Rising above the Rights-based Abortion Debate | Capital Commentary

Rising above the Rights-based Abortion Debate | Capital Commentary by Michelle Crotwell Kirtley. MGB: First all, privacy is about autonomy, not just confidentiality - just to be clear.  Much of the debate is undertaken as if this is a legislative issue. It is not unless the Congress acts to extend personhood to some stage earlier than birth, which is what is in the plain language of the Constitution.  Doing that is not exactly easy if you want to go anywhere into the first trimester and help out embryos (you were only a fetus in the second trimester), largely because miscarriages are common and making miscarried embryos legal individuals is problematic if your only way to stop abortion is to make them people.  Making embryos people means abortion cannot be treated as a prohibited medical procedure but some form of homicide, with punishments accruing to all involved and an expansion of tort liabilities as well.  Any exemptions to treating miscarried and aborted embryos differently will not stand the test of equal protection, just as treating embryos recognized under law differently than children will not either.  Exemptions to investigation will simply allow providers to keep going as they currently do.  Dodging the question, however, means that 90% of abortion occur as present and many of the other 10% will be covered by exemptions for the life and health of the mother (the latter if the fetus is essentially doomed by defects - although Downs babies will be saved).  Of course, such a compromise will not be acceptable to the pro-life movement.  The bottom line is, for those of us who are pro-choice, that until a first trimester bill is actually drafted that deals with the miscarriage problem in a way that meets equal protection problems and somehow deals with them - THERE IS SIMPLY NO REAL ISSUE!  The onus is on those who change the status quo to come up with such a bill.  So far, it has not happened.

The other option is to deal with the circumstances that lead to abortion.  Many abortions happen because conservative parents are covering the fact that their kids are sexually active.  You can focus on sex or life.  If you want to focus on life, then having sex must be a judgement free zone and a human right.  If you keep it shameful, you get abortion.

Economics are even more important.  Helping adoption happen is not enough, nor is supporting pregnancy only.  The Christian response (even if abortion is not the issue) is to assure all families have a living family wage which increases with the addition of every child - and that teens who have children can do so and get the same wage for continuing their studies - both a base wage for them and an add on for their kids.  I say their because both the father and the mother need a subsidy to keep studying.  Make it economically possible to have a family and most boys will realize that chastity is a virtue.  We must end the conversation that teen pregnancy is a godsend for infertile couples.  Society needs to support teen parents instead, as nature and evolution intended.  Would you have forced Mary of Nazareth to put Jesus up for adoption?  Biologically, we are the same as we were 2000 years ago.