmatched determination to herald in a new "Culture of Life". I say, thank God. With love.
Where are these surveys?
I would not call them dutiful and sincere Christians if they are killing the unborn.
Wow, very compelling argument.
That's ridiculous.
While you live your life you'll run into a lot of grey areas when making decisions. Abortion isn't one of them, it's a black or white decision, it is wrong.
Where are these surveys?
C'mon now, don't you know the ground rules? There are surveys, many surveys, and no, you cannot see them.
”Guns Before Butter.”
frogjerk:
Religious zealots are the ball and chain around the legs of conservativism. Once conservativism gains enough support such that we no longer need mindless bible thumpers, the lot of them will be dropped as quickly as is physically possible. The religious right is an intellectual liability kept around only because they're malleable. I have tremendous respect for some Christians, but what passes for religion in many religious convervatives is hardly better than kneejerk liberalism. Same lack of mental effort, same smugness, different BS.
In dealing with students who have had abortions, I have found many who were severely hurt by the experience. For some, it was a major turning point for the better in how they chose to live. But perhaps a more common reaction was a kind of coarsening of their personalities, a hardening or callousness that they developed in dealing with many issues not directly related to abortion. Traumatic? Not a bad word for it.
Spoken like a true Hillary-ite.
Which church is she talking about? The Catholic Church makes this distiction.
Instead of engaging in a debate in the media, the church should focus its attention on how to convey, at the earliest age, the teachings of the Bible on the beauty and sanctity of life, and model the nature of Christ in every aspect of its work.
The Catholic Church does this, too.
My problem is with the word "always." That's just not true. If it were, we would have the problem we have.
That kind of ad hominum argument is barely worth responding to. Barely. There, that's enough.
Agree, agree, agree, agree, and agree. And applaud you for saying as such on this forum. Hope you have your asbestos underwear on.
Many Christians think that they are wholly responsible for Bush's re-election and that everybody better acquiesce to their every demand. Hate to break it to them but there are many conservatives who don't like social engineering whether it comes from the left or the right.
"My problem is with the word "always." That's just not true."
It does not only say always, it says ALMOST always. I just might have a problem with the word "almost" as I have trouble thinking there are woemn who, never once in their whole, long life, experience regret or remorse for aborting a child.
Roe v. Wade was one of the biggest experiments in social engineering in our recent history. In fact, Harry Blackmun talked his fellow justices out of reversing Roe in the 1990s on the ground that the decision had so changed the situation of women in America that it would be traumatic to try to change it back. Face it, what you (and other self-described conservatives of a libertarian bent) really don't like is MORALITY and those who defend it.
Personally, as a male I have no opinion on abortion. I do have a problem with morality when it is someone else's definition and these people want their definition of morality codified into law.
Allowing the religious right to get their way on all social matters will result in a drastic swing left at the polls. This can virtually be guaranteed.
On Laura Ingraham's show (which I'm sure you, as a libertarian, avoid), this would be called LIE OF THE DAY.
To Madprof98, and everyone:
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/1/19/112104.shtml
The above says it all
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/1/24/114250.shtml
Another good article above. Plain and simple, abortion is a termination of a life. And it weighs heavily on some who have had it done. There is the option in this country to give the child to be adopted...I can't for the life of me understand why someone would be an advocate for a procedure that will negatively affect lives and cause so much pain. --Fee
Morality always gets codified into law, because it is the yardstick by which we judge right from wrong. There is that morality that says it's unfair to discriminate against gay people, so there are people using that moral base as a reason to change the laws. There are those of us who believe life begins at conception, and because of that, we are working to change law.
You cannot have law that does not reflect some view of morality, even if your morality is the Dutch "let's be as permissive as possible because that's the right way to be" type of standard. And the laws that get passed will reflect it.
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