Blessed Pro-Life America
Ahhh, to be in the land of the free and the home of the Defenders of Life. Here's my argument on being "pro-life" in this country - in my experience, those who espouse that philosophy never care about the baby once is comes screaming out of a woman's womb. They don't vote for higher taxes to pay for their health care, for daycare so that their parents can work and support then, for school budgets or lunch programs, etc., etc.
Proof of our negligence is sadly apparent in this report, nicely timed to come out right before Mother's Day, showing that America has the second highest infant mortality rate of any developed nation.
Mix this with a healthy dose of political meddling in FDA decisions (approving Plan B, allowing the use of RU-486, and perhaps most heinously, interfering with the approval of a VACCINE AGAINST CANCER because they fear that it will lead girls into promiscuity) and you've got a country that lives in cognitive dissonance - holding contradictory beliefs in their wee heads just fine... as long as nobody points such contradictions out to them.
The interference with the HPV vaccine actually proves a theory I've long held: that if "life" is defined as the growth of cells that connect, then eventually, we'll have to stop all this battling of cancer. Who's to say cancerous tumors aren't a form of life - maybe the Thetans whose return to earth Tom Cruise and L. Ron Hubbard so eagerly anticipate? And if you're truly pro-life, then you do have to agree with South Dakota's recent ban on all abortions, even including rape and incest, right? I mean, cells are dividing in some woman's womb - what does it matter how that sperm and egg got together? To me, the pro-life argument is woefully low on logical follow-through.
The Left, to which I proudly belong, is often accused these days of being angry, especially in the blogosphere. Count me in on that. I guess blogs are providing outlets for us to finally pull together the many strands of insanity that have been ruling this country for awhile and find like-minded individuals to share our frustration with. I'm hoping that connection leads to increases in voter turnout in November, so that we can start taking back the power in America before the Boy at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. blows up the planet.
Look, I'm a single female. I pay lots of taxes for things I don't get any direct benefit from - but I believe infant mortality is something we should be able to fix. I'm pro-choice, which means I believe women should have the choice over whether or not to have babies when they find themselves unexpectedly pregnant. But we live in a country where - especially poor - women have increasingly LESS choices all the time and less support if they do choose to have a baby on their own.
Dan Quayle went after the fictitious Murphy Brown when her character had a baby out of wedlock (and then conveniently never dealt with it as it seemed an inconvenient plot twist) - but Murphy Brown probably did more to make women comfortable having children on their own than any anti-choice campaign Quayle supported.
The Choice Debate has been emptied of choices. We now face down the maw of the lesser of many evils wherever we look. It's a pity that, while the "pro-life" wingnuts are running the country, they can't at least boost the odds for newborn infants along the way. That would lend some credence to their claims of moral superiority over those of us who consider money (via tax dollars) less important than living in a society where every child is wanted and given a chance from day one to grow up strong and healthy.
posted by dcnative @ 9:52 AM
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