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For some strange reason I have been getting a great deal of e-mail inquiring about my position on abortion.  More specifically, requests to write an article on the new bills proposed in Congress and government’s role in abortion.  Fair enough.  The article is started, but while I collect my thoughts on the article, I will address some positions a bit more openly.

First off, I am no big fan abortion; everyone should know that by now.  While many seem to feel that this is due do my being conservative, this is actually an incorrect assumption.  It is because my personal values and personal experiences that have delivered me to a place in life where life itself appreciated a bit differently.  When “no big fan” is stated, it is to say that there is far less support for abortion than there is open opposition of it.  It does have its place given the cruel world we live in where the innocent are preyed upon by the vile.  Clearly, there are and can be no absolutes.

Where it started
The hang up exists in the history.  Our generation is a bit too young to understand “back alley abortions.”  A young woman in the 1950’s would get herself “in trouble” and turn to some quack to have an abortion.  Everything from hangers to rigged vacuum cleaners where used to conduct abortions.  This led to deaths from hemorrhage and infections.  Because of this, the government had little alternative but to regulate abortions.  In doing so government gave birth to a controversy that would become a political issue for the forth-coming generation.

What the argument lacks is balance.  Take for example a young 17 year old that has been the victim of her own father since she was three.  She simply does not have to be protested against and belittled when an abortion is sought.  This is of course a shortcoming of many on the pro-Life side.  They protest any and all before they take the time to stop and consider the factors.  Of course patient privacy prevents a selective protest, but not all seeking abortions are doing so as a means of absolving ones acts of irresponsibility. 

Facts are facts
I know, I know!  Condoms break, birth control fails.  Well, it is all in the numbers.  The failure rate is not what people think.  We all hear the astonishingly low failure rates, but they are manufacturer boasts of ideal applications and usages.  Women forget to take the pill.  Reality is that if she becomes pregnant, it is her fault, but this is a flaw AND failure of the birth control method given the administration protocol of the medication.  With this in mind, the birth control failure rate for the pill is actually 8%.The condom has a failure rate of 15%.  Do our youth actually know these percentages?  Probably not because so much “education” is sponsored by manufacturers and pro-abortion groups that real numbers are skewed.  This inaccurate representation of the failure rates and deliberate passing of misinformation only serves to increase the pregnancy and abortion rates. 

A personal account
I remember being taught very incorrect information.  The educator would take a condom, slide it over her hand and forearm to demonstrate that condoms “do not break.” 

“Well, Mrs. Johnson, what about  known wearing impact on latex of friction, ph balances, constant force and pressure?”  I could not help but ask.  She of course was not prepared for such a challenge, could not answer the question and chose to redirect.  Not one to by blown off, I took the high road and opted to disrupt the class.

“Stop listening, she is lying.  She can’t answer the question because she was not told what the failure rates actually are.  She is here trying to do our parent’s job and she is going to get someone in trouble doing it.  Look at her, when was the last time she needed a condom used?  How would she know from experience?  Old bitty, witch has no idea what she is talking about.”

My actions almost got me expelled from school for such direct opposition to a key liberal agenda piece.  (Un)fortunately, my aunt was the senior vice principle (who was more than tired of seeing me in her office) and my father was on the school board.  Nice right?  My problem was a simple one.  Because I was a poor Black kid did not mean I was stupid.  I never missed a single science question in all my years of school and though I did not know everything about sex and condoms, I knew BS when someone was trying to blindly shovel it down my throat.  That was my objection.  If you were going to lie to me, you at least had to attempt to do it smartly.  My punishment was an oral report on sex education and pregnancy prevention.  I had my say in the end.  A say that directly challenged the statistical efficacy of the planned parenting we were being taught.  My challenge was never met.  My aunt smiled, shook her head and walked out of the class.

No replacement for personal responsibility
Looking back it becomes obvious where the problem starts.  Youth have no idea what they are getting into.  They only know that they are supposed to be doing certain things by a certain age; with less and less parental involvement and more and more kids having kids – sex is what they are supposed to be doing.  It boils down to the irresponsible literally being taught both formally and by example of their parents that sex is very high on the adolescent to do list.  It ends in pregnancy that is supported by a system that condones and passively encourages premature sexual activity and abortions as an essential tool of birth control.  So, I get it.  Planned Parenthood and pro-choice groups are protecting the youth from being forced into the responsibility of being parents too early in life.

So where is the responsibility?  It is good to know that abstinence is on a comeback and teen pregnancy is dropping.  But at the same time a huge problem exists as our morals erode as a society.  What was once taboo is now commonplace.  We do not bat an eye seeing a pregnant 16 or 17 year old waddling through the mall while those of the traditional generation would have wanted to have words with both his and her parents.

One side believes abortion is the answer through enabling the lesser evil; death over responsibility.  The other side believes life itself should be cherished enough to at least be given a chance.  The two sides in this case shall never meet and that is fine.  All I am saying is that responsibility starts long before a given side is trying absolve another of it; yet they really do not support that concept - the concept responsibility starts before conception that is.  Because sexual activity in the young is so mainstream, it is not discouraged.  To make matters worse, the education process is laden with poor and inaccurate information which predisposes youth to risks they are hardly prepared for.  To right this wrong, abortion is again the answer delivered as a solution to a problem that was never correctly addressed to begin with.

The Obama factor
On the pro-life side exists a very interesting dilemma.  Most are not fully opposed to abortion, but embrace a concept of life that starts before even those of the Obama administration will acknowledge while the “acknowledgement” on the pro-life side is largely that responsibility begins with handling the events leading to pregnancy correctly.  However, what runs a bit deeper is accountability.  It is felt that if a person is willing to act in a more adult manner, they should be held accountable when their actions take a form on to its own.  With this group, it becomes a bit easy to ruffle feathers and stir spirited debate.  And that is exactly what Obama has done with not only with his personal support of abortions serving to absolve responsibility, but with ObamaCare that sought to very overtly deliver abortion services on taxpayer dollars.  It was contested that taxpayers were not funding abortions through ObamaCare, but that was very easily dispelled by simply reading the bill and its amendments. 

The fight over ObamaCare and its repeal did little to address these concerns.  (Please understand that ObamaCare hinges on far more than a simple repeal bill).  Adding to the challenges ObamaCare faces is a bill that seeks to ensure taxpayer dollars are not used to provide abortions in cases of consensual sex – regardless of government provided insurance or otherwise.  To the accountability respecting pro-lifer, this creates an ideal circumstance where responsibility is applied and those who truly need abortions are provided the option under circumstances that do not further economically imperil them.  Those on the pro-choice side disdain this bill and have delivered arguments and protests against it solely based upon the semantics of the definition of “rape.”  What they are actually angry about is a group has directly challenged their position to use abortions to absolve the accountability of the actions of individuals not fully understanding the consequences of sexual activity.  This disdain is felt so forcefully in this group because this group has always misrepresented the facets of sex on multiple levels and are thus largely responsible for the insanely high abortion rates of many ethnic demographics and deliberately refuses to fully address the level of responsibility that accompanies sexual activity.  This comes as a direct slap in the face to them and they have not taken it lightly.

The fact of the matter is that neither side is 100% right or wrong.  But there is not an equitable balance to found between the two either!  Hell, pro-lifers have taken lives in their protests against the taking of lives!  Pro-choicers have taken a position that virtually no one is responsible for their own actions and have gone to great lengths to ambassador a culture of immoral behavior. 

Finding balance
It is not whether a person is “pro-life,” or “pro-choice.”  It is a matter of balancing the perspectives that have polarized conventional and reasonable thinking.  Most support personal responsibility and feel taken back by government forcing them to fund the absolution of responsibility of the other while most also support the belief that what a woman opts to do with her body is up to her.  The balance lies in the imbalance between the sides that have been driven apart by the politicizing of an issue that actually has far more commonality than people will admit.  As with most, both sides have merit and both sides have fault, but what is most important to remember is when you respect yourself first, the polarizing aspects of the other become less so.  We embroil in debate and stand separated on an issue that has sufficient enough common ground to foster open and unifying discussion, yet we insist solely that the other side is wrong in our arrogance of self.  Interestingly enough, lost in the debate is life after life as we selfishly insist upon ourselves!


Mark A. Ciccariella Sr.
2/18/2011 04:30:40 am

I for one am waiting for the day when "Women" in Congress make the laws concerning abortion. "Old, fat, white-haired (or bald) men need to keep out of it.
You can bet if congressmen were to be voting on castration the "good ole boy club" wouldn't permit it!

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3/6/2011 05:15:33 pm

Fortune smiles upon the brave and frowns upon the coward

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3/13/2011 06:51:54 pm

Time waits no one, Treasure every moment you have.

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