Hey, Bob Sheer, how about a true pro-choice post on this issue instead of the waffling of so-called progressives like E. J. Dionne and Ruth Marcus. Have you read Katha Pollit’s column in The Nation?

Mandinka can have HIS (a reasonable assumption) views on abortion as murder based on his RWNJ religious views—we do have religious belief freedom in the U.S.—but that does not make his viewpoint SANE or LEGALLY applicable or even close to that of the majority of people in this country (70% of whom are Pro-Choice, including 70% of Catholics).

The issue of removing cells that have glommed onto each other in a woman’s personally-owned uterus may be a religious one for Mandinka and the other misogynists lurking out there posing as “compassionate” human beings, but for me and that 70% majority, abortion is a (once again) LEGAL and RATIONAL (not insane), (deemed so by the highest court in the land), MEDICAL PROCEDURE, which a woman can choose to have (or not), if she wants to or needs to.

Simply because Mandinka, and a rabid minority of nutjobs, consider Roe v. Wade a travesty, does not make it so, regardless of whether Roe “changed her mind” (after considerable pressure, it has been reported, from the Anti-Woman forces). However, just as one cannot change one’s mind about prosecuting a criminal who violated you and the law once a District Attorney has decided to prosecute, once a case goes to the Supreme Court, it is theirs to decide and we all must live with that decision—according to The Constitution.
 
If The Right to Choose had not been carried out by
Roe v. Wade, you can bet your boots it would have been carried out by at least millions of other possible case names, including mine.

Speaking of “tiring…”  NO ONE I know in the Pro-Choice movement considers abortion comparable to a toenail clip or tooth-filling,  as Mandinka absurdly,  ignorantly, and disrespectfully asserts.  To have an abortion is a serious decision and the procedure is not trivial or fun.  Before Roe v. Wade, over 100,000 women a year in the United States alone died from back alley and self-inflicted pregnancy terminations.  Countless others were maimed for life.  That is why we fought for safe, professional, legal, and affordable access. 

Throughout history women have sought ways to terminate pregnancies when they did not want to have children, or have MORE children.  And we will continue to do so.  We cannot go back to the back-alley butchers, dangerous chemicals, or self-mutilation.  We WILL NOT go back.

Intelligent people continue to debate the issue of when consciousness or “spirit” (if that is your predilection) enters the body.  NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE.  This is a religious issue.  Abortions are almost always done in the first 1-3 months of cell-glomming. Late term abortions are extremely rare and only done when the actual survival of the monther or fetus is at stake.

The statistics are clear—at this stage of pregnancy women do not choose to terminate unless required for her survival or it is clear that the fetus is profoundly beyond hope of its own survival or chance at a quality life (like, perhaps, half of the brain is missing, or there is no brain at all).  This is a situation of unbearable grief and absolutely demands our compassionate response as a society.

Once again—a PUBLIC OPTION MUST INCLUDE ACCESS TO ABORTION.  Otherwise, it is a violation of the separation of church and State.

Just as Mandinka and his ilk want to impose their religious views on the rest of us, I, as a secular, non-believing compassionate human being will resist
that imposition and fight to the end of my life for
the right of women to choose whether or not, if, and/or when to reproduce.

And, finally, Mandinka you (and yours) are gonna lose this one.  The planet will not support the massive population that currently sucks it dry, let alone the increases that will ensue if we don’t encourage significantly greater population control NOW.  Check out what the more enlightened conservationists, as well as massive numbers of religious leaders who support justice and survival of the planet and species, are saying.

Ruth Marcus states she is: “respectful of the convictions of those who disagree. And, consequently, sympathetic to the notion that taxpayers should not have to pay for a procedure they believe is tantamount to murder.”

If abortion were considered “murder,” by The State, the Supremes would never have made it legal.

Abortion is a legal medical procedure, often necessary to save the life of a woman (including however SHE defines HER life), and it is the right of every woman to choose to have one…OR NOT.  In the latter case, those who are opposed to abortion are almost always opposed on religious grounds. 

To deny all women the right to have health care coverage provided by PUBLIC funds for a LEGAL MEDICAL PROCEDURE, deemed so by the highest court in the land, would be a VIOLATION OF THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.

I agree with previous contributor Yokota—if abortion is considered murder and therefore an opt-out re paying for it by some Americans, then the rest of us should be able to opt-out on paying for war, the military/industrial/corporate complex (including everything they do in foreign countries, such as setting up or toppling governments), along with capital punishment, all of which involve murder.

The Stupid Amendment is a dangerous door-opening to further erode a Woman’s Right to Choose.  It is not a “remote risk” we should ignore just to get some kind of health care plan.  Reactionaries are like water, wearing down the rocks a drop at a time.  Every “win” is seized upon and expanded.  We don’t need to make this kind of compromise in order to have a public health care option.  And I don’t think our lawmakers will leave the Stupid Amendment or anything like it that erodes choice in the final bill. 

In fact, there should, for reasons previous stated about separation of church & state, be NO restrictions on the use of PUBLIC funds for abortions.  Obama has taken a weak stand on this.
He should be called on it.

Finally, to all you progressives out there, I urge you to stop calling those opposed to our right to choose “Pro-Life.”  Most of them are Pro-War
and Pro-Capital Punishment.  Not exactly Pro-Life. And they are certainly not Pro MY life.  Call them what they are on the issue of Choice—ANTI-WOMAN.

I support funding abortion because I believe no unwanted child should be
brought into the world.  I have observed the miserable lives these children lead. 
Of course contraception is better for everybody, whether it be the condom, the
diaphragm, birth-control pills, or even “Plan B”.

So, it’s okay to deny women their right to control their own bodies AND force them to buy crappy insurance that doesn’t cover jack/squat (or pay a fine.) 

Well, at least it’s good to know that pwogwessives are as spineless as their corporate democrat masters are manipulative.

taxes pay for things we agree with and things we don’t.

if pro-lifers’ refusal to pay for abortions is justified, can i opt-out of funding brutal wars and the military industrial complex?