Abortion: The right to choose is again under attack
Abortion is by far one of the most controversial rights protected by our Constitution. Ever since the Supreme Court decision of Roe vs. Wade in 1973 and a women’s right to choose, the right to have an abortion has been under attack.
Abortion has and probably will be the most fought over right of our generation, ranked with the numerous debates over gay marriage and evolution being taught in public schools.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law on Mar. 29 a bill that will prohibit abortions based on race or gender. Now many people think that this is no big deal and that having a baby aborted based on gender and race should be illegal anyway.
An analogy that I currently use when I’m discussing this topic is that I imagine a constitutional right as a piece of chain mail, every time a link is broken off from the chain mail, the armor is that weaker, and when enough links are taken out, the armor falls away completely. I use this whenever I talk about our rights as American citizens, whether it be freedom of speech or freedom to have an abortion.
Now I want people to understand something about our Bill of Rights: They are supposed to be 100 percent black and white. But still we always compromise for the greater good of all things.
It is widely known that there is currently an American Nazi party. But there are people who want lawmakers to make it illegal to hold public events about Nazism. But the thing is, if we take away their rights, who is to say that our rights cannot be taken as swiftly. Like the first domino in a row of dominoes it will come crashing down. In essence if we as a people limit free speech and take away all of the “bad stuff” what is to say that what we like isn’t going to be labeled as “bad stuff.”
I had a personal experience in my family with abortion. When my father was conceived to a teenage girl in 1960, she had two options―carry my future dad to term or have an abortion. I thank God every day that she wasn’t able to come up with the $500 to pay the doctor for the procedure. She gave up her baby to a loving family that wanted a baby but couldn’t have their own.
I support abortion to it’s fullest but I also want to stress the joys of adoption because my father was adopted by a family that was childless and both parties were better for it.
Some people will call me a hypocrite for believing in a women’s right to choose, but I see the bigger picture.
This new law in Arizona may be better but what if we go even further? What if abortion is made illegal federally?
My theory is that women will get abortions anyway. Abortions have been performed for thousands of years. Is one law going to stop them from paying a doctor under the table for an illegal abortion? Is it very hard to imagine that there will be a rise in charlatans who will charge thousands of dollars to perform an abortion?
Hey, why not take the cheaper route and let women do it themselves with a coat hanger. Yeah, pretty terrifying, but it’s not hard to imagine a women doing this to herself avoid delivering a baby she could never care for.