Posted on 11/09/2004 11:24:43 AM PST by presidio9
The president says he wants to launch an era of good feelings as he starts his second term, to govern for all Americans and not just his base of supporters.
Inaugural goodwill is likely to be fleeting, since Chief Justice William Rehnquist is sick with cancer and an early defining moment of a second Bush term may be the nomination of a new Supreme Court justice, with abortion rights the flashpoint. Nonetheless, in the spirit of post-election reconciliation, I have a tip for the president: One night soon in the White House theater, settle in with some popcorn (no more pretzels, please) and "Vera Drake."
"Vera Drake" is a period piece about a period we would do well to remember.
The Mike Leigh film is set in working-class London in the 1950s, where Vera lives the sort of life political candidates - the president included - elevate to heroic proportion. She is a cheerful and efficient middle-aged woman who works hard as a maid in the homes of the affluent, drops by unfailingly to check on an ailing neighbor, tends to her elderly mother. She has an affectionate marriage with her husband, Stan, a mechanic, and dotes on her two adult children - spending time and careful attention to become a successful matchmaker for her wallflower daughter.
Between scrubbing, cooking and brewing many pots of tea, Vera has another metier. She performs abortions for poor women and teenagers at a time when they are criminally banned.
And so the movie immerses us in the moral ambiguity that surrounds abortion, yet somehow never gains an airing in our public discourse. Vera is an ordinary woman who does what seems to lie an extraordinary distance outside her own moral boundaries.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
ping
Please!!
Maybe Marie could take in "Silent Scream" for reciprocity....
Most of the left will never understand why they lose the moral values argument. There is precious little ambiguity surrounding the decision to kill an unborn child.
ProLife Ping!
If anyone wants on or off my ProLife Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
Kissing cousins with the moral ambiguity that surrounds the Holocaust. Rape incest and the physical health of the mother are responsible for less than 2% of all abortions.
Nope.
All a repeal of Roe would do is return the issue to the states, where it should always have been handled. It is unlikely that any state would outright ban all abortions, and those who are concerned about women who "need" them could put their energies into arranging transportation to more liberal states rather than distorting our constitution to suit their whims.
You might be interested in Mayor Daley's comments on the Obama campaign's success: "Obama attracted liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat, pro-life and against life...." I'm not sure if this was just another of Daley's verbal stumblings, or a Freudian slip.
Correct sir. Abortion on demand will always be available in NY, Mass, CT, RI, Cal and DC at the absolute minimum.
In a true slip, he would've called them 'baby killers'.
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It shouldn't surprise any of us that this woman does not believe that President Bush has bothered to think seriously (or at all) about this issue.
A_R
I used to be 100% anti-abortion in every instance. I was adopted, and in my mind, that was the better "choice".
A good friend of mine shared a story with me though, about how complications from her 4th pregnancy would have left her 3 young children without a mother had the pregnancy not been terminated. The father of the others has abandoned them, and they have no other extended family.
I'm not so sure the abortion issue is as black and white as what it's made out to be. What would have been the "right thing to do" in her case? Continue with the pregnancy and lose both her life, and the life of the 4th child, and leave her other kids parentless?
I'm a realist enough to know that there are "always" going to be abortions. I'm finding myself now not so much fighting so that there are no abortions, but fighting for other "choices", such as adoption, but still having abortion a viable alternative in rare cases.
Of course there is still a not-so-small part of me that screams very loudy, "abortion is murder".
It's a tough call. I would never want to have to be faced with making that decision, and I offer prayers for any one who does.
Most pro-choicers have obviously not thought seriously about the issue. All they are capable of talking about are irrelevant Planned Parenthood talking points.
I know of no mainstream politician who is trying to outlaw abortions in cases where the mother's health is at risk. It is just a pro-abortion smoke screen.
My hairdresser was telling me about a lady she knows. Young mother of one who is currently on welfare and was going to be married. Turned out the guy was heavily into drugs and the like. She called off the wedding. Then found out she was pregnant. She knows the only way to make better for herself and her first child is to get a job and an education. She knows there is no way she can raise two children like this, so she is currently looking for a family to ADOPT the second baby.
It is a tough question. I would be much more willing to discuss options if the left touted adoption as a superior choice.
If... instead of glorifying the back-alley abortion mill, it instructed with true compassion, and encouraged the poor women and teenagers to seek to live in a moral environment, maintaining some self-control vis-a-vis their commitment to that morality, and thus largely negating the need for such an horror before the fact.
Justa thought....
Regards
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