THE ANTI-ABORTION RHETORIC AND THE WOMEN WHO SUPPORT IT

Have I mentioned how much I hate it when women defend talk of removing abortion rights? I do. The idea that a woman could stand up and tell another woman that she has no right to autonomy where it pertains to her own body is repulsive to me.

Repulsion is exactly the sensation I had when I read Kathleen Parker’s opinion piece in November 29th’s Washington Post. In her piece, “Behind Romney’s change of heart on abortion”, she attempts to explain Romney’s habit of changing his opinion on an issue with the change of the political winds, by suggesting he just got more information on the issue.

What new information could that possibly be? Abortion is an easy decision for women looking for a “way out”? Having known women who have considered or had abortions, I know it is not easy in the slightest. Maybe someone told him that being considered nothing more than an incubator for a fetus is what women really want in life? We don’t.
Kathleen Parker suggests that women who become mothers, or have had an abortion and regretted it are likely to become Pro Life, and a similar transformation happens for men who become fathers or are denied fatherhood by a partner who gets an abortion. This is the same rosy-viewed propaganda that I’ve heard time and again from people who just don’t get it. It follows along the same line of thinking as the “what if the child you aborted could have grown up to be the doctor who cures cancer” scenario.

They’re all equally ridiculous. In fact, I’ll give you some jaded scenarios to balance things out.

• Do you think the child born with fetal alcohol syndrome to an alcoholic mother will grow up grateful that her mother opted to give her up for adoption rather have an abortion?
• What about the mother with a family history of Huntingdon’s Disease who opts to carry her child to term, even though the chances are great that the child will develop and die from this terrible neurodegenerative genetic disorder, possibly long before they can become the supposed doctor who cures cancer.
• What about the thousands of children given up for adoption by parents who didn’t want them or those placed in foster care because of physical or sexual abuses at home, who too often reach the age of 18 without ever knowing what it was like to have someone who cared about them?

When the rhetoric about repelling abortion rights comes from a man, I am bothered by it less, because a man will never know what it is like to be told you must carry a fetus you don’t want inside you for nine months, whether you like it or not. When a woman tells another woman that she should not have the right to autonomy, I am deeply bothered. No man will ever tell another man that he can only use his genitals for reproduction purposes, so why would a woman feel it’s fine to say something like that to another woman.

Is it possible that after some soul-searching on Mitt Romney’s part that he just decided he couldn’t get on-board with woman’s health rights? Sure. It is much easier for a person to go from open-minded to close-minded than close-minded to open-minded. But I don’t see what excuse a woman has for backing him up on that position.

I will never applaud a woman for having an abortion, because it is not an act that should be applauded. However, I will always give respect to a woman who makes that decision, because I know it came after many sleepless nights, but ultimately was the right decision for her and her body. And, I will always believe that she has the right to make that decision.

-- Penn, forum contributor